Hydroponics, The Future of food?
Hydroponics, The Future of food?
Earth's population is expected to reach in excess of 8 billion by 2050, meaning food production will need to increase by 50%. Whilst 1 in 9 people do not have access to the food needed in order to live a healthy life.
Despite this, human activities that are also restricting the amount of arable land means the future concerning food production has to shift.
One of the solutions being considered currently, and which is being treated as feasible on a local and countrywide platform concerns the field of hydroponics.
Hydroponics is built around the concept of having constant optimum farming conditions, in an isolated closed loop environment such as a warehouse, in which variables such as CO2 and light levels can all be controlled. A key feature is that the roots of the plants are suspended in a mineral rich solution rather than soil.
In order to discover more about the future of hydroponics I interviewed Robert Jones. The director of South London based start up Hydroponics company Herb and Bloom.
“The future for Urban Farming is Hydroponics” Mr Jones states, “There's a massive need to combat the food production problem due to population growth and this method of farming will hopefully be able to meet these demands and is sustainable ”
Farming, he envisions will become increasingly localised as “Technology gets cheaper it will become easier and more affordable. A wider range of produce can be made.”
“The benefits are abundant when it comes to the future of farming, produce will be fresher than ever and be much better for the environment thanks to dramatic reduction in transportation cost and less plastic packaging.”
Currently across London multiple projects are being orchestrated, with grand visions including layered skyscraper farms, whilst others focuses on individual units. Already we see this happening on a small scale with disused bomb shelters in London harbouring small hydroponic farms.
Despite it not being cost effective yet, in the near future perhaps we will be seeing hydroponics being utilised on a local level in order to provide the food of tomorrow.