Climate change is making the world’s agriculture and food systems increasingly vulnerable. Chris Corkery, cofounder and CEO of Hundred Acre farm, looks to build resilience at the local level with a hydroponic farm system.
In the heart of Milwaukee, a pioneering venture known as Hundred Acre is looking to revolutionize the food production landscape. Hydroponics involves growing plants in nutrient-rich water rather than soil—meaning it can grow a large variety of food plants in controlled conditions, in a smaller space than what is required by traditional agriculture. At Hundred Acre, cofounder and CEO Chris Corkery and his team are on a mission to reshape the way we think about urban agriculture by decentralizing the food system and bringing production closer to the consumer.
By repurposing existing urban spaces into hydroponic farms, the team marries cutting-edge technology with traditional farming principles. This local production has allowed Hundred Acre to sustainably provide food to nearby grocery stores, universities, hotels, and even professional sports teams.
Chris sat down with Leff’s Sustainability Group to share valuable insights into Hundred Acre’s approach to sustainable farming, partnerships, workforce development, and distribution. He also discussed the importance of bridging the gaps between different players in the food system, from real estate developers to workforce developers and distributors.
Hundred Acre is a unique urban farm providing a rapid response solution to food insecurity in the heart of Milwaukee, WI. Here, workforce development and student apprenticeship programs are integrated to grow consistent, premium greens to be sold directly to local food businesses. A consortium of growers, technologists, and community partners ensures that the farm remains a sustainable local business. Buyers can finally increase their local sourcing and community support while securing quality year-round. Hundred Acre produces the freshest possible greens year-round to improve supply-chain resilience, support green infrastructure, and offer a pathway from STEM education into the future of ag-tech careers.
What inspired Hundred Acre, and what is your vision and hope for it?
I founded Hundred Acre with three other partners. We all have diverse backgrounds: one architect, a marketer, a mechanical engineer, and a food systems expert. So you can imagine what our conversations are like. We’re trying to understand how to decentralize the food system, and we know that can really happen only through localized production. That includes restaurants but also growing food, hiring local, and learning from and with the surrounding community.
Our vision is creating a network of localized food distribution systems within a metropolitan area and making it financially sustainable. That’s a very difficult thing to pull off and the reason why farms are outsourced and far outside urban areas in conglomerates. But I think that certain products, such as lettuce or premium herbs, can bring production back into an urban environment, where it can be closer to consumers and benefit the local community.
As a small green business, what processes and priorities have you found reliably important to focus on?
We execute on our vision in three phases: real estate, workforce development, and distribution. We see ourselves as real estate developers who can build farms by repurposing existing spaces. It’s no different from when farmers try to turn a piece of uncultivated land over to produce a crop to feed and nourish a society. That’s how we see construction: a way to build a hydroponic farm sustainably, create really good products, feed people within a local area, and do that over and over again.
The second part is workforce development. We need folks who want to work in producing food, and that’s a challenge right now. A lot of folks think that this is community garden. It’s not. You’re not there to till the soil and figure things out as you go. This is an operation that is set up as an assembly line to make sure that our products and process are clean and healthy.
Our approach is about how we can create sustainable workforce development in the production of food while also providing premium-quality products that are becoming more scarce or more unavailable due to whatever conditions that exist. So it’s hoping that we exist where one hand feeds the other. Our business model really is to bridge the gap.
The final part is distribution and understanding how we can have relationships with the end customer, whether it’s a restaurant, a grocery store, or a large-scale distributor. We have to figure out what that relationship looks like at a fair price point. Everyone has been waking up to the fact that food has been too cheap, and it costs more to do things this way.
We’re trying to pull all three parts together. I think it really is about asking, “How do you repurpose existing space with local partners in urban environments to produce fresh food?” That’s the first step. Everything else comes after that.
What goals do you have for your supply chain?
Our farmers all live within 15 minutes of the farm, and we distribute only within 90 miles of Milwaukee. Our goal with production is that each location sticks to those parameters so it remains sustainable from a distribution standpoint. Additionally, because we are localized and smaller in our production, we hire within that radius.
When making distribution partnerships, we have two primary options. One is direct to local food buyers, such as a restaurant or grocery store. Then we have two partnerships with larger-scale distributors that, again, are within 90 miles. We have not reached beyond that radius, and that’s intentional. Our production capacity is limited, and that’s why you need to build more small farms within urban environments (as opposed to mass-scale production facilities).
We at Leff are, at heart, storytellers. We are dedicated to amplifying voices and causes from all over the world, regardless of gender orientation, race, or economic background. And the stories we tell as part of the Into the Weeds interview series are particularly important to us. We will be interviewing inspiring individuals whose work contributes to the achievement of the SDGs at every level; we’ll bring you insights from the leaders of global organizations, renowned experts and academics, and innovative local businesses.
Our goal for this series is the same one that underpins all of Leff Sustainability Group’s client work: to use our storytelling skills to build awareness of the issues that threaten our planet and to draw attention to all the people, initiatives, and innovations that are fighting back.
What does the future hold? Do you see potential partnerships with conventional farming operations?
Our goal is to bridge the gap through an urban agriculture real estate solution. We know we’re not going to feed the world, and we see large-scale production initiatives as necessary and, frankly, vital to survival.
Meanwhile, we will open our next location during the first half of 2024 to meet the demands of our existing products. We’ll be introducing two new products and adding more jobs, and we’ll be taking several lessons with us. The first and biggest lesson for us was understanding the relationship between lighting, temperature, and water. Plants are not humans. The industry to control an interior environment for human comfort has existed for about 150 years, but plants have very different needs.
The second thing—and probably the harder lesson of the two—is understanding how to develop a culture of labor. Labor has a negative connotation, in my opinion, and I don’t think it should. Working in a farm system is about showing up on time, respecting the team and food safety, and understanding your impact on what you’re producing. As we expand, our hope is that we can give people the understanding of how we all have a place in producing something for someone. It’s for all of us.
Behind the scenes
This interview is part of LEFF’s Into the Weeds interview series—a series that amplifies individuals whose work contributes to the achievement of the SDGs at every level. We’ll be bringing you insights from renowned experts and the leaders of global organizations and innovative local businesses. Annie Mullowney (she/her) is a senior editor for LEFF, and Clair Myatt (she/her) is the manager of LEFF’s Sustainability Group, for which Katie Parry (she/her) is the director.
Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or positions of LEFF or have its endorsement.
