Making Sustainability Delicious and Affordable with Vertical Farming

With the costs of farming on the rise as well as concerns about its impact on the environment, the race is on to find more sustainable ways to produce food. Founded in 2016, Oishii Farm has pursued vertical farming as an alternative to conventional agriculture and is opening a research center in Japan in 2025. We spoke with Oishii Farm's Chief of Staff Maehara Hiroki about the company's unique approach to agriculture, marketing, and technology.

CEO Koga Hiroki came up with the idea for Oishii Farm with the company's chief operating officer, Brendan Somerville. The two met while pursuing their MBAs—Koga at the University of California, Berkeley, and Somerville at the University of California, Los Angeles. With a shared interest in promoting sustainability, the pair were drawn to the idea of vertical farming.

Vertical farming optimizes growing conditions by using stacked layers of trays in a controlled environment, to grow fresh crops year-round, regardless of climate or location. 

"There are many advantages," explains Maehara. "We can grow our produce year-round. And because vertical farms do not require agricultural land, they can be constructed in locations where you would not normally expect farming to be possible. Our closed-loop system also allows for efficient water recycling and energy conservation, eliminating the need for pesticides."

The greatest advantage is reliability and global applicability. "Our farms operate independently of external environmental conditions because we can control the environment, enabling us to grow fresh fruits and vegetables anywhere in the world, year-round."

By integrating LED lights and climate monitoring, vertical farms offer a stable and sustainable solution for modern agriculture.

After founding Oishii Farm in 2016, Koga quickly realized that the potential of vertical farming technology would mean nothing without a marketable product to attract consumers. Drawing on memories of his childhood in Tokyo, he decided that the answer lay in strawberries.

"Why strawberries?" says Maehara, with a smile. "Strawberries are special to people—they are a treat. In terms of marketing, consumers tend to prefer certain brands of strawberries based on taste and appearance. As a new company, becoming known for particularly delicious strawberries is a great way to establish brand recognition within a competitive market." 

At first, Oishii Farm focused on the luxury market, growing their berries at a vertical farm in New Jersey and selling them primarily to Michelin-starred restaurants and celebrities. In 2022, they expanded their sales to prime grocery locations such as Whole Foods in New York. The company developed two signature brands, Omakase Berry and Koyo Berry, that soon gained attention in the United States, even making an appearance on television when Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow shared a package of Omakase Berries with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and his audience.

While this initial focus on high-end strawberries was crucial to increase brand awareness, Oishii Farm has since endeavored to make its fruit more affordable to the average consumer. While Paltrow quipped on Kimmel's show that the berries "were like 50 dollars or something," prices have fallen considerably since, with one package now selling for about 10 dollars. 

Proving that vertical farming can provide delicious but affordable food is the main goal at Oishii Farm. "Let's be honest," says Maehara. "Most people consider two things at the supermarket: taste and price." Demonstrating that this business model can work is the key to encouraging the expansion of sustainable agriculture. Having recently diversified into tomatoes, Oishii Farm is already pushing this progress forward.

At the same time, Koga chose strawberries as the flagship fruit of Oishii Farm, while he and Somerville sought to maximize the positive image of Japanese food and farming worldwide. The pair named their company after the Japanese word for "delicious" (oishii) and their signature berry varieties after "chef's selection" (omakase) and "elated" (koyo). 

In addition to its business in the United States, Oishii Farm has registered its Japanese subsidiary in Tokyo (Shibuya). As Maehara explains, Tokyo is not only a global leader in sustainable agricultural research and development but also a hotbed of innovation in many other fields important to vertical farming. While vertical farms are, in fact, farms in terms of outcome, they also share many characteristics with factories, including robotics, automation, water recycling, and monitoring systems.

One major hurdle facing closed-loop farming systems has long been the need for pollination. While pollinating flowers with brush-wielding humans or robots is possible, it is inefficient and expensive. Having evolved through millions of years to do the job, bees are preferable, but getting them to pollinate flowers within a vertical farming setting has long frustrated researchers. In recent years, however, Oishii Farm became the first company to achieve large-scale, stable, and natural pollination using bees within a closed-loop farming system.

At a deeper level, the company takes an active role in promoting Japanese agriculture and technology around the world. Koga previously gave a TED Talk and was a session speaker at SusHi Tech Tokyo 2024 Global Startup Program which is a global startup and innovation conference hosted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. He is set to return as a session speaker at SusHi Tech Tokyo 2025. The company also attended SusHi Tech Global in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where Maehara was excited to see how many delegates from around the world held a positive image of Japan, Japanese food, and Japanese farming.

"I was positively surprised," he admits. "It reminded me that food has a larger role to play in our lives than simply filling our bellies. Of course, nutrition is important, but food has a cultural side as well, something that we can all find joy in. Through sharing our food, as well as the technology that makes food more sustainable and accessible for all, I truly believe that we can forge deeper connections that cross national boundaries."

SusHi Tech Tokyo, short for Sustainable High City Tech Tokyo, is a Tokyo-based concept that aims to create sustainable new value by overcoming global urban challenges through cutting-edge technology, diverse ideas, and digital expertise

Interview and writing by Trevor Kew

Photos by Fujishima Ryo

To read the original article and more stories about what Tokyo offers, please visit Tokyo Updates' website. 

Click here for the Japanese version of the article