reimagining the u.s. supply chain. my colleague, morgan radford has the story. reporter: he may not be your typical farmer. previous career was actually in the arts. reporter: robert mesa has fresh ideas. the 300 days of sunshine we get to optimize our production of the food. reporter: part of the younger generation of the first-time farmers. using high tech greenhouse technology to grow fresh local food and get it to urban areas. it sounds different and perhaps better for the environment than traditional farming. we are able to save water and grow year round. we are producing a cleaner crop. reporter: when the pandemic hit, he saw a new need. how did it affect you? we didn t know if the
decided to get his product out to the people who need it most. he may not be your typical farmer. my previous career was actually in arts. but he has fresh ideas. we re able to harness the 300 plus days of sunshine we get to be able to optimize our production of food. reporter: he s part of a growing generation of younger, first-time farmers. so what are you guys doing here? so these are broccoli greens. reporter: using technology to grow fresh, local food and get it into urban areas. reporter: it sounds like this is pretty different and perhaps a little better for the environment than traditional environment. so we re able to save water. we re able to build year-round. we are producing a cleaner crop. reporter: but when the pandemic hit and customers dried up, he discovered a new need. how did the pandemic affect your business or your work flow? we didn t know if the restaurants were going to re-open, so we lost about 60% of
my previous career was actually in arts. reporter: but roberto mesa has some fresh ideas. we re able to harness the 300 plus days of sunshine that we get to be able to optimize our production of food. reporter: he s part of a growing generation of younger first-time farmers reporter: what are you guys doing here? so these are broccoli greens. reporter: using high tech greenhouse technology to grow fresh, local food and get it into urban areas. it sounds like this is pretty different and perhaps a little better for the environment than traditional farming. so we re able to save water we re able to grow year-round and we are producing a cleaner crop. reporter: but when the pandemic hit and customers dried up, mesa discovered a new need how did the pandemic affect your business or your work flow? we didn t know if the restaurants were going to reopen, so we lost about 60% of our revenue in a week. and we needed to find ways of pivoting and ensure viability reporter