Watch robot farmers help Amazon-backed Hippo Harvest make leafy greens even ‘greener’

California-based Hippo Harvest says it can slash the water needed to grow the leafy greens that round out a healthy diet by more than 90% and use only precisely placed fertilizer with no runoff in large part by cutting out the human side of traditional farming that makes the practice more art than science.

Growth of these major greenhouses can potentially play a pivotal role in a California that feeds much of the nation and has been ravaged by drought.

And Hippo has the backing of Amazon.com’s climate-change arm to help make it all happen.

Lettuce mixes from the startup, which first came on the scene in 2021, are farmed using machine learning and robots that operate in greenhouses, a controlled environment that uses less land, reduces water use by 92% and more than halves the amount of fertilizer fed to the crop. Plus, growth takes place close to the customer base, cutting down on the greenhouse gas emissions associated with fossil fuel-burning transportation.

The collaboration is part of Amazon’s commitment to address climate change by supporting new climate technology companies through its Climate Pledge Fund. The fund first invested in Hippo Harvest in 2021 to help the company scale from a small startup to a commercial-sized operation that can provide new grocery options for consumers.

The more environmentally sound growing practices, as well as strategic setups for the operation, are also meant to reduce food waste much earlier in the production pipeline. Data shows the release of methane gas from wasted produce thrown into landfills can account for nearly 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions related to crops grown for human consumption.

Amazon Fresh online customers in the greater San Francisco area are already able to purchase the Hippo Harvest spring mix, gourmet lettuce blends and baby romaine, which are grown with no pesticides and packaged in 100% postconsumer recycled plastic. Wider distribution is planned.

Related: Amazon is funneling more money to women fighting climate change. Statistics show better ROI.

Watch how lettuce farming in particular has moved indoors, relying on machine learning and other automation to cut its climate impact.

Changes underway in California are significant. Nearly half of all U.S. produce is grown in California fields, but climate change-induced drought has resulted in an estimated 800,000 acres of cropland remaining unplanted in 2022 alone.

But are their social issues to consider if traditional farming, or at least portions of it are replaced?

Hippo Harvest and Amazon say they take these factors into consideration and hope technology and farming can fold in more traditional growers.

Hippo Harvest’s first commercial-scale greenhouse is located in Pescadero, Calif., a region experiencing prolonged severe drought and recent floods that washed out farmers’ fields.

“Climate change is already impacting how we eat. As water continues to disappear from our agricultural communities, we need solutions that give farmers the ability to make the best use of our natural resources, and ensure everyone has access to fresh produce,” said Kara Hurst, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide sustainability.

Hippo Harvest uses a closed-loop, direct-to-root fertilizer system and machine learning to calculate an efficient amount of water, fertilizer and light needed to produce high-yield crops, which are grown in repurposed greenhouses. Instead of conventional pesticides, the company uses beneficial insects, peppermint oil and other natural pest control methods.

What’s more, conventional produce grown in fields in the U.S. often travels an average distance of 1,500 miles before it reaches the consumer. Hippo Harvest’s greenhouses don’t require farmland and are climate-controlled, so they can be

located closer to wholesalers, restaurants and consumers. And there’s scope for installing these greenhouses even in low-water environments or locations with limited agricultural space, like metropolitan areas.

“Growing produce close to consumers increases the vegetables’ shelf life and reduces carbon emissions by eliminating the need to transport the product over longer distances,” says Hippo Harvest CEO Eitan Marder Eppstein.

“Hippo Harvest also uses off-the-shelf robots to farm the plants more efficiently, which helps reduce food waste,” Eppstein continued. “The robots utilize inexpensive, customized attachments that help them deliver precise levels of water and nutrition to the plants, and also help them delicately harvest the crops, which prevents the damage that produce often suffers when grown conventionally in fields.”

Amazon shook up private business and environmental groups alike with its 2019 Climate Pledge Fund. At that time, the company set a goal to meet Paris Climate Agreement objectives of holding global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and it added a caveat: Amazon said it could hit the mark 10 years earlier than the 2050 target set by major nations in Paris.

With the announcement, Amazon says it can be carbon neutral by 2040, even for its Prime one-day shipping service. At the time, neutral observers called the effort “ambitious but achievable” after the fast delivery service had been both championed and vilified for upending the retail space, using vast amounts of energy to source and deliver its products quickly. The company also remains in the spotlight over workforce unionization issues at its warehouses and other facilities.

Related: Jeff Bezos — longtime climate-change offender and now a big donor — hands out first round of billions to fight global warming

And: Jeff Bezos receives philanthropy award as ex-wife MacKenzie Scott continues donation spree

Earlier this year, Amazon said it made renewable-energy investments in late 2022 that will enable it to operate on 100% clean energy as soon as 2025, five years ahead of its original target.

For sure, its growth is challenging those targets. The world’s largest online retailer emitted 71.54 million metric tons of carbon-dioxide equivalent in 2021, Amazon disclosed in its sustainability report. That’s up about 40% since the company first disclosed the number, using data from 2019.

And separately, the company has seen a bout of earnings challenges. Amazon said earlier this month its least profitable holiday quarter since 2014 lead to its worst annual loss on record.

Read: ‘Patience will be rewarded’: Why Wall Street analysts aren’t freaking out over Amazon’s results and think shares are worth more