Video of the Week: Salt Water Farming in a Greenhouse

Posted by Brian Sparks|May 5, 2023

Each week, Greenhouse Grower highlights a video that shines a spotlight on the controlled-environment industry, from crop protection advice to insider views on plant production at greenhouse operations across the country. Have you recently produced a video you want us to highlight? If so, please send a link to Greenhouse Grower Senior Editor Brian Sparks at [email protected].

Ryan Lefers, CEO and co-founder of Red Sea Farms, invented a way to use saltwater to cool greenhouses and irrigate tomato, cucumber, and pepper crops. Without the need for freshwater, this innovation can be a lifesaver for areas of the world with water scarcity.

Red Sea Farms is a startup from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) that has expanded into the U.S. It uses agricultural engineering to process seawater and deploy it in an economically sensible way to reduce the huge use of freshwater in agriculture.

With the system already expanded into the U.S. with Red Sea Farm’s partnership with the University of Arizona’s College of Life and Sciences’ Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, the brand is looking to be a global solution to food scarcity, growing crops during droughts and reducing carbon footprint.

Learn more in the video below.