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An organic leafy greens company is eyeing an 80-acre site at Shore Road and Frazier Lake Road for an indoor farming operation using hydroponic hoop houses and mobile robot tractors.
Backed by Pescadero-based Hippo Harvest, which touts itself on its website as a “grower, packer and shipper of leafy greens,” the proposal calls for developing a series of indoor farms on the site at 2370 Shore Road that could support up to 30 acres of hoop houses on 47 acres of developed land, along with up to 25 acres of outdoor row crops.
The project proposal calls for developing the site in four phases, starting with a four-acre first phase.
Submitted in March last year, the proposal is undergoing environmental review, according to San Benito County senior planner Michael Kelly.
Hippo Harvest CEO Eitan Marder-Eppstein said the company is interested in the location for a number of reasons.
“San Benito County has a lot going for it,” he said, “great growing climate, strong agricultural heritage, and a community that is genuinely supportive of farming and local food production. We’re excited about the potential to be part of that.”
He added that the Shore Road site “checked a lot of boxes for us in terms of what we look for in a site.”
According to Hippo Harvest, it looks to “partner with local outdoor growers to combine the best of both indoor and outdoor production” including growing “sensitive varieties indoors during transition seasons” in an effort to “deliver high quality and reliable products year-round.”
The company currently operates a “proof-of-concept” greenhouse using its operating systems in Pescadero.
It is also known for its use of autonomous mobile robots to do various tasks such as watering crops, providing crops with nutrients, moving plants, performing sensing and imaging, and even vacuuming.
Hippo Harvest’s website says it “wants to be a friendly neighbor to the people and local businesses of Hollister.”
“We’re thrilled about the opportunity to join and contribute to the community,” the website says. “We believe our agricultural operation will be a great fit for the local ecosystem with the potential to bring tens of millions of dollars in revenue, partnership opportunities for local outdoor growers—we are already working with Dobler & Sons—and 70 to 100 high quality jobs to the county over the next three years.”
The proposal calls for 30-foot-wide, 144-foot-long hoop houses, which are to be “very light, gutter-connected” structures with a peak height of 20 feet.
The proposal also calls for a 45,000-square-foot pre-engineered steel central processing building at full build-out to house the farming operations including seeding, harvesting, cleaning and the like with a maximum height of 22 feet.
Plans call for a driveway entrance off Shore Road designed for a “seamless flow of inbound and outbound trucks,” as well as a parking lot for employees and visitors. Extra truck parking is included in case of overflow so trucks “are not backed up on Shore Road,” according to project plans.
The site is expected to employ up to 60 people at the farm site with up to 30 working during any given shift at full operation
In addition to employee traffic, the site is expected to have up to 10 outbound semitrucks per day carrying packed products, compost, recycling and trash, while inbound trucks bring outdoor-grown products, growing supplies and packaging supplies.
According to the company’s proposal, it believes the operation “could be a great fit for the local ecosystem with the potential to bring high-quality jobs, tens of millions of dollars in revenue, and partnership opportunities for local outdoor growers. We also hope our innovative approach to farming on land previously thought to be difficult or unsustainable puts the county at the forefront of the future of agriculture and continues its rich agriculture tradition.”
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