Conventional organic quality is a thing of the past – today it's hyperlocal organic-plus quality.

With urbanhive's smart indoor gardens, you achieve a new level of organic quality. Traditional organic quality with added nutrients, taste, sustainability, and transparency.

On this page, you'll learn why we offer a plus in organic quality – and yet cannot be certified as organic quality.

1. Healthier

By growing directly at home, transportation is eliminated, making our plants fresher, more nutrient-rich, and healthier. You harvest and eat at the same time, preserving vitamins and antioxidants and maximizing freshness and nutritional content. Thanks to the optimal and protected growing conditions in the hydroponic system in your home, you always receive healthy plants that grow without the use of soil.

For comparison: The average transport distance from cultivation to supermarket for lettuce and similar products is between 200 and 450 km (Source: ifeu (2013)). In addition, dangerous bacteria quickly develop in products from the supermarket (Sources: Verbraucherzentrale NRW (2020); Nagel (2020)).

2. Tasteful

When hand-selecting our seeds, we prioritize organic seeds that ensure a full-bodied flavor and are very easily digestible. We focus on the best seed quality and regional sourcing.

For comparison: The storage of fresh plant products increasingly leads to anaerobic metabolic processes, which promote the development of off-flavors (Source: Gruber (2014)).

3. Sustainable

Less water consumption and fewer transport routes reduce the CO₂ footprint and make a significant contribution to environmental protection - an advantage that traditional organic products do not offer. Our smart indoor gardens rely on resource-saving cultivation methods: the hydroponic process consumes between 90 and 95% less water.

For reference: In agriculture, 237 liters of water are consumed per kg of lettuce (Sources: Mekonnen and Hoekstra (2011); Federal Statistical Office (2020)).

4. Transparent

You know exactly how and where your food grows. Without intermediaries or uncertainties that can arise in traditional organic supply chains, you have complete control and confidence in the quality.

Why no organic certification?

Although we offer even more benefits than classic organic quality, we cannot officially certify ourselves as organic because we grow hydroponically and soil cultivation is a criterion for organic certification. Our urbanhive experience and smart indoor gardens set new standards and go beyond the well-known "organic quality" as they are healthier, more sustainable, and more flavorful. Furthermore, you enjoy full transparency.

More than organic

We stand for Bio-Plus quality.

Michael, Jonas and Sven
(Founders of urbanhive)