Hydroponic plants for nutra ingredients
biotechnology for botanical therapeutics, and ARC Ventures, a
hydroponic producer of green vegetables and herbs, have created a
joint venture called Phytomedicinal Greenhouses (PMG).
The companies hope PMG will become an integrated, industrial scale system growing plants hydroponically - inside an enclosed structure where the environment, nutrient and other solutions are stable and monitored - to be used as active ingredients for pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, and functional food products.
"ARC's capabilities in high-value hydroponic agriculture, as well as their extensive growers network, complements Phytomedics business strategy for launching a new generation of scientifically designed, tested and optimized multi-component botanical therapeutics," said Bertold Fridlender, president and CEO of Phytomedics.
ARC was keen to focus on the benefits this type of production should have for the future of agriculture in the US.
"This represents the beginning of a major shift from 'farming for calories' to 'farming for health'", said Richard Cobb, President of ARC Ventures. "Such opportunities open up lucrative revenue streams for farming communities and potentially have the ability to alter the very landscape of industrial farming, especially in a key U.S. agricultural producing states like New Jersey," he said.
The company intends originally to concentrate on producing nutraceutical ingredients for products, which aim to help sufferers of diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, metabolic problems and obesity.
Hydroponic farming has been around for a long time, but is only now starting to play a more significant role in global agricultural as benefits of the technique - including a lack of herbicides and pesticides - start to come to the fore.
