The visit highlighted how partnerships between public leaders, private innovators, and local communities are shaping a new era of food production in the Commonwealth. Lohr met with Babylon Micro-Farms CEO Marc Oshima and members of each department to see how the company’s technology is helping organizations, from schools and senior living communities to hospitals and corporate dining spaces, grow fresh produce directly on-site using 96% less water and zero pesticides.

In a lighthearted moment, Secretary Lohr and Oshima faced off in a friendly “harvest race” to see who could harvest a tray of lettuce the fastest. The friendly competition ended with a guided taste test led by Babylon Micro-Farms’ Director of Horticulture, Natalia Zappernick, who walked the group through flavor notes and textures of the freshly harvested greens. Together, they discussed how freshness and variety can transform taste, nutrition, and engagement with food grown on-site.

Virginia Secretary of Agriculture Matthew Lohr (left) joins Babylon Micro-Farms CEO Marc Oshima and the team for a guided taste test led by Director of Horticulture Natalia Zappernick

“This is really neat,” said Secretary Lohr during his visit. “It’s impressive to see how many varieties of plants can be grown in these systems, and how the technology allows users to create planting schedules tailored to their specific needs.”

Headquartered in Richmond, Babylon Micro-Farms has been honored for the Inc 5000, recognizing the fastest-growing private companies. With more than 375 farms across the U.S. and internationally, Babylon Micro-Farms makes farming turnkey and accessible through its proprietary Guided Growing™ app and BabylonIQ platform. Each farm is connected through Babylon Micro-Farms’ cloud-based platform, which remotely monitors and manages growth conditions to ensure consistent, high-quality yields year-round. The company’s farms have become living classrooms and wellness tools, integrating sustainability and nutrition into daily life. As Babylon Micro-Farms continues to expand its reach, the company remains rooted in its mission: to bring the farm to you, inspiring a greater connection to fresh, delicious food and how it is grown.

“This year’s World Food Day theme of collaboration captures our mission perfectly,” said Marc Oshima. “At Babylon Micro-Farms, we work hand in hand with chefs, educators, healthcare providers, and hospitality partners to make fresh, sustainable food accessible where people live, learn, and heal. We’re proud to represent Virginia reimagining around the world next-generation solutions to how and where food is grown.”

World Food Day, celebrated annually on October 16, commemorates the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The 2025 theme, “Hand in Hand for Better Foods and a Better Future,” emphasizes collaboration across sectors and generations to build resilient, inclusive, and sustainable food systems.

About Babylon Micro-Farms
Based in Richmond, Virginia, Babylon Micro-Farms has been leading the way since 2017 for on-site indoor farming and empowering communities to connect with their food and make healthier choices. Its patented hydroponic growing technology and proprietary BabylonIQ software platform can remotely manage its network of modular vertical farming systems to deliver consistently fresh, nutritious, and delicious produce all year-round. Recognized by Time as one of “America’s Top Green Tech Companies”, Babylon Micro-Farms is committed to growing sustainably with a fraction of the water and no pesticides vs. traditional field farming. Babylon Micro-Farms can be found worldwide at major partners like Arizona State University, Green Bronx Machine, Intuit Dome, JW Marriott, LinkedIn, Mayo Clinic, MSC Cruises, SAP, United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, University of Virginia, and World Bank.

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For Commonwealth Senior Living, mealtime is more than nutrition—it’s about community, creativity, and comfort. Across 35 communities in six states, the dining teams focus on scratch cooking, crafting everything in-house from fresh-baked breads to handcrafted desserts.

Their farm-to-table commitment is equally strong. In Virginia alone, Commonwealth partners with 47 farms to source up to 85% of produce locally in season, while initiatives like Today from the Bay deliver freshly caught fish from Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes fisheries within 24–48 hours.

To extend freshness year-round, Commonwealth introduced Babylon Micro-Farms’ hydroponic systems in 28 communities. Residents take part in the process—choosing seeds, naming rows, and harvesting leafy greens, herbs, and edible flowers. These engaging micro-farm programs have earned national recognition for innovation and resident involvement.

With regional menu flexibility, quarterly plate presentation contests, and farmers’ market collaborations, Commonwealth reimagines senior dining as restaurant-quality food infused with pride, tradition, and creativity.

Read the full article in FoodService Director

Interested in bringing fresh, hyper-local produce and engaging dining experiences to your community? Book a demo with our team today!

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At The Mather senior living communities, dining goes far beyond standard menus. Each location has the freedom to source and craft meals that reflect its residents and region—whether it’s tortillas from a Tucson tortilleria or poultry from the beloved Harrison’s in Illinois.

In Tysons, Virginia, residents even enjoy honey harvested from an onsite beehive and leafy greens grown in Babylon Micro-Farms’ hydroponic systems. These farms serve as both a showpiece and an interactive experience: residents can track plant growth through an app, watch harvests in real time, and participate in pop-up tastings that bring fresh, pesticide-free produce directly to the table.

By blending partnerships with local vendors and hyper-local food sources, Mather’s culinary teams deliver not just meals, but engaging, wellness-driven experiences for their residents.

Read the full article in FoodService Director

Ready to explore how Babylon Micro-Farms can bring hyper-local, fresh produce to your community? Book a demo with our team today

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The story highlights our journey from Richmond, Virginia, to more than 375 farms worldwide—including high-profile installations at the Mayo Clinic, the U.S. Olympic Training Center, Marriott Marquis Times Square, and LinkedIn offices. As Marc explained, the heart of our success lies in our turnkey model: pairing innovative hardware, software, and our Guided Growing App to deliver hyperlocal produce and an engaging customer experience.

What makes micro-farms so transformative is more than the greens they produce. From boosting leafy green consumption by 35% in senior living communities to sparking cultural food literacy in New York City schools, our farms are inspiring connection, education, and healthier eating. In corporate dining, they’ve become a new kind of gathering place—“the new water cooler”—where colleagues come together around fresh food and conversation.

We’re grateful to The Packer and Jennifer Strailey for spotlighting how Babylon is driving impact across education, healthcare, hospitality, and beyond.

Read the full article in The Packer

Interested in bringing a Babylon Micro-Farm to your organization? Contact our team to discover how on-site farming can enhance your space.

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RICHMOND, VA – August 12, 2025 – Inc., the leading media brand and playbook for entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future, today announced that Babylon Micro-Farms is No. 1009 on the annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America. The list provides a data-driven snapshot of the most successful companies within the economy’s most dynamic segment—its independent, entrepreneurial businesses. Past honorees include companies such as Microsoft, Meta, Chobani, Under Armour, Timberland, Oracle, and Patagonia. Babylon Micro-Farms also secured the No. 1 ranking among companies headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, placed No. 39 in the state, and ranked No. 95 nationally in the Business Products & Services category.

Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, Babylon Micro-Farms has grown from a local startup to a recognized leader in sustainable indoor farming, managing more than 375 farms across the U.S. and internationally through its proprietary Guided Growing™ platform. Dedicated to bringing the farm directly to people and inspiring a deeper connection to fresh, delicious food and how it’s grown, the company was named to the 2025 FoodTech 500 list of the world’s most innovative AgriFoodTech companies, expanded partnerships with leading institutions such as the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, Mayo Clinic, Sunrise Senior Living, and JW Marriott, and launched the STEM Garden to bring hands-on agricultural education to classrooms nationwide. These efforts have also earned recognition for aligning with WELL, LEED, and AASHE standards.

“We are incredibly honored to make the Inc 5000 of fastest growing privately-held companies as our solution for indoor on-site vertical farming has been expanding extensively across 4 key sectors – Healthcare, Corporate Dining, Education, and Hospitality,” says Marc Oshima, CEO, Babylon Micro-Farms. “We want to thank our amazing customers, partners, and incredible team who are all incredibly aligned to our mission of bringing the farm to you, inspiring a greater connection with fresh, delicious produce and how it is grown.”

This year’s Inc. 5000 honorees have demonstrated exceptional growth while navigating economic uncertainty, inflationary pressure, and a fluctuating labor market. Among the top 500 companies on the list, the median three-year revenue growth rate reached 1,552 percent, and those companies have collectively added more than 48,678 jobs to the U.S. economy over the past three years.

For the full list, company profiles, and a searchable database by industry and location, visit: www.inc.com/inc5000.

“Making the Inc. 5000 is always a remarkable achievement, but earning a spot this year speaks volumes about a company’s tenacity and clarity of vision,” says Mike Hofman, editor-in-chief of Inc. “These businesses have thrived amid rising costs, shifting global dynamics, and constant change. They didn’t just weather the storm—they grew through it, and their stories are a powerful reminder that the entrepreneurial spirit is the engine of the U.S. economy.”

Inc. will celebrate the honorees at the 2025 Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala, taking place October 22–24 in Phoenix, and the top 500 will be listed in the Fall issue of Inc. magazine.

About Babylon Micro-Farms
Based in Richmond, Virginia, for both its headquarters and manufacturing, Babylon Micro-Farms has been leading the way since 2017 for on-site indoor farming and empowering communities to connect with their food and make healthier choices. Its patented hydroponic growing technology and proprietary BabylonIQ software platform can remotely manage its network of modular vertical farming systems to deliver consistently fresh, nutritious, and delicious produce all year-round. Recognized by Time as one of “America’s Top Green Tech Companies”, Babylon Micro-Farms is committed to growing sustainably with a fraction of the water and no pesticides vs. traditional field farming. Babylon Micro-Farms can be found worldwide at major partners like American Airlines, Green Bronx Machine, Intuit Dome, JW Marriott, LinkedIn, Mayo Clinic, MSC Cruises, SAP, United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, University of Virginia, and World Bank.

For more information, visit: www.babylonmicrofarms.com

Methodology
Companies on the 2025 Inc. 5000 are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2021 to 2024. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2021. They must be U.S.-based, privately held, for-profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2024. (Since then, some on the list may have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2021 is $100,000; the minimum for 2024 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons.

About Inc.
Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.

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By Matt Kelly, mkelly@virginia.edu on December 10, 2024

It’s a farm inside a kitchen.

Carl Lasley harvested basil plants, using scissors to carefully snip the aromatic herb, trimming some and completely harvesting others. The lush, richly green plants were grown in hydroponic trays in a corner of the food serving area at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Lasley, food and beverage director at the Darden School for the FLIK Hospitality Group, which operates Darden Dining, harvested the basil from an idea that sprouted at the University and has now returned as a realized product.

While undergraduate students, Class of 2017 School of Engineering and Applied Science graduates Alexander Olesen and Graham Smith developed Babylon Micro-Farms, an indoor hydroponic growing system for greens and herbs. After graduating, they refined their business idea in the Darden School’s Batten Institute for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology’s summer incubator, before firmly establishing and growing their business in Richmond.

Now Darden has installed its own Babylon Micro-Farm.

Erected in a niche of the dining hall, the unit that stands just over 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide is a talking point of sustainability at the Darden School. Babylon field technicians Ramsey Coles and Jarmel Akine installed the unit in September, working with UVA Facilities Management personnel. The metal-and-glass micro-farm is clearly visible to Darden School students.

Babylon controls the hydroponic mini-farms remotely, with the nutrients, irrigation, water pH and other variables, as well as the mini-climate, all monitored and adjusted from a computer.

A Babylon Mini-Farm, developed by two UVA graduates, allows greens and herbs to be grown in the kitchen. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

“We like to say that all of the people running one of our farms are not farmers,” Olesen said. “We are helping people grow food who really don’t have the time or the bandwidth to take up farming and learn the know-how behind it. That’s the remote management piece.” “It’s a great representation of putting innovative ideas into action and being able to reward those students for that innovative thinking,” said Rebecca Duff, director of thought leadership for the Batten Institute. “It provides an opportunity for Darden to showcase to current students things that we’re trying to do to be more sustainable.”

Carl Lasley, left, places basil starts into the hydroponic trays in the Babylon Mini-Farm in a corner of the Abbott Dining Hall. The basil plants then grow in a carefully controlled hydroponic mixture. (Photos by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Initially, Lasley planted basil in several of the trays. Once they were established, he started parsley and oregano to fill out the array. “We are harvesting from around 40 plants,” Lasley said “We will incorporate this basil into a vinaigrette and a chicken salad to be sold in our salad bar.” Once the parsley and oregano are harvested, Lasley plans to plant microgreens to use for garnish on his catering and hot line. After that, the farm will lie dormant until after the winter break. Olesen said the company sells about 40 different crop varieties for its vertical farms, from salads to culinary herbs to microgreens or flowers, all with different yields and different uses. His company has about 260 active customers in Korea, Europe and North America. “A big part of our work now, actually, is something that we didn’t really see at the beginning,” Olesen said. “Growing the food is really half the battle. The other half is teaching people what to do with it. And there’s a real appetite for chefs and educators to grow their own food, and there are a lot of things you can do with that.”

A meal using the basil grown in mini-farm The harvested basil was used in a chicken salad sold in the Abbott Dining Hall salad bar. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Charlottesville native Lasley, who has operated several restaurants and has been with FLIK for two years, is not short on ideas. “Sustainability and wholesome cooking is 100% ingrained in the ethos of FLIK, which matches my personal sensibilities,” he said. “I grew up either directly working with farmers or working for properties that had livestock and farms directly on the property where we would literally harvest the beans, go in the kitchen and cook them and serve them that night – where they would never even see refrigeration.” Lasley, whose operation feeds between 300 and 400 people a day, may expand Babylon’s offerings in the future.

“We do have some events throughout the year that we might want some microgreens or specialty goods, and for that we can plan ahead,” Lasley said. “But until then, I think we’re going to be using the one unit that we’ve ordered for herbs for the majority of its lifespan.”

At the other end of the food cycle, the Darden School composts much of its food waste and partners with FLIK Hospitality Group to reduce waste.

The compost is sent to Black Bear Composting, which makes a cubic yard, or about 1,100 pounds, of the finished compost available to the Darden School each year for use in its gardens. The school is also committed to having 50% of the food it serves produced sustainably by 2030.

“This is a step in that direction,” Duff said.

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How the Mayo Clinic is bringing new meaning to ‘locally grown’

The Rochester, Minnesota-based healthcare campus has added a hydroponic mini-farm to one of its cafes, a program it plans to expand.

By Heather Lalley on Oct. 07, 2024

It’s nearly impossible to find produce that’s more “locally grown” than the lettuces, microgreens, herbs and more being cultivated at the Mayo Clinic’s Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center Café in Rochester, Minnesota.

The center launched a “hydroponic micro-farm” onsite earlier this year and has since harvested about 100 pounds of ultra-fresh vegetables for use in the café.

“It’s hard to say even if ‘locally grown’ is the right word for it,” said David Bredesen, Morrison Healthcare’s foodservice manager at Mayo. “It’s right on the other side of my wall right now.”

Not only is the on-site mini farm able to grow fresh, delicious food, it appears to be boosting traffic to the café, Bredesen said. 

The farm is located right behind the café’s entrée station, with its bright, eye-catching grow lights. Produce from the grow station is showing up on sandwiches, salads and bowls.

“Foot traffic’s been growing at a steady rate,” he said. “This really is a nice, bright addition to the café. It kind of brings a little bit of a conversational piece, too.”

The hydroponic operation (in which plants grow in a water-based nutrient solution, rather than soil) dovetails with the mission of the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center, which features a fitness center, pools, steam rooms and more. The café serves about 150 guests each day.

“We pride ourselves on offering some fresh and healthy-for-you offerings,” he said. “It just kind of fits what we do. It’s always fresh. We try to not bring in any frozen or pre-cooked product. We do a lot of our own production here.”

Unlike traditional gardens, the micro-farm benefits from some high-tech upgrades, making it fairly easy for Mayo’s “farmers” to tend to their crops. Seeds can be selected from a catalogue, with the packets scanned into an app. The app explains how long until each can be harvested, and it regulates how much water is needed to grow each variety, while monitoring the pH.

“It’s a very nice way of growing something where it’s not a lot of burden on the person doing it,” he said. “The farm will prompt me, ‘Hey, it’s time to do a deep clean.” So I go through the process, and the app will tell me what steps should be followed in what particular order.”

With hydroponic growing, safety and sanitation are particularly important, to avoid introducing any contaminants into the growing solution. The farm is connected to a water filter.

It’s likely Mayo will expand the micro-farms to other parts of its sprawling Rochester campus, as well as to other Mayo campuses around the country, said L.J. Gearhart, Morrison’s Robotics, Automation, & Innovation Integration manager.

“What we really wanted to see was the proof of concept,” Gearhart said. “And this is it. We’ve seen that return on investment. It’s not necessarily about the dollars and cents for us. It’s really the experience and the quality, and promoting local, and the ability to share that through culinary innovation.”

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