Vertical Farming Comes to Edinburgh

By Gordon Davidson

August 10, 2021

Scotland’s Rural College is to be the first higher education institute in Scotland to open its own vertical farm for research and education.

The half million-pound facility is to be built at the SRUC's King’s Buildings campus in Edinburgh next year, with the backing of a £200,000 grant from the Scottish Government. It will enable key research into plant and crop science, growing nutrient-dense fruit and vegetables with specific human health qualities, while analysing crop yield and growth rates – with all inputs recorded in the closed environment – to compare their carbon footprint to other production systems.

SRUC's vertical farm will operate on renewable energy sources from the national grid, supported by battery technology to manage peaks in energy demand.

With only a handful of commercial vertical farms in Scotland so far, it is envisaged that the facility will be important for demonstration and knowledge exchange with farmers, growers and small businesses. It will also be used by SRUC students as part of their educational activities, looking to a future when such systems will be far more common places of work.

Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, Mairi Gougeon, said: “As we look to produce more fruits and vegetables locally, vertical farming could provide us with a way to make better use of our land. It’s an exciting and innovative field that could bring us real benefits and it is important that we have the skills in Scotland to take advantage of this technology.

“By supporting the industry at an early stage, we can assess these benefits and help to focus our long-term strategy. We will also be reaching out to the wider industry to explore in further detail the opportunities low-carbon vertical farming offers. We will work together to establish the future of vertical farming in Scotland.”

Principal and chief executive of SRUC, Professor Wayne Powell, said: “One of the most critical challenges we face is how to feed a growing global population. We have been teaching farmers for generations but, as the population increases, it is important that we look at growing different, more nutritious crops to support healthy diets and local access to food.

“Not only will this vertical farming unit be a valuable asset to our students, but it will also provide us with important data to help optimise and promote innovation into this expanding industry.”

Lead Photo: A new vertical farm at SRUC will be used for education and research.

Things Are Looking Up For New Vertical Farming Students

By The Newsroom

August 10, 2021

Building work on the £500,000 facility is expected to begin next year with the £200,000 grant from the Scottish Government helping key research to be carried out in this growing area of plant and crop science – and being the first such facility to be directly connected with an educational establishment, it will also give students hands-on experience of this new field of technology.

The new building and associated technologies will focus on growing nutrient-dense fruit and vegetables with a specific focus on human health qualities. The site will also analyse crop yield and growth rates along with all resource inputs - allowing the true overall carbon footprint of the latest in growing techniques to be compared with more traditional production systems.

Vertical farming systems focus on controlling all inputs into the growing system, with light levels and frequencies carefully controlled along with temperature and CO2 levels on top of water provision and all other nutrients and substrates.

The SRUC said the facility would operate on renewable energy sources from the national grid, with new battery technology being used to help manage peaks in energy demand.

“With only a handful of commercial vertical farms in Scotland, the facility will be important for demonstration and knowledge exchange with farmers, growers and small businesses, giving vital support and promoting innovation,” said Professor Wayne Powell, Principal and Chief Executive of SRUC.

“One of the most critical challenges we face is how to feed a growing global population,” he continued.

“We have been teaching farmers for generations but, as the population increases, it is important that we look at growing different, more nutritious crops to support healthy diets and local access to food.”

But he said that the vertical farming unit would also be a valuable asset to students studying at the site, while also providing important data which would help optimise and promote innovation into what was becoming a fast-expanding area of the industry.

The Scottish Government’s cabinet secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, Mairi Gougeon said:

“As we look to produce more fruits and vegetables locally, vertical farming could provide us with a way to make better use of our land. It’s an exciting and innovative field that could bring us real benefits and it is important that we have the skills in Scotland to take advantage of this technology.

She said that by supporting the industry at an early stage, policy makers would be better able to assess the benefits and help to focus on long-term strategy.

“We will also be reaching out to the wider industry to explore in further detail the opportunities low-carbon vertical farming offers. We will work together to establish the future of vertical farming in Scotland.”

The project will be going out to tender in the coming weeks.