Shipping containers, underground tunnels and abandoned mine shafts are not obvious venues for growing food. Yet many such spaces are being turned into vertical farms.

So what exactly are they, and how could vertical farming change traditional agriculture?

Vertical farming involves growing plants indoors, which is why it’s sometimes also known as indoor farming. Instead of sunlight and rain, vertical farms use LED lighting and controlled growing and nutrition systems. Plants are stacked vertically in layers, so many of the farms look like warehouses filled with large shelving units.

For example, Europe’s biggest vertical farm is being developed outside Copenhagen in Denmark by Danish start-up Nordic Harvest. It is a warehouse-like 75,000-square-foot facility where plants are grown in 14 stacked layers, according to Free Think. When it’s fully completed, Nordic Harvest says its vertical farm will supply 1,000 tonnes of food a year.

Two billion people in the world currently suffer from malnutrition and according to some estimates, we need 60% more food to feed the global population by 2050. Yet the agricultural sector is ill-equipped to meet this demand: 700 million of its workers currently live in poverty, and it is already responsible for 70% of the world’s water consumption and 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

New technologies could help our food systems become more sustainable and efficient, but unfortunately the agricultural sector has fallen behind other sectors in terms of technology adoption.

Launched in 2018, the Forum’s Innovation with a Purpose Platform is a large-scale partnership that facilitates the adoption of new technologies and other innovations to transform the way we produce, distribute and consume our food.

With research, increasing investments in new agriculture technologies and the integration of local and regional initiatives aimed at enhancing food security, the platform is working with over 50 partner institutions and 1,000 leaders around the world to leverage emerging technologies to make our food systems more sustainable, inclusive and efficient.

Learn more about Innovation with a Purpose's impact and contact us to see how you can get involved.

Vertical farming is considered a highly efficient and sustainable way of producing food. For instance, Nordic Harvest says it uses 250 times less water than a traditional farm would need.

Automation is the key to this efficiency. Software, robotics and data science are some of the technologies used in vertical farms to monitor crops and create optimum growing conditions. This includes controlling temperature, humidity, CO2 and light.

Controlled environment agriculture like this helps to reduce the vertical farm’s environmental impact, eliminating the need for pesticides for example.

Vertical farms also aren’t reliant on the weather, so fresh produce can be grown all year round.

Instead of growing fruit and vegetables on big farms and then transporting it over long distances in trucks and planes, vertical farming can supply local produce from neighbourhood buildings. This means less fuel is used and the food is fresher.

Vertical farms also tend to produce more than conventional farms. Nordic Harvest says plants can be harvested 15 times a year. In a conventional field, harvesting is twice a year.

By precisely controlling the growing environment, products can last for 13 to 14 days, against three to four days for the equivalent products from conventional agriculture, according to The Choice.

Cost is a big hurdle for vertical farming. Sun and rain are free. Powering LED lights, software and sophisticated growing systems isn’t.

While some facilities run on electricity from wind turbines, vertical farms running on fossil fuels may be adding to the problem of climate change rather than making it better, says Free Think.

Buying urban real estate to build a vertical farm can also be expensive. In Australia, for example, an average square metre of city centre land in Melbourne is almost $3,500, according to Duke University in the US.

That said, the global vertical farming market is steadily growing, says Statista, and is expected to leap from $5.5 billion in 2020 to around $20bn by 2025.

Victoria Masterson, Senior Writer, Formative Content

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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