Musk's younger brother raised $5.4 million by growing vegetables

After the fall of Twitter, Musk deliberately extended his "magic hand" to another huge company - Coca-Cola

In late April, he tweeted "Next I'm buying Coca-Cola to put the cocaine back in."

Although 89 of these 10 are mouth hi, I don't think there is an empty thing in the world, just as my brain hole with a monthly salary of 1800 can't jump out of this way, not to mention the acquisition of Twitter, which was only a "mouth hi" 4 years ago.

* In 2018, Musk said on Twitter that he wanted to buy Twitter, and now his mouth is true.

From the initial PayPal, ZIP2, to the current Tesla, SpaceX (space exploration), Solar city (solar business), Starlink (satellite communications), Neuralink (cutting-edge medical / brain-computer interface), Musk's business map has been involved in many fields, but throughout the 20 years of Ma Boss's entrepreneurial history, his ultimate goal is still to go to Mars.

"There is nothing more romantic in the world than being born on Earth and dying on Mars" – Musk

If his starship is built successfully, a human flight to Mars will one day become a reality, but there are still many difficult problems to be solved if you want to settle on Mars permanently until the day of the crane ride.

For example, how to grow vegetables on Mars.

You may not get an answer to this question from Musk, but it may be okay to ask him about his brother.

(The one on the right is his own brother.)

Elon Musk's younger brother, Kimbal Musk, founded Square Roots, a Brooklyn-based urban farming company, in 2016. Square Roots' most recent funding round was $5.4 million.

Why can someone make $5.4 million growing vegetables, but my grandfather can't?

Aside from the fact that my grandfather wasn't a Yankee, Square Roots does have a lot to be unique and innovative about.

First of all, the way of farming, traditional agriculture often pursues local conditions, just as the north grows sorghum soybeans, while the south is rich in rice peanuts, different soil, climate, water system conditions have created a variety of farming environments, so as to adapt to different crops.

This farming method is simple and efficient, but it comes with transport problems. Staple grains such as rice and wheat are fine, but agricultural products such as fresh vegetables and fruits have strict transportation requirements, which brings higher transportation costs.

According to one data, the cost of transporting a vegetable accounts for about 20%, and the cost of cold chain packaging is as high as 30%.

Let's take lychees as an example, in the southern rich production areas, lychees are often sold at about 15 yuan per kilogram, but shipped to the north will sell for more than 30 yuan per kilogram. As oil prices rise, the increased cost of agricultural products in transit will also be passed on to consumers.

Square Roots chose to change its thinking and put "local conditions" behind.

"People want food from all over the world, and that's not going to change."

"The current food system cannot support the new future world of 10 billion people, 70 percent of whom live in urban areas far from these industrial farms."

"Instead of delivering food, transport environmental data from one place to another." —Tobias Peggs, co-founder of Square Roots

(This is Tobias Peggs.)

They made a database of the best growing conditions for the collected crops, and then restored these conditions through intelligent sprays, light systems, and soil acid-base regulators. The carrier of this farming system is the container. Square Roots will launch different types of "vegetable fields" (containers) in cities according to market demand.

(The photosynthesis of plants mainly relies on red and blue-violet light in the spectrum)

For example, white-collar workers in the CBD love salads, and Square Roots put containers dedicated to growing lettuce, purple cabbage, carrots, and cherry tomatoes near the office building, and the salad shop not only saves transportation costs, but also gets the freshest fruits and vegetables.

"It's easy to cause damage or spoilage during transport, and a large portion of the food is discarded even before it is on the shelves."

This on-demand distribution, container-like vegetable patch, also brings many benefits.

The first is the provincial level. Traditional agriculture requires the reclamation of a piece of arable land, the city center is impossible, and the suburbs are involved in transportation problems. Square Roots' container vegetable field is actually a manifestation of vertical agriculture, vegetables and fruits are orderly "pasted" on the cultivation wall perpendicular to the ground, and the unfolded area of multiple culture walls is actually no less than a piece of traditional cultivated land, but the actual area is much less.

This is followed by high yields. Square Roots to each container equipped with temperature / humidity / light sensors, special lighting system, automatic irrigation system, etc., through an iPhone can set a good growth environment, on weekdays these vegetables and fruits are like the holiday me, eat and sleep, sleep long, do not know spring, summer, autumn and winter, and there is no insect pests.

"That day, I had the privilege of getting a closer look at these lucky vegetables. As Peggs lifted the sliding door of the container, I saw members of the lettuce, arugula, basil, kale, etc., bathed in exotic lights on the culture wall" - Steven Levy, a journalist who visited the container

Peggs said that under normal circumstances, a container can produce the equivalent of 12 acres of land, and it is not affected by the external climate, and the cultivation time will be greatly shortened.

Interestingly, because Square Roots' containers can achieve precise control of the growing environment, the taste of fruits and vegetables can also be "customized", for example, by setting a large temperature difference between day and night to make the cherry tomatoes accumulate more sugar and become sweeter.

In addition, Square Roots, widely distributed in urban areas, has created jobs for young people.

Because of the gap between income and social welfare, rural ageing has become a problem for all countries. According to the data, the talent pool of skilled farmers in the United States is seriously aging, and the average age of farmers reaches 58 years old, which means that they will retire within 5 to 10 years, and they will be green and yellow.

Because of the high degree of automation, the container vegetable field is easy to get started even if you have no previous experience in farming.

Square Roots has launched a planting training program that will teach you how to grow vegetables in containers over a 13-month course. And because the containers are set up in urban areas, a large part of these "new farmers" are urban residents, and there is no essential difference between planting vegetables in containers and writing in the office, so many people also choose to join Square Roots.

"We have an investment banker who sits behind a spreadsheet all day and is bored. He quit his job to join Square Roots. ”

(New Farmers Joining Square Roots)

Square Roots has established three farms in North America (each containing multiple container vegetable patches), located in New York (Brooklyn), Michigan (Grand Rapids) and Kenosha (Wisconsin). A fourth farm (Springfield) will also be completed within this year.

In six years, Square Roots has achieved large-scale cultivation of more than 120 crops, delivering more than 10 million packs of fresh herbs, vegetables and fruits to cities at more than 250 retail outlets across the country each year.

That's why people raise $5.4 million by growing vegetables.

In 2015, the movie "The Martian Rescue" depicted Matt Damon accidentally staying on Mars alone, using the existing equipment in his hand to build a "greenhouse" on the space station to plant potatoes and peanuts, and finally waiting for the rescue.

Although the plot is purely fictional, refined farming is indeed a prerequisite for growing vegetables on Mars, after all, water, oxygen, and soil on Mars are scarce resources, and traditional farming methods are obviously no longer applicable.

Interestingly, the ISS does already have a miniature vegetable production system that allows astronauts to be self-sufficient to some extent.

Square Roots' container vegetable patch may also be accumulating experience for Mars vegetables.

After all, Musk's younger brother is also one of SpaceX's board members.

"I'm focused on bringing real food to everyone on Earth, but the farming technology we've built at Square Roots can and will be used on Mars." —Kimbal Musk