Design finalized for new facility that will accelerate new crop deployment and expand R&D beyond produce
LARAMIE, Wyo., Sept. 4, 2024 – Plenty Unlimited Inc. has driven many advancements in indoor farming over the past decade in its research and development (R&D) center in Laramie, Wyo., leveraging its proprietary R&D technology platform. Today it’s one of the top plant science research centers in the world, attracting expert scientists from all over the world as well as leveraging talent from the nearby University of Wyoming. After receiving the largest economic development grant ever given by the State of Wyoming, Plenty is expanding its R&D footprint and building the world’s largest vertical farming research center in Laramie with the support of the Wyoming Business Council, Laramie Chamber Business Alliance and City of Laramie.
Plenty is rooted in the fundamental belief that just about any plant can be successfully grown indoors. Today, the company is focused on growing food indoors, but the flexibility of its vertical growing platform and its clean, controlled growing environment make it possible to grow plants for a variety of uses beyond fresh produce, including food ingredients and pharmaceuticals. Plenty’s continued investment in R&D, combined with the increased research space in its new Laramie facility, is enabling the company to explore opportunities to innovate through research partnerships with governments, companies, institutions and more.
“This new advanced plant science research facility is not only the culmination of investing hundreds of millions of dollars into R&D over the past decade, but a blueprint for expanding our research capacity to support projects valuable to our partners, our industry and beyond,” said Arama Kukutai, CEO of Plenty. “What we’re building in Wyoming is truly unlike anything else in the world – you’d have to go to Wageningen in the Netherlands to come close. We see a significant opportunity to leverage this new platform for R&D and indoor growing to build a global network of research centers to increase our impact on the future of both plant science and indoor farming.”
Plenty’s R&D platform brings together advanced genetics and breeding; custom hardware and growing environments; and AI and data analytics. This advanced technology supports accelerating Plenty’s crop diversity beyond the more than 50 different crops–from berries and tomatoes to peppers and squashes–it has already successfully grown in its vertical growing system. Plenty’s scientists can screen new plant varieties for flavor and quality, then leverage Plenty’s R&D platform to maximize yield and support profitable farms.
“The next generation of Plenty’s R&D platform that we’re deploying in Wyoming enables us to develop new crops at a much faster rate and expand the portfolio of plants we can grow in Plenty’s patented vertical growing system,” said Sasha Preuss, Vice President of Plant Science at Plenty. “We just announced our expansion of Plenty farms to the Middle East and the research capabilities we have here in Wyoming make it possible for us to develop additional crops that can be grown in those farms – increasing regional production and food security despite the very different climates. That’s a big advantage to having both research and commercial farm environments that are totally controlled.”
Following the selection of MOA Architecture as the project’s A&E firm, the design for the research center is now complete. Plenty will break ground next spring and is targeting summer 2026 for the opening of the new facility.
