Why Midrib Farms Exists.
We would be honored if you read our story
Midrib Farms started in 2021 with a simple question:
Why was vertical farming so expensive, complicated, and inaccessible when the promise of it was supposed to be better food, grown closer to people?
Our founder, David Martchek, was first introduced to vertical farming after visiting an indoor farm and seeing the technology firsthand. He expected to see a system that felt like the future of food: efficient, clean, thoughtful, and built around the needs of the plant.
Instead, what he saw raised a lot of questions.
The idea behind vertical farming made sense. Grow indoors. Control the environment. Reduce long-distance transportation. Produce cleaner, fresher crops year-round. Use less land. Bring food closer to the communities that eat it.
But the execution, at least in many systems at the time, felt backwards.
Many farms were built around heavy structures, high energy use, expensive materials, single-use substrates, complicated automation, and systems that seemed more focused on raising capital than lowering the real cost of food. The technology looked impressive, but the farms themselves were often difficult to operate, expensive to cool, and costly to scale.
David believed there was a better way.
To him, vertical farming should not be about creating the most complicated farm possible. It should not be about using robotics and technology just for the sake of saying you used them. It should not create a premium product that only a small group of people can afford.
It should be the practical middle ground between outdoor farming and greenhouse farming: cleaner than field-grown produce, more controlled than a greenhouse, more efficient in space, and still priced in a way that makes sense for everyday people.
That belief became the foundation of Midrib Farms.
For years, David self-funded the research and development behind the farm system used today. The goal was not to copy the vertical farming industry. The goal was to rethink the parts that were holding it back.
Midrib Farms is built around plant health, energy efficiency, reusable materials, and practical operation. Our system is designed to grow high-quality produce without relying on unnecessary complexity or wasteful inputs.
We do not use pesticides. We do not use foliar applications on our crops. Our plants are grown in a controlled environment using water, essential nutrients, and careful environmental management. We focus on mechanical and preventative methods to keep the growing environment clean and healthy.
We also reuse more than 90% of our substrate each run. Most farms use growing media once and throw it away. We believe that model creates unnecessary waste and cost. Our substrate is lightweight, affordable, cleaned, prepped, and reused again.
That matters because food should not just be grown well. It should be grown responsibly.
Midrib Farms was created to prove that indoor farming can be different. It can be cleaner without being wasteful. It can be advanced without being overcomplicated. It can produce a better crop without using that quality as an excuse to overcharge people.
We know indoor farming will not always be cheaper than outdoor farming. Outdoor agriculture has natural advantages that are nearly impossible to beat. But we believe a well-designed indoor farm can compete with premium greenhouse produce while offering better consistency, cleaner growing conditions, and stronger control over quality.
Our mission is simple:
Grow better produce in a smarter way, keep it accessible, and build a farm that puts the plant — and the people eating it — first.
Midrib Farms is not here to follow the old version of vertical farming.
We are here to build the version we believe should have existed from the beginning.