Why the Future of Farming is in Cities - The Big Money in Vertical Farming

across the world the future of farming is being brought into cities you have Kimble musk brother of Elon Musk and co-founder of square roots that has a shipping container farm in Brooklyn and under the streets of London there is a shelter that has been converted into an underground farm there are tiny farms under Michelin star restaurants in New York City and a Tokyo office building which has its own rice paddy field in the lobby this is a look at why there is big money being invested into bringing the future of farming in two cities

Farming is in Cities

with sunlite open fields and fresh air why would you want to bring farms into cities it is being done to create a more sustainable future right now there are seven point seven billion people on the planet by the year 2050 this number is set to rise to nine billion and at the same time climate change could lower crop production by 25% other big reasons for farming being moved into cities include there is just not enough fertile farmland that can be used to feed everyone this is why you see rain forests and jungles being cleared and fertile land is also being lost to climate change another reason is that it is much more efficient to grow leafy vegetables in vertical farms you can grow a lot more with less space and less resources than a traditional farm the UN estimates that twenty to 40 percent of crops that are grown are destroyed by pests so growing in a closed environment without soil means no pests and no pesticides are needed this also means that you get healthier and more nutritious food and you don't lose nutritious value when the food is being transported since you can now get your vegetables from farm to table in hours also reducing the need for energy.

shipping

the first city farming company that we will look at is called arrow farms they are a vertical farming company that have a number of farms in New Jersey and they'll be taking to the skies soon as they supply Singapore Airlines with their new farm to plane concept arrow farms have been built in former warehouses paintball centers nightclubs and steel mills the money coming in to fuel this growth has come from the likes of inka group which is the parent company of IKEA giving arrow farms a valuation of 500 million dollars allowing them to bring in an estimated 50 million dollars in revenue annually like other vertical farms arrow farms is able to grow crops a lot faster and more efficiently than traditional farms arrow farms is able to go from seed to harvest in 15 days that's half the time it takes a traditional field based farm which takes 30 to 45 days and because of the closed environment and the vertical stacking of Farming is in Cities the farms they can grow more than 390 times more crops per square foot than traditional farms this is all achieved by using aeroponics when you mist water nutrients and oxygen onto the roots versus hydroponics where the roots hang down into the water misting the roots allows for more efficient oxygenation and the plants use 95 percent less water than traditional farms and 40 percent less than hydroponics the leafy greens that arrow farms grow such as kale and baby watercress are grown with the help of artificial intelligence and constant monitoring of data points by plant scientists who work at the farm all of the technology that goes into a vertical city farm is what makes them so efficient and the use of this technology is made possible because vertical farms have closed environments meaning you can control every aspect of the climate inside the farm from the temperature humidity lighting and nutrients .

 

Another

reason you can grow more crops in a vertical farm is because you need much less time in between harvesting to prepare the next set of crops on a normal farm you need tractors to recolor Veit the land wait for it to dry fertilize it and then reap and which could take a week in a vertical farm you can harvest the crops and you're ready to plant again and computers are used to control the conditions in a vertical farm they're able to provide the optimal conditions for each type of plant being indoors in a controlled environment also means that crops are not affected by climate changes and seasons resulting in year-round local availability of vegetables and consistent pricing you'll mostly see expensive leafy greens such as lettuce kale and herbs being grown in vertical farms since these premium greens are more profitable balancing out the investments made into the new tech used for these types of farms blue and red LED lights which create the purple hue you see in these vertical farms are used as they are more energy efficient than white lights and they allow for the most efficient absorption of nutrients in the plants these lights are used to create specific light recipes for each type of plant they're programmed to give the exact intensity frequency and spectrum suited for growing each plant as efficiently as possible you can even adjust the lighting to control the color of the plants the shape texture size and you can even change the flavor

 Another

Benefit of these automated programmable vertical farms is the low number of people needed to make them work a problem facing many countries right now is a labor shortage for harvesting crops standards of living have been rising so farm work is not as attractive as it used to be since it is highly repetitive manual hard work so vertical farming is helping combat this shortage of Labor and the high-tech nature of it and them being in cities is bringing a younger generation into agriculture 100 feet under the busy streets of London a vertical farm produces 2 tons of food a month growing underground grows fresh greens that go from farm to fork in under 4 hours the world war 2 shelter was built to house 8,000 people but is now using hydroponics to grow leafy greens such as pea shoots mustard Leafs broccoli shoots and spicy purple radish all unaffected by the weather and seasonal changes above ground selling to grocery chains and restaurants all year round back in the United States you have a company called square roots they build vertical farms in shipping containers and have locations in Brooklyn and Grand Rapids Michigan each container has 250 growing towers which is the same as 2 acres of farmland and each container is able to produce 50 pounds of leafy greens per week Elon Musk's brother Kimball musk is a co-founder of square roots Kimball holds board seats on SpaceX and Tesla and says that while the technology being developed at square roots is being used to bring nutritious food to people in the cities one day it will be used to feed astronauts on Mars along with all these vertical farms

making their way into cities you also have the open agriculture initiative this initiative aims to create an open source digital library allowing you to download the specific conditions needed for each type of plant to grow as efficiently as possible plans from around the world would require different temperatures humidity amounts of water and nutrients all of these variables can be controlled in vertical farms creating a climate recipe for the plants allowing you to grow different plants from around the world all year round in any location saving on resources needed for shipping over on the other side of the world. Farming is in Cities

In Tokyo

Japan a human resources company have turned their office building into a city farm persona group grows 200 species of fruits and vegetables in their office building when you walk into their building you're greeted with a thousand square foot rice paddy in the lobby continue through the building and you will come across an okra field a tomato vine covered guest space and a vegetable factory meeting spaces are divided using fruit trees and bean sprouts are grown under benches and the walls are covered with shelves growing herbs all of this from the blueberries oranges pumpkins and cucumbers to the rice from the lobby is all served fresh to the employees in the office cafeteria you won't be able to get any fresher food at a restaurant when it comes from a farm directly under it the idea behind farm one is to grow rare produce for chefs in the middle of the city farm one has two farms in New York and one of them is under the two-star Michelin restaurant atera it grows over 500 different microgreens rare herbs and edible flowers all year round they are eaten within hours of harvesting and are delivered by bicycle Farming is in Cities and subway to over 30 restaurants in New York City some of their products include rarities such as Pluto basil which sells for $40 per pound and edible flowers such as purple oxalis for 65 cents each farm one also has the edible bar this is a mini hydroponic system of rare live plants that can be enjoyed by guests at an event these plans can be used as garnishes enjoyed on their own or paired with cocktails helping to introduce the idea of eating super fresh greens grown in the city other vertical city farms include Bowery and plenty both of which have had big-name investors fueling their growth and expansion Bowery Farm is based in New Jersey and has been backed by Silicon Valley investors such as Google's venture arm GV and the CEO of uber Derek Ezra shocky and plenty which is based in a warehouse in South San Francisco has been invested in by Jeff Bezos and Google's chairman Eric Schmidt's investing company innovation endeavors.

Future

so what else could be grown in cities in the future to feed growing populations right now the production of farmed fish is greater than beef and some people are looking for ways to farm fish closer to cities this way you can avoid using high amounts of energy to refrigerate the fish while it's being transported even the growing of meat with a twist is being brought into cities impossible foods make plant-based burgers and sausages in their Oakland California facilities the burgers use 95 percent less land 74 percent less water and creates 87 percent less greenhouse gasses compared to the making of traditional cow based burger patties investors include Bill Gates and Google Farming is in Cities Ventures beyond meat based in Los Angeles is another company making plant-based substitutes for meat they also have Bill Gates as an investor along with Leonardo DiCaprio former McDonald's CEO Don Thompson and obvious corporation the investment company of Twitter's co-founders beyond meat is even listed on the New York Stock Exchange adding to the rising number of companies growing and farming food in cities 

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