'Designed to grow' – Grodan launches new branding initiative

Grodan, part of ROCKWOOL Group, is a leading supplier of stone wool growing media solutions for professional greenhouse growers. Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is designed to grow food and medicinal crops more resource efficiently than conventional soil-based cultivation, making it possible to produce higher yields using less water, less land, less fertilizer, and fewer if any chemical pesticides.

Why does this matter? Because the global population keeps getting bigger while natural resources shrink. Having reached eight billion by late 2022, the world will add another two billion people in the next 30 years, many of whom will live in urban environments. That means we will need to produce 50% more food than in 2012 to feed the world’s people.

Yet soil is being lost to degradation between 10 and 100 times faster than it is forming, while climate-induced water stress threatens productivity of conventional soil-based agriculture in many parts of the world. CEA is key to supplying urban and other populations with fresh, healthy food for the future.

“Being rooted in science, Grodan’s soilless growing media and digital services allow for predictable crop production year-round – anytime, anywhere – with yields up to 40% greater than soil-based options, while using less land, water, fertiliser, and pesticide than conventional agriculture," commented Mirella Vitale, ROCKWOOL Chief Marketing Officer. "In the best of senses, ‘less is more’ when it comes to future-proofing crop production.”

“Together with our data-driven digital systems to continuously monitor crops’ health and growing needs, Grodan’s stone wool substrates allow professional growers to steer crop cultivation efficiently and sustainably, sometimes with 10 or more growing cycles in a year," added Grodan Managing Director Hub Janssen. "That also includes being able to recycle the stone wool substrates after fully exhausting its capacity. In a nutshell, this is the essence of Grodan’s new ‘Designed to grow’ brand initiative.”

Another important issue is that current regulations focus almost exclusively on production methods. This is important but increasingly insufficient as demand for crop production grows while available resources shrink. ROCKWOOL and Grodan believe the regulatory focus needs to shift from production methods toward a greater emphasis on the impact of crop production – including impact on other resources like land, water, and biodiversity.