What are the best free commercial vertical farming examples for researching recent crop mix and scale?

Here are some of the best free, commercial vertical farming examples to research if you want to understand recent crop mix and scale. I’m focusing on companies with public websites, press releases, interviews, investor decks, or sustainability reports that usually reveal useful operational details.

Strong examples to start with

1) AeroFarms (US)

• Why it’s useful: One of the most widely documented commercial vertical farms.
• Good for: Leafy greens, herbs, and how large-scale indoor farming has been positioned commercially.
• What to look for: Crop categories, facility size, production approach, and recent business updates.
• Free sources: Company blog, press releases, media interviews, bankruptcy/restructuring coverage, sustainability materials.

2) Bowery Farming (US)

• Why it’s useful: Very visible in terms of scale ambitions and crop strategy.
• Good for: Crop mix evolution, controlled-environment agriculture scaling, and retail-driven product lines.
• What to look for: Product portfolio changes, facility announcements, and scale claims.
• Free sources: Website archives, press coverage, interviews, investor/news articles.

3) Gotham Greens (US)

• Why it’s useful: Probably one of the clearest examples of a profitable-ish commercial indoor farming company with real retail distribution.
• Good for: Crop mix by product category and expansion into multiple regions.
• What to look for: Salad kits, leafy greens, basil, herbs, facility sizes, and market expansion.
• Free sources: Company website, retail announcements, sustainability reports, news articles.

4) Plenty (US)

• Why it’s useful: Strong public record on technology, crop choices, and scale claims.
• Good for: High-tech vertical farming, crop trials, strawberries/greens strategy, and large facility concepts.
• What to look for: Which crops were commercially prioritized over time and how scale evolved.
• Free sources: Press releases, interviews, website, funding announcements, court/restructuring coverage.

5) Infarm (Germany/global)

• Why it’s useful: A distinctive distributed vertical farming model with many public references.
• Good for: Crop mix across herbs, leafy greens, and retail integration.
• What to look for: Expansion/contraction, partner grocery footprints, and which crops were emphasized commercially.
• Free sources: Press releases, partner announcements, news reports, public sustainability/impact pages.

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Other good commercial examples

6) Farm One (US)

• Smaller scale, but useful if you want chef-focused herbs and specialty greens.
• Good for understanding premium crop strategy rather than mass retail.

7) Jones Food Company (UK)

• Useful for large-scale UK vertical farming and crop mix in supermarket supply chains.
• Often cited in relation to basil, leafy greens, and retail partnerships.

8) GrowUp Farms / 3F Bio (UK)

• Good for commercial leafy greens and scaling in Europe.
• Often appears in supermarket and sustainability contexts.

9) Sky Greens (Singapore)

• Not always “vertical farming” in the modern LED-rack sense, but a key commercial controlled-environment example.
• Useful for understanding scale and local production in a land-constrained market.

10) Sananbio / Chinese indoor farming firms

• Some have large-scale claims and broad crop experimentation.
• Public English-language information may be thinner, but still worth checking for scale comparisons.

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Best types of free sources to use

If your goal is recent crop mix and scale, these are the most useful:

1. Company website

   • Product pages
   • Sustainability pages
   • Press releases
   • “About” or facility pages

2. Investor presentations / annual reports

   • Often show facility count, acreage equivalency, or production targets

3. News interviews and podcasts

   • CEOs often discuss what crops are working commercially

4. Retail partner announcements

   • Great for seeing actual products sold to consumers

5. Government or grant pages

   • Sometimes list facility size, job counts, or production capacity

6. Local news coverage of new facilities

   • Often has the most concrete scale details

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What crops to track for “recent crop mix”

For vertical farms, the most common commercial crops are:

• Leafy greens: lettuce, baby greens, arugula, spinach
• Herbs: basil, mint, cilantro, parsley, dill
• Specialty crops: strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, microgreens
• Trial/novel crops: flowers, medicinal plants, starter plants

If you want to compare companies, these are the best questions:

• Which crops are sold commercially vs. tested only in pilots?
• Are they focusing on high-margin herbs or volume leafy greens?
• Have they moved into fruiting crops like strawberries/tomatoes?
• Do they sell consumer packs, foodservice bulk, or both?

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Best shortlist if you want only 3–5 examples

If I had to narrow it down to the most research-friendly free examples:

1. Gotham Greens
2. AeroFarms
3. Bowery Farming
4. Plenty
5. Infarm

These give you a good mix of:

• different business models
• good public documentation
• clear crop mix visibility
• scale claims you can compare

If you want, I can also make you a comparison table with columns like company, country, crop mix, facility scale, and best free sources.