It’s possible to plant up to four times the amount of crops in the same space using hydroponic setups compared to traditional soil farming.
According to The New York Times, Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle and the current 10th-richest man on the plant, and Dr. David Agus, best-selling author and physician have developed a new farming startup focusing on hydroponics.
This isn’t just any hydroponics organization, however, Sensei is planning on focusing on creative healthier food products through hydroponic gardening.
“So far, the conversation in agriculture has been dominated by productivity: How much food can we grow in a square foot. But scale is just part of the equation,” said Dr. Agus. “To properly nourish the world, we need to consider how nutritious that food is. This is where Sensei is focused.”
Sensei will produce healthy food products for Hawaii, which imports the majority of its food (approximately 85%). Sensei believes that it can deliver Hawaii fresh healthy food products within 24 hours of harvesting, compared to more than a week for traditional important vegetables.
“For so long, agriculture has been one of the least digitized industries,” added Daniel Gruneberg, president of Sensei. “Now, we can combine software, sensors and robotics to make giant leaps in sustainable farming and perhaps, more importantly, the quality of our food.”
The company is starting out with 10, 200,000 square feet hydroponic greenhouses. The team expects to yield about 1.7 million pounds of produce each year.
Dr. Agus has been focused on innovation for years and even developed a network of hydroponics farms in conjunction with Steve Jobs, who was one of his patients.
“As a society, we’ve become so detached from knowing our food, knowing where it comes from and why we eat what we eat,” Dr. Agus said. “With Sensei we hope to increase transparency and restore our relationship with food.”
Sensei will be the first company to import hydroponically cultivated fruits and vegetable seeds from all over the world.
