Farms that Contribute to Society
Introducing "Work-Happiness Farm"!
農園の概要・説明
In December 2020, Metal Technology Co. Ltd. started operating the "Social Farm Work-Happiness Farm Plus Tokyo Itabashi" with S-POOL PLUS Inc. for the purpose of creating more jobs for people with disabilities and supporting their reintegration into society.
The farm is managed by a team of four people, including a farm manager. In addition to expanding employment opportunities for people with disabilities, harvested vegetables are distributed to employees at MTC's facilities as part of the company's welfare program and are also donated to a local "children's dining" as part of its social contribution activities.
Farm Manager's Thoughts
“My job is to create ways to make sure everyone on the team has fun and to provide an environment that allows our people to continue to work as long as desired. For the people with disabilities, having employees and donation recipients say how delicious the food tastes, makes their work worthwhile."
We sometimes receive letters of appreciation and photos of dishes using the vegetables from the “Children's dining” and MTC employees to whom we actually distributed the harvested vegetables. This feedback helps us to keep the employees working at the farm motivated.
Cultivation
The main feature of this farm is that it is an indoor farm and the vegetables are grown hydroponically, without any soil.
Seeds are sown on a sponge containing water to germinate and after cotyledons have stabilized, they are transplanted to a seedling rack. After growing to a certain size, the seedlings are planted in a hydroponic cultivation facility called a "lot," where the water medium is circulated, and grown until harvest time. The plants are cultivated using artificial light (LEDs), which are illuminated only during the daytime and darkened at night in order to create an environment closer to that of outdoors and thus to approximate the natural plant growth cycle.
Vegetables
Harvested vegetables are distributed to employees at MTC's facilities as part of the company's welfare program and are also donated to local "children's dining" and "food banks" as part of our social activities.
Metal Technology Co. Ltd. will continue to operate this farm and make further contributions to society.
