Tomato+ is an innovative startup that produces ready-to-use smart indoor greenhouses for the hydroponic cultivation of vegetables and sprouts. Drawing on the concept of the vertical farm — the agricultural practice that allows plants to be grown across multiple stacked levels with considerable water savings — Tomato+ brings the cultivation of sprouts, herbs and vegetables directly to the point of consumption. One of its key strengths is precisely its ability to offer a fresh product within easy reach in every season, at home or in a restaurant, and, above all, to make zero-kilometre growing as simple as making a coffee.

Having joined the ecosystem of naturally sustainable startups LifeGate Way last year, Tomato+ was founded in 2016 in Borgosatollo (in the province of Brescia) by Daniele Rossi, whom we met to discuss how Tomato+ is evolving, the importance of innovation and new technologies in transforming the food system, and the challenges involved in making the agri-food supply chain sustainable.

In what way does Tomato+ go beyond the concept of the vertical farm?
Tomato+ has developed vertical farms for the production of vegetables and plants based on a concept that differs somewhat from the traditional one. In our view, vertical farm cultivation has its limitations: it certainly makes the production process highly efficient, but not the supply chain as a whole, since the plants produced are still cut, packaged and transported. All the advantages we gained in production are lost at the moment of harvesting and distribution, which takes place through the usual distribution channels.

With Tomato+ we have automated the entire process, using a system of ultra-lightweight compostable pods and artificial intelligence that regulates and maximises production cycles without the need for specialist staff. For us, the real innovation is precisely this: thanks to the concept of centimetre-zero cultivation, Tomato+ reduces to almost nothing the costs and pollution caused by logistics, but also waste, because the living plant is harvested only at the moment it is consumed.

When, and above all how, did the idea for Tomato+ come about?
In the past, I spent a long time designing and building luxury gardens around the world: first as a designer, then as a site manager at a company. We handled entire exterior projects, from water features to pathways through to planting. I therefore had a grounding that spanned every field, because I needed to liaise with specialists from various sectors.

At the end of 2014, during a work trip to Russia, a client said to me over dinner that the future would not lie in building luxury gardens, but in growing your own tomatoes at home. Initially I took it purely as a joke, but the following evening I went to the supermarket and noticed that a single tomato had a disproportionate price tag: six dollars. From that moment I understood that there was a serious supply-chain problem, and I returned to Italy with the idea nagging at me.

Even before that episode, I had noticed that in our country a great many families and several restaurateurs were beginning to talk about wanting to grow their own vegetables, even if it did not always turn out to be so straightforward. So I started thinking about how vegetable growing could become accessible to everyone. I began working on the idea and developing it, and by August 2015 I had already built the first functioning wooden prototype in my father's carpentry workshop. I resigned to work full-time on the startup, developed the first patents, and the company was then founded in February 2016.

What is the vision behind this project, and what goal does Tomato+ set itself?
The goal is to offer the possibility of producing vegetables in a healthy and non-polluting way directly at the point of consumption — at home or in a restaurant, in schools, all the way up to entire communities; some foreign governments are already working in this direction. In other words, to offer a sustainable system for producing vegetables that are not only naturally rich in vitamins and high-quality minerals, but whose composition can actually be controlled.

To give an example, our software, using artificial intelligence, is able to reconstruct the optimal conditions for the healthy growth of the plant within seconds. By exploiting the ability to exercise such complete control and by working on certain parameters — such as light frequency or carbon dioxide concentrations — the plant in our greenhouses can take on different characteristics: it can be more flavourful or more delicate, more or less crunchy, right up to the extreme end of the spectrum. For some years now we have been working with the CNR in Catania to enable the plant to absorb more vitamin B12. To sum up, the long-term idea is to simplify the production chain entirely, giving people the ability — through highly intelligent machines — to grow delicious vegetables that could also become a nutritional supplement.

What have been, and what still are, if any, the greatest difficulties you have had to face and continue to face?
On the technical side, all the experimentation, because this is a new world where there is not a great deal of expertise, and where continuous product development trials are necessary. I am referring also to the entire process of developing new lines — that is, new plants — with the aim of maintaining high quality standards while being able to use ever less energy and water. This is and will continue to be a very lengthy process, into which a great many resources are invested. On the other hand, one difficulty is something of a characteristic of our country and concerns access to capital. We, as a startup, have already carried out several capital increases and are carrying out more, but we often find ourselves competing with companies from across the ocean — and from Europe too — that raise far more substantial funds.

How willing are the organisations you work with to experiment?
Very willing, and in my view, over the next ten years we will witness a genuine process of entering people's homes. At the moment, it is mainly universities and research centres that are experimenting, but also farming companies and governments with the aim of self-producing vegetables on-site rather than importing them from thousands of kilometres away.

Today in Italy we can consider ourselves very fortunate, because it is always possible to find a small basil plant at the supermarket or on a balcony at home. If we shift latitudes, not everyone enjoys such good fortune, and the ability to grow vegetables at home is a necessity and a process that is gradually expanding on a large scale. We should also say that Covid-19 accelerated this process: there are countries such as Saudi Arabia or Singapore that experienced serious supply problems during and after the pandemic and are now scrambling to address them with very substantial funding for the self-production of agricultural goods.

What are the greatest challenges for the future of a sustainable food system, and where does Tomato+ fit in?
The real challenge will be to reduce energy consumption as much as possible, because this is today the only limitation of vertical farm installations. By now, we have reduced water usage by 98 per cent: thanks to machines that condense air, we have managed to eliminate the need for it. The real remaining challenge for us, and for all the other players in the sector, is to cut energy use so dramatically that production can run exclusively from green energy sources. Once that too has been achieved, in my view vertical farm production will take hold completely.

Let's talk about innovation and new technologies: how important are they for the transformation of the global food system, and how important are they for Tomato+?
Innovation and technology are fundamental, including for easing a logistics chain that is becoming increasingly unsustainable. Consider, for example, the cargo ship Ever Given, which in March 2021 ran aground in the Suez Canal, blocking it for six days and disrupting global supply chains, with repercussions that lasted for months. I believe that this kind of event could happen more and more frequently in the future, due to a logistics system under ever-growing strain. Being able to break free, at least in part, from these goods-distribution dynamics will make all the difference.

In recent months, celebrated Michelin-starred chefs have decided to close their restaurants due to a business model that is no longer sustainable from several points of view. Tomato+ works side by side with restaurateurs: what are the greatest difficulties they face, and what are the possible solutions?
Today the market is based on small shoots that mostly come from the Netherlands and are distributed at a very high price, and when you're lucky, at least 30 per cent of them goes to waste because the supply chain is too long for the restaurateur to receive a fresh product. I imagine the same applies to more or less everything that arrives in the kitchen.

Of course, the zero-kilometre philosophy is gaining more and more traction, but it still remains too small a niche. Large distributors that import fish from the other side of the world are typically used: a chain so long that it inevitably drives up costs. Add to that a fast-dining standard that needs the finished product immediately. Rethinking the supply chain could probably be part of a solution that is, however, certainly far more complex and systemic.