Peter Barber is a Rich Lister who made his money in video production but is now focused on his moonshot project – farming on top of buildings in one of Asia’s busiest cities. ausbiz
These days Barber’s video adventures are on YouTube, where his dad’s Simple Meals channel doubles as a promotional vehicle for ComCrop’s leafy green vegetables and herbs. The produce is grown at a farm that’s five floors up in an industrial building in Woodlands, close to the causeway that links Singapore with Malaysia.
So the family moved back. Barber decided he no longer wanted an operational role in Blackmagic and by the end of 2016, he’d moved on. The following year, ComCrop came to Barber’s attention. The spouse of a former employee was involved in the community organisation, which was struggling to evolve. Barber is now the largest shareholder.ComCrop harvests 20 tonnes of pesticide-free produce a month, including varieties of lettuce, basil and mint, which is sold in supermarkets and online in Singapore.
Barber has found that although the nature of the problems differs, lessons learnt at Blackmagic and his other gigs – including making music videos – are still relevant. “All the disciplines we learnt through building product or even doing workflows to create videos still hold. You must have a system, you must have a methodology, you must be consistent and quality is the key.”
At ComCrop, Barber is again focused on quality and consistency – and finding ways to reduce input costs. To this end, ComCrop established a hybrid model using a greenhouse to grow plants outside – high up but in natural light. “It would be much easier to build a conventional indoor farm where you string up the lights, build the shelves and don’t have to worry about pests. But the electricity bills for light and temperature control will kill you.
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