Amazon is already offering the first line of leafy green lettuce produced by Hippo Harvest, a climate-tech business, less than two years after investing in it. According to Hippo Harvest, the greens are cultivated with 92% less water and 55% less fertilizer than conventional produce. Robots and machine learning are also used for farming the lettuce mixtures in greenhouses near the client base.
The partnership is a part of Amazon’s more significant effort to combat climate change by assisting startups in green technology through its Climate Pledge Fund. To help Hippo Harvest grow from a tiny startup to a large business that can now offer consumers more shopping options, the Fund invested in the company in 2021. In addition, Amazon and Global Optimism’s The Climate Pledge, which calls for companies to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by the year 2040, was recently joined by Hippo Harvest.
The growing method used by Hippo Harvest addresses several aspects of traditional farming that contribute to global warming, such as the extensive use of land and fertilizers, carbon emissions from long-distance food transportation, and the release of methane gas from discarded produce dumped in landfills. Nearly 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions linked to crops grown for human use are caused by these variables.
Customers in a few San Francisco markets can buy baby romaine, gourmet lettuce blends, and spring mix from Amazon Fresh online. Pesticide-free cultivation and 100% post-consumer recycled plastic packaging are used for the greens’ production.
The Hippo Harvest greenhouse will be a demonstration project for the local agricultural community’s potential solutions to the region’s historic water deficit and rising rainstorm frequency.
mage Credit | Amazon Website
