Ninety-eight percent of produce consumed by Toledoans comes from more than 1,800 miles away. Meanwhile, the city has an unemployment rate of  5.7 percent.

When Toledo resident Jim Bloom worked in vocational rehabilitation, assisting in job searches for those who needed it, he realized Toledo-grown produce was an area with huge potential for job growth.

Traditional farming — growing plants in soil and using sunlight for photosynthesis — had one big limitation in creating sustainable, profit-producing crops in Ohio: winter.

Of the states in the continental United States, Ohio receives among the least amount of sunlight in winter months, Bloom said, and even greenhouses are energy-inefficient.

“I discovered that the one huge growth area was food production, if it could be done right,” Bloom said. “For four years, I’ve been researching the best ways to do this and how to do this. What I wanted to be done in other cities was being done in the Netherlands, and I wanted to know what they’re doing in the Netherlands that we’re not doing here.”

After researching the technology used in Europe and the Middle East, Bloom found a way to modify the energy technology for use in the U.S. He started Sustainable Local Foods in 2012 and set up shop on Hill Avenue.

Mayor D. Michael Collins, who was recently introduced to the mission and technology of Sustainable Local Foods, said the company can offer hope and opportunity to the community.

“I’m a firm believer that this is a new venture for this area in the agricultural industry,” Collins said. “I see it as a potential business niche to complement all the other things that are going on here. The science and the technology provides the growth of produce 365 days a year. When you figure our position in the marketplace, I could very easily see us gravitating [toward becoming] a major supplier to this corridor of the United States. From a business niche standpoint, this is just the beginning. It’s another footprint in Northwest Ohio; it’s a huge opportunity for business growth.”

By adapting the technology used in other countries, Sustainable Local Foods aims to produce 150 jobs in the Toledo area in the next five years. Each half-acre of growing space requires 167 hours of work each week, which means Toledoans can buy locally and organically while supporting Toledo workers.

Sunless, soilless growth

With LED lights specifically designed to induce photosynthesis and narrow, white trays that hold the plants in a constant stream of water and nutrients, the indoor gardens of Sustainable Local Foods look incredibly futuristic.

The method of growing plants in a stream of nutrients, but without soil, is known as hydroponics. The water with nutrients flows through the trays, the plants soak up the nutrients and water, and the excess water flows to a barrel below. Not only are the gardens of Sustainable Local Foods energy-efficient, they are also efficient with other resources, said lead grower Bryan Ellis.

By using hydroponics, Ellis said, they can use less water and keep a consistent amount of nutrients flowing to the plants. Hydroponics uses an eighth of the water that would be used in a typical, soil-based garden.

“Each one of these trays has this cute little thing dripping nutrients, a very light flow of nutrients, through the system,” Ellis said. “It flows slightly downhill to a drain in the back, all the way down the 200 feet down this garden.”

The nutrients are split up into two barrels with a control system that allows the growers to decide how much nutrient-rich water the plants receive.

Each row of lettuce is planted a week apart. Heads of lettuce are spread out from the smallest to largest, growing larger and larger down the row.

The garden can produce 3,000 heads of lettuce a week, many of which go to local stores.

One of the major problems Bloom said he faced was adapting the energy systems used in the Netherlands. However, by using the energy-efficient LED lights, the plants can photosynthesize, even inside.

Lead grower Danny Taylor said the lights produce red, blue and white rays of light, all of which are in the spectrum of light the plants need to grow best.

“Those lights are LED; they’re very energy-efficient,” Ellis said. “They allow us to do this year-round, so we can grow lettuce in the middle of winter.

“We could grow these crops without any natural light at all,” Taylor said. “We’ll actually be doing that in the not-too-distant future because it’s such a heat-sensitive crop. If we could get ourselves into an insulated situation, provide all the plants’ needs with the LED lighting, then we could basically produce a perfect crop every time. Eliminate all the environmental factors that are different every day, the amount of sun and the amount of light.”

The crops at Sustainable Local Foods are all cold crops, which means they do best at cooler temperatures than other plants. Each garden has a temperature control system, used to ensure the gardens will not get too warm. Because the Toledo garden at 3901 Hill Ave. is in a greenhouse, not entirely shielded from light, the plants receive more nutrients during the hours when the sun is hottest.

Even inside, plants can develop biological problems and diseases, but Sustainable Local Foods grows organically and does not use any chemical pesticides on its plants.

“We use organic pesticides such as ladybugs,” Ellis said. “That is what we refer to as our IMP, which is integrated pest management. We rely on critters that eat other critters. So for every problem, there’s a solution that’s natural that doesn’t require us spraying.”

Their main type of lettuce is a natural hybrid product called buttercrunch lettuce, developed purposely for indoor growth. But it is not genetically modified, Taylor said, because genetically modified lettuce does not exist. In addition to the buttercrunch lettuce, they grow basil and romaine lettuce and will add tomatoes next month.

Sustainable Local Foods CEO Nicholas Bloom said the business plans on opening three more organic, indoor gardens as soon as the buildings are secured.

Sustainable jobs, incomes

The garden is set up in a greenhouse, but Jim Bloom said because greenhouses are not energy-efficient, they hope to have completely indoor gardens in the future. Each half-acre garden requires three full-time and three part-time workers.  Sustainable Local Foods is quickly expanding, and Ellis said the company aims to increase its growing space by a half acre every month.

“We’re a for-profit corporation,” Bloom said. “We want to be an efficient, affordable food producer, to grow in market share, to create more jobs in the city in areas that need revitalization. We want people to live in areas that they choose to live in. We’ll only place gardens in areas that have a bus line, so people who don’t have an opportunity for transportation can get to work, people who have been incarcerated, veterans with PTSD, and those in need of jobs.”

While applicants with a college education would not be excluded, a degree is not required, Taylor said.

“The fact is, even though this is reasonably high-tech, with time and effort and good training, people without a college education could actually run a system like this,” Taylor said.

Jim Bloom, Nicholas Bloom, Taylor, and Ellis all said the real mission of Sustainable Local Foods is not, in fact, food, but bringing jobs and hope to the community.

“We’re a for-profit company that acts like a nonprofit,” Ellis said. “So that’s what’s very unique about this. We hire individuals who might have barriers to employment and we start them out above living wage. So our starting pay is $11 an hour.”

The mission and motto of Sustainable Local Foods is to provide “food, opportunities and hope.”

“We also want to provide opportunities for people to own their own growing space,” Taylor said. “If people have the aptitude and the desire, we can actually help finance a place like this, and their family could run that place. We could sell the produce, and teach them how to run the place effectively. We’ll tell them, ‘If you can grow this, this and this for us, we’ll take it all and sell it.’”

If a family owned a garden like this, Taylor said, they could earn about $40,000 each year. By selling all the produce, the cost of technology is quickly recouped.

The produce grown in Toledo is mainly sold at the Toledo Farmers’ Market in Downtown and other area farmers markets. It is also used by many local restaurants, including Swig in Perrysburg, Ellis said.

“We try to keep our produce in Toledo,” Taylor said. “We’re selling some of what we grow in Detroit, but really, we don’t want to do that. We want to sell everything we grow in Toledo in Toledo, and basically we’ve got a Detroit market.”

“But we want our Detroit team to grow for Detroit,” Ellis said. “We want sustainable local food to be exactly that in every city that it’s in. We want it to supply its own community, help its own community, and hire from its own community. I like to think of it less as distribution of produce and more like distribution of opportunity.”

Training youth

Taylor, like Jim Bloom, was previously involved in a field with goals similar of Sustainable Local Foods. He worked in urban missions in Brisbane, Australia, and came to the United States to study hydroponics. He said he and his wife felt God was calling them back to the United States to serve.

“What I thought would take me five years to get set up took me no time at all,” Taylor said. “Jim [Bloom] had already been working on it for about that much time.”

In April, Alan Halterman joined the Sustainable Local Foods team as a grower. Halterman studied in the urban agriculture program at Owens Community College.

“They just ended the [urban agriculture] program,” Halterman said. “It’s very sad news. Everyone’s pretty disappointed with that. With all the new jobs coming up in the industry, we need more graduates, but the closest place you can go is Ohio State, Michigan or Hocking. That’s too far away for people who have a job.”

To train youth in agriculture, Sustainable Local Foods works heavily with the Lucas County Youth Treatment Center (YTC) and the Toledo juvenile courts. Ellis said many of the youth that work with them have either come through the YTC program, which works with adjudicated youth to help them re-enter society and the workforce, or are court appointed.

“Our response would be to create an educational program here connected with the work that we’re doing with the juvenile courts, etc.,” Taylor said. “You don’t need a degree to do this, but education is necessary. We have graduates like Alan, like Bryan. I have a certificate in aquaponics, but between the three of us, we should be able to pull something together.”

Halterman said Jose Soto and Derek Hawkins, who was one of the first employees, are two of the youth who have come through Sustainable Local Foods’ training and are now an indispensable part of the team.

“They’re actually brought up through the YTC program from Toledo GROWs,” Halterman said. “So they’re youth born and raised around here. They were kind of reintroduced to society through gardening. Jose and Derek are shining stars of that program. They’ve come out and now they’re leaders in the community and are leading other groups that they were once a part of.”

Hawkins shared his story of being a juvenile in the CITE program (Community Integration for Training and Employment), as he placed new plants in white nutrient trays. He began working with Toledo GROWs, an outreach program at the Toledo Botanical Garden, where he came into contact with Ellis and Soto. When Toledo GROWs started reducing their number of workers, Hawkins ended up at Sustainable Local Foods.

“Toledo GROWs opened my eyes to a lot of things and taught me a lot about agriculture,” Hawkins said. “I love this type of field, greenhouse, farming. I love the people that come around. I just love the feel, it has a homey feel to it.”

Madeenah Robinson, another young worker, was home-schooled and just graduated from high school. She began training through the Youth Empowerment Program at United North and began her work at Sustainable Local Foods less than a week later.

“It’s been a good experience,” Robinson said, as she planted seeds. “We plant and seed and harvest and you have to make sure that the water’s good. You have to clean up, but really that’s not my specialty. There’s a lot of things I like about it.”

While Robinson doesn’t plan on staying in agriculture permanently, she said she would enjoy doing something like it again.

Ellis said the thing young workers talk about most is how the plants always look different, and that they really take pride in the work that they do.

“There’s a lot of people I used to work with that now work here,” Hawkins said. “It’s really not a workplace; it’s a family.”

Taylor and Ellis called each other brothers as they shared their passion for Sustainable Local Foods.

“There’s a need for charity, but it’s not the answer,” Taylor said. “In the short term, we need people to have food, have jobs, but in the long term, we need to create opportunities for them to be empowered.”

Nineteen nongovernmental organizations have been granted “observer status” on an Office of Military Commissions list that defines the coterie of Americans who can travel to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and watch the upcoming military commissions hearings. The University of Toledo is on that list. And a 23-year-old UT law student is about to become one of the few Americans who will ever sit in the same room as a Guantanamo detainee. Evan Matheney will be a military commissions hearings observer at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from June 14-21.

Matheney said he believes he will attend the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), who was identified as “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks” by The 9/11 Commission Report.

“I was super excited when I first found out that I could go because it’s a big honor,” Matheney said. “I view it like going to the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. For the rest of my life I can say that I got to attend the historic 9/11 hearings.”

Matheney said he feels “personally intrigued” by the story of Daniel Pearl, an Israeli-American journalist who was captured by al-Qaida in Pakistan. During a 2007 military hearing, Mohammed stated that he had personally beheaded Pearl five years before.

“KSM is proud, not remorseful. Of all the people in Guantanamo, he deserves to be in there,” Matheney said. “It’s hard to grasp someone being responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.”

Matheney was nominated to be an “observer” at the hearings by his former UT professor, Ben Davis. Davis attended the American Bar Association’s annual meeting in August 2012 where he met U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, chief prosecutor for the Office of Military Commissions.

“I tried to be a straight shooter with him,” Davis said. “I’m just an ordinary citizen who has been looking at this situation and I felt like he should hear someone challenge him on a few things in a heartfelt way.”

Davis said he had “enormous respect” for Martins as a lawyer, but was concerned about the number of legal precedents being determined by allowing the Supreme Court to decide that only certain provisions of the U.S. Constitution apply in Guantanamo.

“I told Gen. Martins that this is a bulls*** process and I don’t want him to get played,” Davis said. “We don’t know where the U.S. Constitution applies, yet these lawyers are citing all these federal and state criminal cases to build their respective cases. Those were all decided within the context of the U.S. Constitution. So are these really precedents or just an informal, interesting thing?”

Following their discussion, Martins told Davis that he was “welcome to come to Gitmo and see the hearings for himself.” Two weeks later, Davis decided to accept Martins’ invitation.

Following Martins’ endorsement, the Office of Military Commissions promptly added UT to the exclusive list of organizations with “observer status” at the hearings. Davis, who could simply always nominate himself as UT’s representative to Guantanamo, has instead sent about 10 of his UT students for a week each.

“This is a learning experience for them,” Davis said. “The defense council and sometimes the prosecution will meet with observers and encourage them to ask any question they want. “That’s an incredible opportunity.”

Linda Amrou, a third-year law student, was the third person from UT to visit Guantanamo Bay via the nomination of Davis. She went for a week in October 2013.

“I’m a Muslim American woman who wears a headscarf, so going down there was particularly important not only for me but for all Muslim Americans,” Amrou said. “We are part of the fabric of this nation so what happened on 9/11 affected us just like it affected your neighbor.”

Amrou said she feels “really excited” for Matheney to discuss what he observes in Guantanamo with the prosecution, defense council and representatives from other nongovernmental organizations.

“Talking to them is single-handedly the best part of the trip,” Amrou said. “These people aren’t a second source of information — they deal with the detainees day in and day out. They told us very bluntly and openly about their experiences and that was extremely important and eye-opening for me.”

Like Davis, Amrou expressed concerns about the legal precedents that are being set every day in Guantanamo and their implications for the future of American law.

“No matter what your politics are, no one can truly understand what’s going on down there unless they’re able to witness it firsthand. We’re callous and removed,” Amrou said. “We know what’s happening on a pretty superficial basis, but because it’s not in our face day to day we don’t understand the impact on our justice system. When we’re there, we can’t deny it.”

Matheney said he and his fellow law students frequently discuss the implications for U.S. law should the 9/11 hearings “translate” into the American court system.

“The scariest thing about Guantanamo Bay is how they’re making up rules of a military tribunal as they go along,” Matheney said. “Lawyers are scared about what the precedents being set mean for all of us here at home.”

Davis said he remembers sitting in the observer box at a trial during his January 2013 trip to Guantanamo. The box’s monitor feed suddenly went blank. Forty seconds later it flashed back on. Sometimes the judge will press a button to delay the box’s monitor so that observers do not hear classified information. However, the judge had not pressed the monitor control button.

“That’s when I realized things are worse than I thought they were,” Davis said. “One of the intelligence agencies has a link to the monitor and they control the censorship on classified information, too. So the military judge really isn’t in charge of his own courtroom. That’s something to think about. Who are the actors off screen and what are their roles in these court proceedings?”

Davis said he remembers sympathizing with the reaction of the judge, who seemed “shocked and angry” that this intervention would happen in a U.S. courtroom.

Like all observers, Matheney will adhere to the daily instructions of a military handler regarding where he is allowed to go, who he is allowed to talk to and what he is allowed to photograph or discuss.

“I’m happy for him because this is such a positive and unique historical experience,” said Kendra Matheney, Evan’s mother. “It seems to encompass everything that he’s interested in — the legal system, human rights and politics. There is that nervous aspect when your kids travel anywhere but it sounds pretty safe to me because he’ll be on a U.S. naval base.”

Matheney said his classmates have told him that Guantanamo is “super Americanized,” complete with an ice cream parlor, shopping center, fast food and a gift shop where you can buy an ‘It doesn’t Gitmo better than this’ T-shirt.

“It’s been described to me as one of the most stark lines between heaven and hell,” Matheney said. “You can look one direction and see a tropical paradise with beautiful beaches and forests. But it’s a harsh dichotomy because 20 feet away is Camp X-Ray, where some of the worst human rights violators have walked.”

Matheney will pay for his transportation to and from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland where observers fly out together. However, the U.S. Department of Defense will pay for the rest of his trip, including flights. After returning to the United States, Matheney has the option to write a one-credit research paper about some aspect of his experience.

“I want to give it a fair shake,” Matheney said. “I want to give my country the benefit of the doubt. I want to believe we are good people at heart, that we have the world’s best interests at heart and that we are hopefully setting good precedents. “We’ll see.”