MEA PLANT (Mission Easy Agriculture)

Fertile soil is disappearing fast because of climate change and intensive farming, just as the world needs to feed more people. Closed-loop soilless farming can provide a more sustainable and productive alternative to traditional cultivation. Today’s intensive agricultural crops are not a solution due to: land degradation, groundwater pollution, soil compaction and salinization, deforestation and biodiversity reduction. 

MEA PLANT, an innovative soilless cultivation closed-loop system, is our solution because of the following reasons:  

• no soil needed; 
• water saving (90% compared to traditional crops);
• no soil pollution;
• no soil salinization;
• no use of herbicides;
• higher yields;
• low costs;
• no specialized staff;
• no greenhouses for seasonal cultivations;
• lightweight, clean, easy to install;
• low energy needed;
• autonomous.

If MEA PLANT was scaled globally, it could give everyone food safety. In fact, it can be used in cities (vertical farming) as well as in non arable lands and with water scarcity. 

Over two billion people do not have access to healthy food, and 25% of the world population struggles to eat as reported on the state of food safety and nutrition of the world 2019 United Nations presented in New York.

Our solution can  improve agricultural production through  large-scale use of soilless farming, up to achieve worldwide food security. It enables high productions in limited spaces with minimal environmental impact and carbon emissions.

Currently, soilless cultivation technologies are:

• in substrate (roots grow inside a material: rock wool, coconut fiber, pumice, perlite...);
• hydroponics (roots grow directly in water);
• aeroponics  (roots grow in the air and are cyclically sprayed). 

Hydroponic crops are limited only to short-cycle plants (like salads) to avoid root necrosis. Aeroponic crops are also limited to certain plant species and require very complex technologies with high risks due to vulnerability of roots in open air. Substrate cultivations have still complex and expensive management. 

All this has limited their diffusion on a large scale.

Our solution is  a low-cost cultivation closed-loop system with an innovative substrate, easy to use, even by unqualified people, usable not only indoors with LED lighting or in greenhouses, but above all OUTDOORS with  CO2's drastic reduction. 

Our solution is an innovative substrate of cultivation that simplifies and improves soilless cultivation closed-loop systems.

We were able to create a "low-tech" closed-loop soilless cultivation system: it’s no longer necessary to carry out continuous salinity checks of the recirculated nutrient solution or to sterilize it.

Our substrate allows an easy management of the recovered nutrient solution. This simplification will be able to convert crops from open cycle to closed-loop avoiding groundwater pollution and soil salinization.

With MEA PLANT we can grow plants with different water needs with the same irrigation cycle. This new substrate allows an efficient root anchoring, so it is possible to grow outdoors and not just in greenhouses. Our cultivation system can be used not only by specialized personnel but by anyone. It’s sufficient to insert the roots of the seedlings in the substrate and turn on a drip timed irrigation system. The recirculated solution (water mixed with mineral salts), stocked in a tank, will have to be periodically topped up in order to allow a long-term autonomy.

Technology used in our substrate consists of a three-dimensional interweaving of hydrophobic or weakly hydrophilic thin threads made of inert material knotted among them in a dense mesh.

During exhibitions we took part in lastly, at Biomim’expo 2019 at the City of Sciences in Paris we had the opportunity to define our target population which consists of vegetable garden lovers, green architects, farmers, and NGOs. Many people want to eat healthy food, without phytosanitary residues, rich in elements with high nutritional value, therefore they wish to create their own vegetable garden. As now, there is not on the market of soilless cultivation a closed-loop system intended for individuals who wish to cultivate a veritable vegetable garden. Green architecture is also limited by traditional systems, because of significant weight, humidity and water infiltrations in buildings.

The graphic below shows how in times of emergency crisis (like Covid-19) the desire to have a vegetable garden increases exponentially.

According to the first systematic quantification of urban agriculture conducted by FAO, up to 70 percent of urban households participate in agricultural activities in developing and transition countries. 

Our product, low-cost and low-tech, is perfect for local agriculture and short food supply chains. With our system’s advantages, sustainable and accessible urban farming can become truly possible. 

Our solution overcomes the current difficulties of soilless crops. Therefore, it represents a new model of widespread and resilient agricultural development which will allow the cultivation of well-fed plants, with an abundant and nutrient-rich production.

This model will be able to allow global food security and reduce the risks of food crises during emergency events.

Animal farmings currently produce about 20% of greenhouse gases and meat consumption is expected to double by 2050 with an unsustainable environmental impact. Our large-scale solution will allow to grow vegetable proteins everywhere, reducing the consumption of animal proteins.

Our patented innovation has changed the paradigm of soilless cultivation, it will simplify and favor SFSCs from plot to plate. Unlike the soil and the various substrates on the market, our substrate is the only one that does not absorb water. Devoid of micropores, it retains water and mineral salts without ever absorbing them. This innovation will simplify the management of soilless cultivation and make it accessible to everyone. Micropores are tiny cavities that hold water in which bacteria and fungi grow. Water evaporation causes an over-concentration of mineral salts in the micropores: salts concentrated in the substrate are released randomly in the nutritive solution, this increases salinity considerably and disturbs the development of plants. Retaining water without micropores eliminates not only the continuous salinity checks but also the various stages of sterilization of the solution. To retain the solution without absorbing it we were inspired by raindrops that remain suspended on spiderwebs. Our substrate consists of a three-dimensional reticular structure formed of inert and recyclable threads. An irrigation system supplies drops of water mixed with nutrients that, thanks to the surface tension of water, are held back by the threads. These drops are completely available to the roots of plants.

Our solution is unique because our cultivation substrate is the first one in the world that holds water without absorbing it.

We managed to create a substrate, that thanks to its lightness, softness, and the right balance between full and empty spaces, is like a well-worked and oxygenated soil.

The new technology behind our solution consists of a growing substrate that retains drops of water and nutrients without absorption according to the same physical principle thanks to which the drops of water remain suspended on a spider web after the rain.

In fact, the droplets, falling at low speed, remain suspended on the thin threads due to the surface tension of the water.

Similarly, in our system, we provide cyclically, with a timed drip irrigation system, low-speed droplets that remain suspended on the thin threads of our substrate in order to nourish the roots of the plants.

In the lattice nodes, where the threads are crossed together, forming many angles each other, the droplets reach their maximum size thanks to greater support. This phenomenon increases the water retention capacity of our substrate. 

Once the drops reach their maximum size and weight, they fall. This avoids the risk of overirrigation and radical asphyxiation. The drops that remain suspended on the threads do not offer resistance and are easily absorbed by the roots. The drops are completely available to the plants that absorb only those necessary for their needs without spending energy, as it instead happens in other substrates or in the soil.

For this reason, it is possible to cultivate plants with different water needs on the same cultivation line and with the same irrigation cycles.

Threads made of hydrophobic or weakly hydrophilic inert materials allow hydrophilic roots to absorb drops very quickly, reducing water losses by evaporation.

       Biomin’expo 2019 in Paris- City of Science and Industry in Paris 

Enrico MASELLA - Francesca MASELLA - Caterina ALLERA - Danielle PERINETTO

We have been successfully conducting outdoor cultivation tests for over 5 years. Cultivation tests are available on our website: www.meaplant.com. We have also successfully tested perennial plants (Plectranthus) for 5 years. 

We took part in the Biomin’expo 2019 in Paris, an exhibition dedicated to the best bioinspired innovations. We showed at the City of Science and Industry in Paris two prototypes with cultivated plants. On this occasion, more than 2000 visitors were able to see our soilless farming system in function.

The pictures of the prototypes in Paris can be found on our website www.meaplant.com, session: EXPO PARIS.

Our functional tests have also been published in the Biomim'BOOK 2019, here is the link:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/biomimexpo/48972859338/in/album72157711532611221/

The pictures of our working prototypes showed in our stand in Paris have also been published in Monaco’s newspaper "MONTE CARLO TIMES" (page 20), here is the link:

http://www.montecarlotimes.eu/...

We have patented our system in Europe, Usa and in many other countries.

It is clear that our technology could have a great effect on the development of crops, without environmental impact and achieve a global food system with low CO2 emissions. Our solution, which allows the diffusion of agriculture in cities, not only reduces greenhouse gases, but it is also able to absorb them. University of California has published an article in the journal Science-Direct saying that for every kilo of self-produced vegetables consumed, two kilos of carbon emissions are avoided. If a vegetable garden production  was provided to every californian family, the study claims that the positive impact would be significant and the State would reduce its polluting emissions by 10 percent, approaching the reduction target set for 2020.

The diffusion of more efficient soilless farming systems, such as ours, will no longer make it necessary to destroy forests to create new agricultural fields for the nutritional needs of the population.

Our solution can not only satisfy the immediate needs of those who want to grow their own vegetable gardens simply with little free time, have healthy products, rich in nutrients and without pesticides, but also have long-term results for the global population. In fact, our solution is scalable in large crops as well as in professional greenhouses, vertical farming, and urban farming.

In this way, our natural soils can regenerate, after many years of intensive cultivation that have determined their exhaustion. Our system can allow cultivating in areas currently not used because they are not arable or with water scarcity.

We can finally be optimistic about the future of our society.

Let’s not forget that our future is also in Space. One of the current problems for the colonization of the moon or other planets of our Solar System is finding efficient soilless cultivation systems able to also grow shrubs for oxygen regeneration. We recently started testing tangerine orange and lemon trees with good results, as you can see on our website.

At the moment we're not on the market yet. We are looking for financial resources to industrialize and put our system on the market, so the number of people that we are going to serve depends on how many resources we will have available to build the productive forces of our future factory.

We could serve:

• Thousands of people the first year;
• hundreds of thousands of people over the next five years.

We could grow rapidly in order to meet the needs of millions of people and make our soilless farming system available.

Our company alone would not be sufficient for the productive forces needed to meet a large-scale demand, but we could transfer the rights of our patents to many companies in all the countries of the world where we patented it.

We could work with non-governmental organizations that already have an established network around the world to reach all countries in food distress that lack arable land and have water scarcity.

In this way, we will be able to distribute our soilless farming system to millions of people in a few years.

Our goal is very ambitious, but the time to act with concrete solutions  for the common good and well-being of our planet has come.

We have only one obstacle: the financial one. The financial resources, that we may have, will affect the development of our project and could limit its impact in the coming year and over the next five years.

We have already overcome all the organizational problems for our production chain.

We have excellent human resources with interdisciplinary expertise from scientific, to technical to economic-financial, but we have limited financial resources.

We could only industrialize a simple modular model of a cultivation unit with the financial resources that we have and start putting it on the market in limited numbers through e-commerce. In this way, the diffusion of this new technology would be gradual and the speed of expansion would depend on the number of crop units sold necessary to finance the production of further units.

We have filed patents in many countries: another way to finance our business could be to transfer patent rights for the exploitation of our technology in countries where we will not operate directly. The rights and royalty will allow us to finance our production.

However, as already mentioned, we have a much more ambitious goal: we aim to produce our system on a large scale. For these reasons, we are looking for a partnership.

We also take part in international competitions trying to win prizes that could help us to reach our goal.

Our team consists of three people full time: the biologist Caterina Allera, the engineer Enrico Masella, the financial expert Thierry Perinetto; and one person part-time: Francesca Masella, assistant on web communication. Our team beyond specific skills is extremely creative and interchangeable.

Thierry PERINETTO - Enrico MASELLA - Caterina ALLERA at Paris City Hall

After graduating in Biological Sciences, Caterina Allera won a three-year national Research Scholarship for Cancer Research. Her research activities at the National Institute for Cancer Research and the National Research Center in Genoa have been fundamental in raising her awareness on the close relationship between human health and environmental issues. After moving to Sanremo, she continued her research in the agricultural field at the national research institute of agriculture and became an expert in soilless cultivation. She has been part of the European LIFE + SUMFLOWER project of sustainable agriculture for her competences in soilless cultivation and in saving water by using TDR and FDR probes in agriculture. The experience gained both in the medical and agronomic field has led her to seek a solution to make an innovative technology that preserves the environment and health by producing quality food accessible to everyone. MEA PLANT project was born from this desire. Engineer Enrico Masella, with his technical knowledge of fluid physics and material technology, has designed the three-dimensional lattice of threads that constitutes the innovative cultivation substrate. He identified the suitable material to give the threads elasticity and studied how to reach a sufficient number of crossed threads, to increase the number of retained drops and their size. It was therefore possible to design prototypes that also had optimal thermal insulation for extreme climatic conditions and to engineer the new soilless cultivation system for industrial production, currently underway. Thierry PERINETTO  has an established experience in financial and contractual matters.

Until today we have worked on our own and now we are looking for partners to industrialize and market our product.

In terms of value, thanks to our autonomous system, people will be able to reduce their food supply expenses. On the other hand, we can  provide many employments throughout a new supply chain: from factory's production of  new cultivation systems to new job opportunities such as urban farmers. Above all, we will be able to bring food security in countries with water scarcity and non-arable lands.

reference customers:

• vegetable garden lovers;
• urban farmers;
• green walls and roofs architects;
• agricultural entrepreneurs;
• farmers: our innovation reduces the costs of installation and management.

We will provide a modular kit dedicated to both the private and the professional: for personal use, agricultural crops, vertical-farming, green roofs and walls. Our module is designed to be assembled very simply. It will be possible to put together multiple modules to make larger crop units.  One module, for personal use cultivation, 1.7 meters high, allows to farm up to 32 plants per square meter. In a vertical farming you can multiply the number of plants per square meter for every building floor.

The first product distribution channel will be a direct sale by opening an e-commerce and maintaining relationships with customers through internet services and video tutorials.

Market survey has shown that: 

• only the global vertical farming market size is anticipated to reach USD 9.96 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 21.3% ;
• Across the world, 800 million people practice urban agriculture. According to the FAO

We are sure that our innovative idea that we have patented, can be diffused to a wider public thanks to the MIT SOLVE network. MIT is a very important Institution in the world for technology and innovation, so it can help us to develop our innovation and bring our solution to new frontiers of agriculture. MIT SOLVE could allow us to create a network that will take our solution to countries that have few economic resources or lack of water and arable land, giving them food security.

We need sponsors to help us to industrialize our product and market it. After the exhibition of our prototypes at the City of Sciences and Industry in Paris, we have received many requests from both private individuals, architecture firms, and international builders. In fact, our market study showed us that we have no competitors in this sector and that the demand from various types of customers is very significant.

Since our innovative product brings a solution to allow the regeneration of our environment and food security, we would like to partner with philanthropic foundations. Those are in fact the main goals of many philanthropic foundations, such as Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research.

If a Foundation financed our project  our commitment would be to sell our cultivation systems at cost price to countries with limited economic resources.

We are also interested to consider individual investors.

On the other hand, for further scientific research development we would like to collaborate with MIT faculty and also with Space Research Centers.

We will be able to create many new jobs with the spread of our soilless cultivation system, especially in cities. 

Our solution could also offer more opportunities for refugees to remain in their countries with more livelihoods.

Our solution could be very useful  during emergency crises  in refugee camps to create vegetables gardens in a short time and with low water need. 

Our solution could lead to a significant improvement in the quality of life of women living in rural areas with a subsistence economy.

Especially women are engaged in the hard work of fields to support their families and are often forced to travel daily large distances on foot to obtain water for crops.
With our solution, cultivating would become a very simple and effortless job. It would no longer be necessary to plow the soil: planting would only consist in inserting seeds or seedlings into the cultivation units. Continuous water supplies would no longer be necessary because our system allows 90% water saving compared to traditional cultivations.
Our solution could not only guarantee the livelihood of their families but also an income by marketing agricultural products to the rest of the community.

Our soilless cultivation system is now low-tech and simple to use. For this reason, it is very suitable for an implementation with control systems powered by artificial intelligence allowing it to work without any human intervention from plantation to harvest.

Our solution could allow a perfect integration between crops cultivation and artificial intelligence because there are not many actions to execute.

In particular, artificial intelligence would be very useful in the management of irrigation and lighting systems inside vertical farming where large cultivations and related sytems must be managed and where human error is more likely. 

Therefore our solution together with artificial intelligence will be able to ensure the certainty of the harvest on a large scale.

Artificial intelligence can also be applied to personal cultivation units to be able to control them remotely with an app from smathphone. This will allow everyone to enjoy their vegetable garden whenever they want.

If we win the prize we can amplify artificial intelligence's impact in an innovative agriculture  of the future in order to ensure food security for the world's population.

Our solution aims to solve one of humanity’s greatest global challenges. We have created a new cultivation system with high productivity of nutritional quality food, simple to use and accessible to all. The goal of our innovation is to free every human being from the risk of not being able to satisfy one of his primary needs: to feed himself. The name that we have chosen for our project is MEA Plant: Mission Easy Agriculture indicates the will to follow a path always with new goals especially with solutions that are equal to the challenges that our future will put before us.

Our system brings a significant simplification in precision agriculture where plants, unlike crops in natural soils, are fed with their specific nutritional needs so they can grow faster and more luxuriant.

Our challenge was to create a system that, with the same nutrient solution and irrigation cycle cultivates together plants with different water and nutritional needs. This gave us the opportunity to cultivate in small spaces plant species with different nutritional values to make each individual’s diet varied and complete. We grow together tomatoes, green beans, peas, eggplants, strawberries, melons, cabbages, etc… for a rich and nutritionally superb dish.

We cultivate in a soilless cultivation closed-loop system and greatly simplify current cultivation systems. We reduce water consumption by 90% compared to traditional crops, we do not pollute groundwater and do not salinate the land.  We do not use herbicides and pesticides because our plants grow strong and healthy. We grow also outdoors without any problems because our plants are well rooted and do not fear winds or flooding. By doing so, we contribute considerably to the lowering of CO2 levels. 

Therefore, our solution operates in the complete respect of the environement.

The new frontier of agriculture is in cities. Despite long discussions on the development of urban crops, they have remained in effect marginal and demonstrative. With our solution, Vertical Farming and Urban Farming, which are now limited to mainly strawberry and salad cultivations, can become realities that meet all production needs.