Texas Indoor Growers Fight Through Power Outages To Save Crops
Profound Microfarms, Lucas, Texas. Photo: Jeff Bednar
Growers in North Texas, including those producing crops indoors, have been working relentlessly since recent winter storms sent temperatures to record-breaking lows and crumpled the state’s power grids. A combination of snow and ice, along with widespread power outages, has challenged Texas food suppliers as never before as they labor in below-freezing temperatures to preserve crops.
An article on DallasMorningNews.com highlights how My Epicurean Farm, which supplies aquaponically grown microgreens to restaurants throughout Dallas, lost 80% of its microgreens by Tuesday morning. The use of industrial, propane-powered space heaters wasn’t enough to get the plants through 15 hours without electricity during a night of single-digit temperatures that went negative by sunrise. The 1,000 fish did manage to survive.
In Lucas, hydroponic farmer Jeff Bednar of Profound Microfarms and Profound Foods says he was awakened by a phone call from a neighboring farmer early Sunday morning alerting him that the power was out. From early Sunday, he rotated a propane-powered generator, which cost around $80 an hour to run, to keep his greenhouse plants alive.
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