 We are coming to you live from my home office in Makiki and from the downtown Honolulu Studios of ThinkTek Hava'i. ThinkTek Hava'i features the personalities of about 45 different and very colorful show hosts. Today we will be talking story with a dear friend of Hava'i who has a passionate heart about growing everywhere. And I mean everywhere on earth with the tower gardens. And I should add that the sky is the limit. My friend is Tim Plank. He is the developer of the tower gardens and is the chief technical officer for the Tower Garden Division of the Juice Plus Company. What I would like you to take away from today's discussion is that the tower gardens makes so much sense. If you don't own one yet, why not? So after today you might consider that you may need one and Tim will help you find one. So at this time I'd like to welcome you, Tim Plank. Aloha and welcome to our call. Aloha Hawai'i. Wendy, thank you. So excited to be here. We're excited that you're back on. I know you have such a great passion for the people of Hawai'i as well as the world as you grow us all healthier. So let's get started. In 2012 I was so blessed to bring the first tower garden to our beautiful state of Hawai'i which is also known as one of the most isolated places to live. In 2014 I invited you to share your heart with Hawai'i as you are the developer of the best and simplest form of farming. Hawai'i Senator Mike Gabbard being a vegan was so grateful that the developer of the tower gardens was coming to Hawai'i that he presented you with the state of Hawai'i proclamation of honor. Wow, for your accomplishments, Tim, towards providing a solution to an agriculture concern. How did it feel to accept that proclamation of honor from our senator? Well you guys surprised me so it was a real honor, you know, being able to accept someone's going to surprise you and you know really love the work that he does and the agricultural consciousness there for the state of Hawai'i and so his passion of being able to, you know, Hawai'i's understanding that they have to be food sovereign and have some greater food independence is going to require technology in a different way of doing things so that was just a real joy to be able to accept that on behalf of our company and since then we have blossomed urban agriculture all over the island to really help people get in control of their food supply. Yes and that's so so important you know as Hawai'i woke up and the tower garden craze was on and now everyone wanted a better quality of nutritional intake for their families we felt the need to invite you back once again and I know it wasn't difficult I had to twist your arm only halfway and you said okay I'll be there but you told me when I asked you you said maybe in January and we were in 2017 so I thought 2018 you would be free and you said no 2019 January when I'm like oh my gosh we have to wait that long so in 2019 we kicked off your visit with two events one was a VIP invited guests only and we had about 70 plus VIPs that were so very interested in what you have developed and how could we implement all that here in Hawaii and your second talk was entitled inspiring food sovereignty in Hawaii I know that the energy behind that talk is because of your awareness of Hawaii's isolation as everyone knows that once the ship stopped coming to our ports that we will be without supplies within two days so I so appreciate your tower gardens so how do you feel how do you feel about Hawaii's response to your presentations when you were here too oh it was like you know really the it was like coming home to family and just a really beautiful experience and the desire that people have to be able to transition knowing that we have to do it at you know less pesticides less water we have to grow more food in less space how do we do it so there's such a hunger and interest Wendy like I've really never seen anywhere I've traveled on earth I'm grateful that you recognize that because yes the people are hungry hungry for change and better and better quality so you've waken us up and you know every time I talk about the tower garden and I can feel your passion it jumps into me and I share that with everyone and I always say gosh does Tim do they understand what they developed here it's not just a growing vehicle but you did what what you have in the tower garden is love is aloha is future is the generations it's intergenerational it's everything encompassed into this thing we call the tower garden and you understand why I love it so much and okay so a few nine years ago I was introduced to it for those of you who don't really know what the tower gardens are Tim could you just give us a few highlights about what the tower garden is sure sure so the the tower garden is a just think of it as a vertical condominium for plants so either in a 24 or 30 inch footprint we can grow up to 32 plants when the indoors or outdoors anyone's balcony and doesn't require dirt so we're using up to 90% less water and 90% less land and you don't have to do all the bending weeding tilling you literally mix in a a dab of your mineral a and a dab of your mineral b with your just regular water from your faucet and it's really the iPhone of growing within just a week or two things just start blowing up and you're already harvesting you know most people prepare months of work into their garden and with a tower garden it's literally turning over in seven to 14 days from a transplant and so that's really rewarding because you know back when I used to work for Disney at the the famous hydroponic greenhouses the landed Epcot Center we taught all about farming all over the world and one of the things that I saw over my 12 years of experience there was that the future of food was just like what we're doing for people we have to grow up not out because they're not making any more land in fact recently I've heard we're losing land as the oceans are slowly creeping up so that's really my passion it was really about how you know every family when Jessica Blank and I started this company was that every family from coast to coast and around the world would have access to clean fresh healthy food right in the comfort of their own backyard because technology makes it really simple wow and you've nailed it both you and Jessica your passion behind the tower garden is it's just infectious I love hanging out with you guys it just reinforces my my heart about it and without a doubt you've nailed it all it's you know you've nailed it especially like for Hawaii um agriculture or land um real estate is very expensive and hard to come by if it's not accessible so for us it's ideal um the water situation everything and I'm sure every location has the same desires that we do in finding a solution and you've nailed it so mahalo to you Tim and Jessica we just love you for all of that so you know a lot of our friends have tower gardens and so many of our tower garden customers want a second tower so that they could grow in their kitchens you know they just make it so much easier I know that you solved that request as well so please tell us more about the different tower gardens in your tower garden home yeah absolutely so really we have two simple solutions for growing food at home you know outdoors on your patio and we call that tower garden flex it's 30 inches you grow your plants up vertically and they can be shorter than what you see in the picture they're think of it as a modular uh lego condominium for plants and so they're the tower garden flex on your left kind of shows you know squash at the bottom of the bigger plants and on the right we have our tower garden home which is brand new growing we'll talk about that more in a little bit but really all you need is a a spawn your yard windy that gets good sunlight and again the plants plug in and you're good to go in fact for people who are really lazy and don't even want to start their own seeds there's a company in Hawaii in Hawaii called towered up Hawaii they sell little seedlings they ship seedlings all over the white island so you can go online pick what seeds you want put them in the tower garden you're literally off and running in a matter of a day is harvesting so wow that makes it so easy and so neat so you taught us how to get seedlings so how does a viewer watching our show how do they buy a tower garden tim yeah so just you know you can check out our company at towergarden.com learn all about you know what we do we do everything from urban farming which we can talk about a little bit think towards the end and and all about a growing food at home in the comfort of your own kitchen you're going to see some beautiful slides coming up to show how we do that but yeah check us out at towertowergarden.com and you've got all kinds of pictures and videos and it's a really fun website to navigate and just see what growing food indoors or outdoors is all about wow you make it so easy i'm excited and one of the things we've done too wendy is like if you think about you go to the we've set up a payment system and we we did this eight years ago where people could you know just do a simple monthly payment for 12 months so a lot of and then like you know i kind of think about it as you know once growing food is like printing money so once you own that tower garden it's the gift it's a it's a it's a product that's built for life so it's kind of like once you own it and that's the idea of also being green and sustainable is that wow one of our our tower garden pots for example you know baby greens here and a regular one here that's a large spacing and small spacing but these are like you know this is these are made out of some type of plastic and they're designed to you know fall and drop and really like you know you know last decades of use so that's that's what being green and part is all about it seems like so many things you buy today are disposable so it's it's a heck of an investment well you built it to last and that's important so people really get true value and they continue to grow it's like it's like the gift that keeps giving right so that's that's beautiful you know and now I have a slide with your daughter and you and you are with your tower gardens and you're with your blender um this is amazing so your daughters have grown up around the tower garden so does that mean that if they grow it they'll eat it yeah really you know you know why we shared that picture as we know it's it's actually proven scientifically that children that grow their own fruits and vegetables eat more fruits and vegetables and what we have found is that children that you know a lot of kids don't like being on the bugs and the sweat and the dirt and and and having to weed it's not fun and it's and it's months to get a reward in some cases and so the tower like I said just the iphone of gardening kids fall in love with it and they plant a seed and they and they really love eating food and the food that comes from the tower garden we control exactly what goes in so it's high nutritious in high nutrition excuse me and high nutritious food out not covered in pesticide chemicals zero pesticide chemicals so when you taste the food it just tastes extraordinary as we all know that grow in fact I I travel all over the world I could eat at the nicest restaurant in France and I come back to the US and it's midnight and you can ask Jessica she was here the first thing I do is make a salad off my tower garden it's usually at midnight when I get back to those international flights because nothing tastes like the food you grow at home on the tower garden it's just full of I remember when you said something I just know why you said when you pulled off the tower and you pop it in the mouth in your mouth the plant doesn't even know it's dead yet and that's so true wow that's exciting yeah and so one of the things I shown that picture too for the people who you know so many of us a lot of times it's a New Year's resolution we we don't necessarily like our weight or physical fitness and we make those commitments I'm gonna one of the things I love about the salad or the tower garden is sometimes we teach people you know just if you want to start start simple grow yourself a salad every day for dinner for family four off a one tower or so many people day windy dude juicing and smoothing so on that slide I was showing those tower to table intense footsteps you walk out your blender you cut it you throw it in and I get my kids to do one of those smoothies every morning and it's wonderful because my youngest daughter does not like in fact the only fruit or vegetable she'll use watermelon but if I lend all those veggies in with organic mango and some things and sweeten up with ice it's almost like eating green ice cream and they love that and that's really important it really is because I think you know what we put into our body every single thing we put into our body our body has to it takes the nutrition from it and if there's chemicals on it your body works really hard your liver especially to detoxify chemicals from standard agriculture so when we eliminate chemicals and we have something highly nutritious it radically changes the way we feel in our health and so that's a big deal for me on this mission is you know just really getting people healthy is is a is a big deal and when you grow it at home you're going to eat it every time and you know it's always ready in fact I have three towers that I'm not keeping up with right now well you nailed it absolutely with our cakey you get them to grow it they'll eat it you know and uh I work a lot with special needs kids as well and they're on wheelchairs some of them are autistic and you know they don't normally eat fresh greens they just want jello they just want a peanut butter jelly sandwich but when they grow it and I've seen it happen when I go there they want to feed Auntie Wendy a meal they pick it they serve me and then when I'm eating my meal I turn around and like OMG they're eating it too yeah I mean so I know it's proven I know that for a fact and I'm never going to stop promoting what you and Jessica have created you created so uh you've created a healthier future is what I absolutely thank you yeah I'm so mahalo to you so let's talk a little bit more about the the little little guy we call it the home tower garden and let's talk a little bit more about that I'm excited about that yeah sir so we just talked about tower and flex that's what mainly we use for outdoor growing Wendy and so tower garden home we learned over the years that you know just do you know people want to replace a chair or an end table and just 30 inches was a little bit too big 18 to 24 inches was that magic sweet spot so tower garden home you know it's literally 24 inches you can roll through an interior door uses a standard outlet and you know uh water from your water faucet but uh all you do is just replace a table and end chair tuck in the corner and we have 32 plant sites 32 plant sites 16 little baby greens up at the top and 16 large and um what I really love about that is that it you know so many people in Hawaii don't have a yard you're in a high rise or you're in a part of the island where there's a lot of bugs and weeds and maybe gardening outdoors is more challenging so honestly we just love tower garden home Jessica and I have three of them in our mud room and you know literally they that's right next to the kitchen and you know it's just always I don't have to walk outside and what we what we do find for us personally is that that a lot of times if it's right where you walk past every day you'll literally just grab leaves off of it and you know three there there's another baby kale which by the way if you're new to growing food you'll be blown away by how amazing baby kale off the tower garden tastes like that macadamia hawaiian chocolate okay no wonder i'm addicted to it yes it's incredible it's incredible and you know uh I have an admission a confession to me you know I've never I never bought kale a day in my life okay because I only started eating kale because I grow it yeah so I've been growing it for the last almost nine years and I have that's my breakfast every day for the last nine years I'm a creature of habit I wake up I say come on dog I'm not as my dog my grand dog so let's go to the tower garden and she runs to the screen door and she knows we're going to go harvest the kale and that has been my breakfast so I have never in a a day in my life I have never bought kale that's amazing yeah so that's my testimony and I'll never buy it because I'm good I grow the best the absolute and then I think to that point Wendy is like our whole mission is being able to grow food anywhere whether you're whether it's our research was down in the Antarctic right that are doing hydroponics or something on a in a high rise and in Honolulu it's like the excuse that I don't have a yard anymore doesn't work we can actually grow a plethora of food and it's and also what we find too is it creates a living presence in your home especially during COVID that can probably keep you from wanting to jump off that balcony yeah I want to stay up here with my base on my kale are you kidding me all right so you know a lot of my friends are looking for a tower gardens and so you nailed it with the the the home and putting it near to the kitchen but um we have a slide of another kitchen it's a bit larger and that models the tower garden in there they use it in their curriculum and so I want you to share with us some of the schools here in Hawaii have been using it in their gardens or your weekends so can you share with us other schools and universities that you know of that are utilizing the power of the tower garden within thank you oh my gosh you know it would it would take a whole another thing to go through those you know everything from UCLA to the green the green Bronx school and New York managed by Stephen Ritz and uh uh a Ryan Elementary in Phoenix uh Mama Kim Barker down there has literally towers and all the every board it's part of their tower garden helped them become an A-rated school it's part of their STEM programming it's part of their it's utilized it's utilized in the room for their disabled kid they're literally have students that um you know can only talk by you know moving their chin and communicate through that language and they have a little robot that dumps the fertilizer in and so what they have done at that school is absolutely phenomenal so I think now we have more than 10,000 tower gardens across the country and now we think with all in schools by the way so all these kids that are now homeschooling and growing from home we do we have literally so many families bringing in tower garden inside their home because kids are really bored it can be challenging working with their parents when they happen before and so they brought you know they brought the the tower allows them to bring the science lab into the home the same time grow healthy food and a lot of people go on a budget right now because of their job situation so um it's you know growing foods a big deal so wow that's amazing I mean I'm so excited that the schools decide that they want to be a part of it and so anytime they do I make a commitment that I'll come and watch them I like to let them watch the video and I let the students set it up themselves but the best part here in Hawaii um the Hawaiian kids you know they sing a song it's a mahalo a thank you song and they get together and they harmonize this most beautiful mahalo song and so I mean I'm getting it's a reward after a reward just seeing them loving growing on the tower and then they get together and they sing me this song I mean I'll do it just for that it's from their heart I just really truly love it so since your last visit to Hawaii we secured a grant and we started a tar garden farm and it's a farm yeah and we're still working out the growing pains and we have a production and we are marketing it through their organization so we can income generate for the transition or homes homeless people I should say and the monies go back into their programs so they can do more and you know more things with the facilities that they have well that's congratulations that's been your dream for for several many years Wendy some so I haven't seen that picture the beautiful yes and then you know um my partner Derek uh he's with tower it up and he's doing such an incredible job and and his seedling farms that he's providing the seedings for the farms as well as for many of the tar garden groves you know Hawaii so I you need to come back to Hawaii that's what I'm going to say you need to come back to Hawaii so you can critique and guide us and advise us so we can be you know even more productive and we welcome you back at any time if it means we're going to pop up more farms every time you come we're better bring you back because we surely surely need you well looking forward to Wendy I know and then another another success story is um this is young kid he's like 19 years old he never walked a day in his life he was on he's on a wheelchair his name is Jax and so he was complaining with COVID mom I can't find a job I can't find a job so we went into a hurry and they all decided that they would take their stimulus Jax and they made a tower garden farm so they what they needed was they just needed to make the ground um cement the ground and they had organized 20 towers and they have a little tower garden farm on there in their front yard where they're providing the neighbors with the best quality of produce and more and more people are learning about Jax on his wheelchair as he's providing food for the neighbors is that amazing Tim that's awesome that's so good I mean that's one of the things that's one of the few gardens on earth that also gives a lot of our disabled the opportunity to work on it and so um that's just beautiful to see thank you yes thank you and you know every time I I see an opportunity and there's opportunity everywhere we look Tim that wow you guys should be growing on a tower farm you should be growing on it no matter disabilities or economic disability or you know it doesn't matter if there is a will there is a way and you've provided that for all of us especially here on the islands Tim where as I kept mentioning real estate is very expensive so a lot of businesses can't afford even more space but it doesn't take a whole lot of space to be productive well yeah it's interesting you mentioned that because you know when I fly into why or I fly flew to Los Angeles recently and you look over and you see all that rooftop space where people see empty space I use I see unused farmland I think that's what we're gonna talk about next right yeah similar similar but I mean since when I got mine and I'm in a condo and I overlook everything that building right next door to me I you know I see cha-ching cha-ching cha-ching I don't see an empty rooftop but I need to find others that see the same vision so that we can partner off and we can make more of this happen and by you coming to Hawaii and your heart around all of us versus look at that crazy Wendy you know but it's backed up by science and knowledge which you bring and credibility from you and the company that you represent so we're so grateful every time that you are coming to Hawaii that you can promote that because we so needed Tim thank you so that next slide you have coming up there you know to to that point is that some of the things we all deal with we struggle with all with homelessness and in cities all over the country I know this is a big topic in the state of Hawaii as well and so one of the opportunities we've seen of work with the homeless I think that slide coming up is with it's the birthday boy yesterday was his birthday 824 yeah there he is so you know Coby and the Gettie family and the the Clinton Gold initiative had a vision in LA that not only to give people place to live but to teach them a vocation and give them healthy food a lot of times in shelters learning process packaged and preserved food which doesn't support a healthy brain it feeds a belly but it doesn't support a healthy brain fresh fruits and vegetables do and so they saw that vision and something all of us worked on together and created the world's first certified lead plant and building with that beautiful food farm if you could pull that slide back up that it was just beautiful imagine you know we're in Los Angeles and the streets are all busy and noisy and crowded and you come three stories up above where all these previous homeless people would live and they can work and learn a vocation and spend time on that beautiful farm there so that's the other side of our company that Wendy the excuse me the tower farms division and this is where we take similar technology that you're using out there in the residential market and we literally you know are setting up rooftop farms and an unused parking lot space for homeless shelters and again we're doing all this using you know 90 far less land far less water no harmful chemicals and changing our carbon footprint I mean I tell people you know if you when you live in Hawaii or where I'm at a lot of the time or land or Florida food might have traveled thousands of miles and lost up to 50 of the nutrition will leave just a massive carbon footprint on planet earth I think for all of you out there tonight today if there's one thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint by recycling your garbage is not creating more garbage one of those things is growing food at home every time you harvest ahead of lettuce you know you've eliminated transportation miles of plastic wrap or the cardboard box the diesel to harvest at the diesel to grow at the diesel to ship it the the energy it took to chill it starting up your car to go to the store you'll eliminate all that every single time you harvest ahead of lettuce or kale or tomato or cucumber off your tower and so I just love the opportunity that we have a chance to help planet earth by embracing this technology wow wow I mean everything that this tar garden stands for or is I mean that's what I've been groomed with and for you know that the center the Kobe Bryant foundation center where they take care of the people off the street that's my passion for the last 15 years that's my field is I take care of the people in need and you know we're very grateful for all the donations that they give to the shelters and not complaining at all but sometimes because it's the second hand and discarded so sometimes it's not the best quality but what you've provided what the Tar Gardens have provided is that everybody has equal opportunity to the best the best the best and that's so important where everyone's created equal and served equal and deserves equal and so Tim we just mahalo you because I have you on my on this show with us right now and the people of Hawaii and the people of the world mahalo you for what you've put together you and Jessica have not just created a tower it's a tower of love it's tower it's it's our future tower and so we so appreciate you and we just wanted to say that so thank you for spending your time with us today and sharing your heart and I know this is just the beginning for Hawaii for the world and so come on guys if you don't got one yet give tower on towergarden.com a call or just inquire and they'll give you information about it and then you too can be growing healthy and and for your keiki and for your kupuna get them involved that's so important yeah I love all you know the the for all my friends I know why you are family uh Jessica I love you our company our tower everyone you know we were just talking with our leadership at tower guard today and they all said to say hello and really just we wanted to leave you with this image of you know this is when we think about the world we're going to leave for our children I love this image because it demonstrates there is a different way there is a solution and every human being around the world and across the globe should have access to clean healthy food right at home or right there within their own community and so we are creating the future. Aloha wow that's so amazing I'm like crying up over here so mahalo Jessica mahalo Tim for your time and your passion and your loha for the people of the world. Yeah mahalo. Thank you we love you guys.