Bowery Farming, a producer of greens and herbs for nearby restaurants, grocery stores, and online channels, has opened a new R&D facility called Farm X in Kearny, New Jersey. The facility is located next to its original R&D center and first commercial farm.

Farm X is expected to be one of the most sophisticated R&D facilities created to accelerate the commercialization of new products designed for Bowery Farming. The facility will help conduct more trials and support faster discovery of new crops, recipes, and improve the efficiency across the company's network of commercial farms. 

The facility will feature a sensory lab and the first-ever on-site breeding program for a vertical farming company. Traditional breeding programs take around 10 years to develop a product, whereas Bowery aims to develop new innovative products within a fraction of this time.

Farm X is expected to be integrated and deployed at scale across the company’s network. 

In addition, the company expects to expand its product line under its Farmer’s Selection category, which includes a line of flavorful greens curated by its research and development team. The company aims to launch a new greens product every four months. Through April 2021, Bowery Mustard Frills (hearty mustard greens) were made available and a new product has now been launched, Green Sorrel (bright, tart baby greens), available from May through August 2021.

Founded in 2014, Bowery Farming, is the largest US vertical farming company serving greens and herbs locally to around 800 grocery stores. The company uses its own proprietary software to control farm operations and create an optimal growing environment for crops.