Jones Food Company (JFC), a British vertical farming (VF) business, has opened its second vertical farm, JFC2, near Lydney in Gloucestershire.

The company opened JFC1 in Lincolnshire in 2018 and a dedicated VF-Innovation Centre in Bristol in 2022.

JFC2 says it utilizes 100 percent renewably-sourced energy to grow crops vertically, including basil, coriander, flat-leaf parsley, dill, green lettuce, red lettuce, Baby Leaf Pak Choi, Bulls Blood, Mizuna, Komatsuna (commonly known as Japanese Spinach), and Baby Leaf Cress (a variety of watercress).

“JFC2 leverages the UK’s world-renowned tech know-how, passion for plants and desire to reduce import dependence to radically evolve how we grow consistently high-quality, well-priced food at scale,” said James Lloyd-Jones, founder and chief executive officer, Jones Food Company. “By balancing automation and smart investments, we are ideally suited to work with the distribution networks of the large retailers, ensuring product is available for all.”

According to Glyn Stephens, head of growing with Jones Food Company, a lot of vertical farmers have focused on lights, but temperature and humidity control “are where the real energy guzzle has traditionally been. This is why it’s been a core focus for us opening this new site, its small changes and learnings from JFC1 that mean this system now accounts for a much smaller proportion of our energy usage.”

Stephens added that irrigation “is another massive innovation in this farm and the system in JFC2 is boundary-pushing, ground-breaking, utterly unique and another key brick in how we deliver premium product, at a great price, at scale.”

JFC2’s output now includes supplying own-label herbs as well as the company’s own Homegrown range of mixed salad bags and Lēaf, its range of sauces and salad bags.

Look out for the March-April issue of New AG International where we have a focus on vertical farming.