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Siemens has unveiled plans to collaborate with indoor vertical farming company, 80 Acres Farms. 80 Acres Farms currently holds five production farms in southwestern Ohio, a new farm in Florence, Kentucky and R&D facilities in Arkansas and the Netherlands. The two companies have partnered with the goal of applying innovative technology within the agriculture industry by “fostering sustainable, healthy, traceable, and more productive farming practices”. Siemens US president and CEO, Barbara Humpton, said: "We sometimes hear that food is medicine. Vertical farming is an opportunity to turn this concept into a reality, and 80 Acres Farms' use of technology is now modelling the path forward for this transformative approach to food production." She continued: "In this moment of change and disruption – and in a world becoming increasingly 'glocal' – what I see at 80 Acres Farms represents both the purpose and the power of the industrial technologies now readily available to us – the capability to invent anywhere, then to scale our world-changing solutions everywhere." Siemens' full-scale collaboration involves the optimisation, automation and control of 80 Acres' facilities and processes. Working with the company's technology subsidiary, Infinite Acres, Siemens will support the industrialisation and scaling of its Loop platform – a solutions programme for crop management software and algorithms, environmental controls, robotics, and automation. Tisha Livingston, co-founder of 80 Acres Farms and CEO of Infinite Acres, commented: "Infinite Acres has built the Loop platform through collaboration with best-in-class technology partners such as Priva, Ocado, and Signify. Our new partnership with Siemens takes our collaboration and technology platform to a new level through the 360° approach across software and connected hardware solutions — from digital twins to advanced controls.” Siemens’ ‘Smart Infrastructure’ is said to be providing power distribution equipment and monitoring fire and life safety, security and power distribution systems all from a single interface. Siemens plans to install a “suite of advanced industrial automation technologies and edge devices to help automate the production line, while edge devices and human-machine interfaces monitor and update the farms' control systems”. Siemens says it is currently developing a “digital twin” that simulates the farm, plant growth and the production process to predict plant growth under diverse conditions..