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Drought Signals Need For Sustainable Agriculture
As Winnipeggers funnel into air-conditioned buildings to stave off record-breaking heatwaves, Manitoba’s farmers are facing a much deeper crisis.
By Lucas Edmond
July 20, 2021
As Winnipeggers funnel into air-conditioned buildings to stave off record-breaking heatwaves, Manitoba’s farmers are facing a much deeper crisis.
For avid small talkers who love to discuss the weather, the low river and empty floodways during flood season were the first indications that Manitoba was going to have a summer of extreme conditions. Then the aphids appeared — a small insect that thrives in hot, dry weather — lathering Winnipeg’s canopy with sticky gunk. Finally, reality of the drought’s devastation struck when the West Coast of North America erupted in flames following a heatwave that stretched across several borders earlier this summer.
On July 5, just days after the heatwave, St. Laurent, Man. declared an agricultural state of disaster as potential crop yields continued to dwindle in the face of high aridity and soil exhaustion. Armstrong, Man. was the second rural municipality to declare a state of agricultural disaster on July 9, but it is likely not the last.
As Manitoba’s farmers fight to stay afloat with the support of only 40 per cent of Manitoba’s natural rainfall, a grasshopper infestation — produced by the dry conditions — has begun eating away at the limited vegetables, grains and oats farmers have managed to grow.
Due to the heat and the grasshoppers, a significant portion of crops that are often recycled as feed for cattle have been lost. Many farmers are being forced to cut their losses and sell their herds. Some have decided to prematurely cut their crops to bundle their feed in order to keep their livestock through the winter — forcing them to lose large portions of their annual incomes.
The ecological disaster and its consequential financial impact has stimulated discussions with the provincial government about financial aid to keep the province’s large agricultural sector healthy. However, subsidies for lost incomes should go a step further.
Although droughts have been prevalent across North America throughout the 21st century, this year is shaping up to be the driest in the last century. Record-breaking heat and inconsistent rain due to global warming — compounded by exhaustive industrial agriculture — are destroying the soils, stripping them of nutrients at a rate incomparable to any other period in modern history. Humanity and our methods of production, accumulation and distribution has spurned a new geological epoch now visibly discernable in the stratigraphic record. If the weather continues to become increasingly unpredictable due to our ecological impacts, then something must be done to create a more sustainable and predictable agricultural sector.
The provincial government should take time to consider the benefits of establishing a fund dedicated to farmers who want to transition their efforts away from the unsustainable methods of industrial monoculture cropping that have proven to be unstable during this perilous drought. Although much more expensive and labour intensive, permaculture cropping adopts a land management system dedicated to farming based on a balanced ecosystem that can thrive through tough environmental conditions without the assistance of expensive and detrimental inputs of herbicide, pesticide and artificial fertilizer.
In other words, instead of planting one cash crop that is easy to harvest but tough on the environment, the agricultural sector should look toward planting crops and vegetation that mutually complement each other in their ecological contexts.
Monoculture industrial farmers typically try to avoid using pesticides due to their damaging effects on the ecosystems that surround their plots. However, if the dry conditions and the infestations persist, many farmers — without the capacity to produce natural solutions to the crisis — may have to bite the bullet to protect their livelihood in the short term.
As many biologists from around the world have concluded, killing back pests with artificial products stunts local ecology and the environment’s natural ability to balance itself. Using pesticides kills off vital food sources for various predators, thus unintentionally killing various other species and reproducing the conditions for much worse infestations in the future. Destroying biodiversity is exactly what farmers need to avoid during these periods of agricultural crisis.
By adapting to living with pests and drought, farmers will be investing in the longevity of their yields while simultaneously reducing their industrial emissions. Transitioning into a labour-intensive permaculture system will be a crucial step in making the future of the planet green, but the transition must start with incentives and funding from federal and provincial coffers.
Fundamentally, it is up to farmers to make their decisions in conjunction with government bodies. However, the world is not fixing itself, and sustainable agriculture is a good first step at mitigating the public calamities that lie ahead.
Lead Photo: Climate challenges lie ahead, but governments can reduce risks by investing in food
What Flooding In London And New York Tells Us About The Future of Climate Change
With America and parts of Europe already experiencing erratic weather patterns, such as record-breaking night temperatures, climate scientists are increasingly worried over the future of weather patterns like this in the coming years
By Hope Talbot
July 13, 2021
Yesterday, parts of London experienced one month’s worth of rain within a day, causing severe flash floods across various areas of the city. Similar incidents of flash flooding have also been reported across several parts of Europe, with Bulgaria, France, and Switzerland all experiencing similar flooding.
This comes after New York experienced similarly severe flooding last Thursday as a result of Storm Elsa, with subways and highways flooded throughout the state.
With America and parts of Europe already experiencing erratic weather patterns, such as record-breaking night temperatures, climate scientists are increasingly worried over the future of weather patterns like this in the coming years.
How is climate change affecting flooding?
The likelihood of flooding is significantly increased due to the extreme weather patterns caused by global climate change. Changes in the geography of the land, resulting from climate change, also have a part to play in increasing flooding.
With certain vegetation and other land barriers being broken down as a result of changing temperatures and freak weather patterns, many of the natural preventative measures against flooding are no longer there.
Higher temperatures mean higher rainfall
With America experiencing its hottest June on record, temperatures have soared dramatically. As a result of these higher temperatures, we’re experiencing higher air and water temperatures, increasing evaporation.
With increased evaporation comes increased rainfall, with longer durations as well as higher intensity and frequency of rainfall, too.
Evidence also suggests that temperatures increase at a higher rate above the equator, meaning countries in the Northern Hemisphere, such as America and the UK, are likely to experience more significant temperature changes.
How can flooding be prevented?
Although flash floods may seem uncontrollable, there are several possible steps to ensuring that cities and towns are protected against flooding, with rainwater being distributed in a sustainable way.
Sponge cities
Through ingenious urban planning, cities have been able to use strategic green spaces to absorb excess rainwater for future use, therefore reducing flood risk. In China, the concept of ‘sponge cities’ has become popular, with irrigating gardens and urban farms acting like sponges to soak up excess water.
Urban greenery
As seen in the recent London floods, sewage management became a big issue, with sewage pipes bursting due to flooding. In Europe, green roofs are another innovative solution to reducing flooding risk, with greenery absorbing stormwater run-off, and thereby preventing sewage overflow.
Permeable pavements
A common issue seen within urban flooding is the lack of drainage away from walking paths and roads, with cement being unable to absorb water. An ingenious solution to this is installing permeable pavements, which can absorb water and transfer it to other sources, such as urban green spaces.
Lead Photo: Recent flooding across the UK
Greta Thunberg Aims To Change How Food Is Produced
The Global Center on Adaptation, which works to accelerate climate resilience, said in January climate change could depress global food production by up to 30%, while rising seas and more intense storms could force hundreds of millions of people in coastal cities out of their homes
By REUTERS May 28, 2021
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has set her sights on changing how the world produces and consumes food in order to counteract a trio of threats: carbon emissions, disease outbreaks and animal suffering.
In a video posted on Twitter on Saturday, Thunberg said the environmental impact of farming as well as disease outbreaks such as COVID-19, which is believed to have originated from animals, would be reduced by changing how food was produced.
"Our relationship with nature is broken. But relationships can change," Thunberg said in the video marking the International Day of Biological Diversity.
A focus on agriculture and linking the climate crisis to health pandemics is a new angle for Thunberg who has typically focused her ire on policy-makers and carbon emissions from fossil fuels.
"The climate crisis, ecological crisis, and health crisis, they are all interlinked," she said.
Thunberg said the spillover of diseases from animals to humans was caused by farming methods, adding that a move to a plant-based diet could save up to 8 billion tonnes of CO2 each year.
The World Health Organization has said the coronavirus was probably transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, while scientists say 60% of the infectious human diseases that emerged from 1990 to 2004 came from animals.
Meanwhile, demand for alternatives to regular meat is surging worldwide due to concerns about health, animal welfare, and the environment.
More than two dozen firms are testing lab-grown fish, beef, and chicken, hoping to break into an unproven segment of the alternative meat market, which Barclays estimates could be worth $140 billion by 2029.
The Global Center on Adaptation, which works to accelerate climate resilience, said in January climate change could depress global food production by up to 30%, while rising seas and more intense storms could force hundreds of millions of people in coastal cities out of their homes.
(Reporting by Colm Fulton; Editing by Alison Williams)
Lead photo: Greta Thunberg (Reuters)
Urban Foods Systems Symposium In October Will Focus on Climate, Community, Security, Production And Distribution
All things food in and for urban areas will be in focus during the 3rd Urban Food Systems Symposium scheduled for virtual delivery on Wednesdays in October and hosted this year by Kansas State University and K-State Research and Extension
By urbanagnews
September 15, 2020
All things food in and for urban areas will be in focus during the 3rd Urban Food Systems Symposium scheduled for virtual delivery on Wednesdays in October and hosted this year by Kansas State University and K-State Research and Extension. 2020 Urban Food Systems Symposium online sessions will be offered from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. CDT every Wednesday in October. If you’ve got an interest in any aspect of urban food systems there’s a session for you and you are encouraged to attend.
The format for each Wednesday session includes one or more live keynote speakers supplemented by breakout discussions, poster sessions, and live breaks with sponsors.
Before September 18, registration is only $100 ($50 if you are a student). After September 18, registration goes up to $125 and $75 for students. Here’s the really good part about registration – all registered attendees get access to the breakout session presentations starting in September. They also get access to all live and breakout discussions as they occur each Wednesday in October, and they will have 24/7 access to all recordings of presentations through April 2021.
The organizers have lined up a diverse group of breakout session presenters and topics. Check out the UFSS website for all the details on breakouts. Keynote topics, speakers, and dates are:
• Oct. 7 – Urban Agriculture and Food Systems – Building Climate-Resilient Urban and Regional Food Systems, Jess Halliday, associate of RUAF Global Partnership on Sustainable.
• Oct. 14 – Urban Agriculture, Climate Change and Food Security: Potential Solutions and Synergies, Chuck Rice, Kansas State University Distinguished Professor of Soil Microbiology.
• Oct. 21 – The Role of Urban Farming in Nutrition Security, Elizabeth Mitcham, director of the Horticulture Innovation Lab, University of California-Davis.
• Oct. 21 – Food Justice is More than Growing Food and Feeding People, Karen Washington, farmer and activist with Rise & Root Farm and Black Urban Growers.
• Oct. 28 – Fixes That Fail: Using Community-Based Systems Modeling to Diagnose Injustice in the Food System, Jill Clark, associate professor, John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University and Jennifer King, assistant director of training and community education, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University.
• Oct. 28 – The Hydra-Headed Food System: Imagining the Whole and Connecting the Dots, Mark Winne, food policy expert, former executive of the Hartford Food System.
Register online today at the Urban Food Systems Symposium website. Got questions? Send those to the organizing committee at ufss@ksu.edu.
Expert Input Can Boost Yields For Vertical Farming
Designing, constructing and integrating new facilities that live up to vertical farming’s many promises calls for the right kind of knowhow, says Ian Hart, business development director at adi Projects
3rd September 2020
Designing, constructing, and integrating new facilities that live up to vertical farming’s many promises calls for the right kind of know-how, says Ian Hart, business development director at adi Projects.
For almost 12,000 years, humankind has found increasingly ingenious ways to convert the natural forces at play on Planet Earth into an ever more bountiful, diverse and predictable source of sustenance.
And, as global and national populations have grown historically and in particular, in recent decades, the issue of food security has always hovered somewhere in the background. Today, although we’re by no means on the brink of a Malthusian catastrophe, the idea that the UK might at some stage struggle to feed itself has taken on a new relevance.
We’ve always been used to the supermarket shelves being full. But the early stages of lockdown betrayed the reality that supply chains are highly sensitive not only to the onset of a pandemic but to economic and environmental shocks.
Imperfect storm
Putting COVID to one side, the UK is staring those other two factors square in the face. We currently import approximately 80% of our food, including real basics, such as carrots, but, in Brexit, we are on the verge of a significant dislocation between ourselves and our biggest and closest trading partners who also happen to supply 30% of the total.
And, while Brexit may cause short-to-medium term disruptions, presupposing an eventual agreement on future trade, the risks posed by the environment seem baked in for decades to come.
High hopes for UK vertical farming startup
Scottish vertical farming startup harvests £5.4m in funding
Extreme weather events, such as significant flooding which has quadrupled since 1980, can harm livestock and spoil crops. On the other side of the coin, water inefficiency and scarcity are issues in many parts of the world, as agriculture competes increasingly with industry and domestic use.
Rising temperatures are playing havoc with growing seasons and sparking ever more wildfires that can devastate farms, even when the flames don’t actually reach them.
So, the commercial risks are there for producers. Supply chains are fragile, meaning that businesses dependent on imported produce may be unable to meet the service levels demanded by the supermarkets – even in the short-term – and then scramble for unsustainable and often very costly workarounds.
Removing risk
Vertical farming facilities are the subject of increased interest in the industry. Climate-controlled facilities enable producers to regulate the variables of the environment and avoid pollution to grow produce of a consistently high standard and at predictably higher yields.
The vertical farm projects we have worked on are very hygienic, removing fungal and bacterial risks and the threat from all manner of pests. And, run on LEDs and recycling very high proportions of the water they use back into their processes, energy costs can be minimized, there is no need for water to be chemically treated and producers can extricate themselves from any sense that the taps might one day dry up.
Locally sited facilities mean the vagaries of geopolitics and international trade agreements are no longer an issue. And, as importantly, locating one close to a waste-to-energy plant would enable you to harness its heat and CO2 to aid the growing process.
The UK currently imports around 80% of its food
So, vertical farming has a real role to play in helping create circular economies at the local level.
While no means a silver bullet, in our experience vertical farms do solve many of the problems of contemporary food production and have the potential to help brands forge solid reputations as innovators and on sustainability.
But, so great are its potential upsides, one might quite reasonably ask why the shift to vertical farming isn’t gathering pace at a steadier rate. The answer, I believe, lies in a perceived lack of expertise in this country at getting such projects off the ground.
A specialist business
For all the simple answers the technology offers, the processes involved are highly sophisticated and capital intensive. Often it is only businesses with the means who go beyond the initial feasibility stages but, even then, they require specialist assistance.
The design and construction of the facilities themselves are highly complex. Different vegetable, fruits, and greens each require their own zoning and specific climatic conditions, and each of the different vertical levels – up to nine in some cases – has to create and sustain its own unique characteristics.
The electrical and robotic systems running the lighting and hydroponics are as innovative as anything in the sector and that’s before one overcomes the challenges of integrating the entire operation.
So, I’d advise companies exploring their options on vertical farming to go back to basics. If you can get those right from the outset and ensure you have continuity throughout the project, you can not only remove risk during planning and construction and for the duration of the facility’s lifecycle but also enjoy certainty on cost and program during the set-up phases.
Ian Hart is business development director at adi Projects
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AgriTech - A Hotspot For Investments
In recent times, AgriTech or AgTech solutions are gaining their popularity factor because individuals and entities alike, are becoming increasingly aware of the efficiency technology adds to their daily processes, which otherwise would have been tasking to follow through with. The ‘revolutionary’ factor has been highlighted in the AgTech space and hence, it has caught the eyes of investors and big corporations
AgriTech - The Sought After Technology Breakthrough
In recent times, AgriTech or AgTech solutions are gaining their popularity factor because individuals and entities alike, are becoming increasingly aware of the efficiency technology adds to their daily processes, which otherwise would have been tasking to follow through with. The ‘revolutionary’ factor has been highlighted in the AgTech space and hence, it has caught the eyes of investors and big corporations.
AgTech represents that specific niche category of technology buffs that intermingle the age-old occupation of agriculture with the new age specs and wonders of technology.
The specifics of Agronomic Processes:
The agronomic processes encompass diverse solutions in every step, ranging from the sowing of seeds to the harvesting of crops. The processes comprise of integrated resolutions to enhance efficiency within agricultural organizations, along with benefiting smallholder and marginal farmers.
AgriTech, breaking barriers and records:
The upward curve of investments and profitability within the industry does not seem like it would dip anytime soon, with a continuous maturity, breaking barriers, and records. Since 2013, funding within the AgTech sector has increased by roughly a whopping 370%. According to an AgFunder report, specifically, startup investments bucked global venture capital markets across all sectors to $4.7 billion in 2019. The 695 deals were carried out across 940 unique investors.
COVID-19 comes into play:
Similar growth cannot be expected for the remainder of 2020, due to Coronavirus governing industries across all business streams. However, there is less chance of the investments cutting to a freefall wherein they would dip way lower than initially expected. New investment projects may be put on hold, however, ongoing funding is expected to be perennial.
Localizing our viewpoint, we notice that most of these investments are still being carried out within the United States. However, investments in India continue to rise at a rapid rate, representative of a two-way flow (up-stream as well as down-stream) of funding, again highlighting the maturity of the sector.
The reasoning:
WHY? Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Sir Isaac Newton was well aware of the specifics of investment and the network within which it functions. Our world is at a point today, where overpopulation is a severe problem in various countries, along with the overall population set to increase by 30% over the next 35 years, according to Global-Engage.com. According to a report conducted by FAO, agricultural production will have to increase by 60-70% to feed the world population by 2050. To work towards an increase in the production of food, along with keeping a tap on the factor of ‘sustainability’, it is essential and integral to adopt smart farming and smart agricultural practices, allowing processes and outcomes to become more efficient in the long run.
The Need for Emerging Trends:
The importance of utilizing ‘big data’ and ‘predictive analytics’ to counteract the issues faced by farmers daily is now more than ever. They will allow farmers to achieve and maybe even surpass their targets for the seasons, resulting in an influx of productivity. In a survey conducted with farmers, 60% mentioned that precision farming is an influential trend to look towards for a structural and foundational change in the way daily practices take place. With the risk of climate change looming overhead at all times, it is crucial to understand the essential need to channel funds towards projects that solve difficult and foreseen problems.
The Agricultural 4.0 wave:
Today, 25-30% of all food produced is wasted, which incurs a social, economic, and environmental cost of $2.5 trillion annually. An outdated supply chain with no digital integrations or climate-smart advisory results in around 20% of the crops produced in developed countries being left in the field itself. To spark a change and make a difference, socially conscious investors who look to profitability as well, view the AgTech sector as a gold mine, essentially killing two birds with one stone.
AgriTech today is an area that is ripe for innovation with limits imposed solely due to constraints in terms of available capital. When this constraint is counteracted, creativity applied to AI and food production will be ten-fold.
Sanjay Borkar
Founder, CEO of FarmERP
INDIA: Indoor Farming: From Vertical Trays To Your Table Within Hours, How Veggie, Salad Market Has Gone Hyperlocal
As climate change worsens due to long-haul transportation as one of the factors, going hyperlocal on production and supply makes indoor farming a lucrative business. What are the dynamics involved?
Sep 04, 2020
As climate change worsens due to long-haul transportation as one of the factors, going hyperlocal on production and supply makes indoor farming a lucrative business. What are the dynamics involved? Check here.
Call it indoor farming, Hydroponics or vertical farming, this green nursery method is gaining popularity | Photo Credit: iStock Images
The lack of space in urban locales, people's preference for fresh vegetables that have not been tossed and battered in transit through wholesale markets, and some bit of out-of-the-box thinking has helped create businesses based on an indoor green revolution within Delhi.
A Times of India report brings one face-to-face with a number of nouveau farmers who have made thriving businesses by nursing their newly developed green fingers.
These new-age farmers are growing romaine lettuce, oak leaves, mint, kale, basil, etc in their vertical plants in urban localities like Lajpat Nagar in Delhi, etc.
Not convinced how one can grow vegetables in crowded, chaotic market areas, the TOI journalist confesses he went to the plants to verify.
Himanshu Aggarwal of 9Growers showed around his farm on the second floor of a building that houses a bank and an electronics store on floors below. His hydroponic farm houses shelves and shelves of microgreens, herbs, and leafy vegetables growing in rows of white, laboratory-like ambiance.
The indoor green revolution of soil-less farming:
There are Petri dishes that hold plants, there is artificial light and the setup has its humidity and temperature monitored and strictly controlled. This soil-less farming is called hydroponic (sustained on water and nutrients) farming, not a new idea at all, but one that is now being widely adopted.
TOI also mentions a visit to farmingV2, a hydroponic farm being run by Rohit Nagdewani in the National Capital Region. Nagdewani says that the need to follow social distancing and to get clean veggies - a demand of the precautions against the coronavirus pandemic has made people appreciate this form of produce more. People want vegetables and salads that are hyperlocal, fresh, and not loaded with pesticides or fertilizers.
What is Hydroponic farming?
Hydroponics is the art of gardening without soil. The word originates from the Latin word meaning “working water.” Instead of using soil, water is deployed to provide nutrients, hydration, and oxygen to plant life. One can grow anything from watermelons to jalapeños to orchids under the careful regimen of hydroponics. It requires very little space, 90 to 95% less water than traditional agriculture, and helps grow a garden full of fruits and flowers in half the time.
Hydroponics helps the cultivation of plants in a manner such that the yield reflects rapid growth, stronger yields, and superior quality.
When nutrients are dissolved in soil-less water beds, they can be applied directly to the plant’s root system by flooding, misting, or immersion. Since no soil is used, there are no pests and therefore no insecticide/pesticide is required. Grown in an environment that is controlled in terms of water at the plants' roots, moisture in the air, humidity in the air, ambient light (same spectrum as of sunlight) etc, the food thus grown is cleaner in physical, chemical, and biological nature.
AI-based Indoor farming will support traditional farming:
The global population is predicted to reach 9.7 billion by the year 2050 and to feed everyone, it’s estimated that global food production will need to increase by up to 70% in the next 30 years. This method will decentralize supply chains and give more business to local suppliers, thereby cutting fuel costs and carbon emissions that long-haul transportation creates.
The indoor farming technology market was valued at $23.75 billion in 2016 and is projected to reach $40.25 billion by 2022, as per a report in The Forbes. Indoor green farms may be an idea whose time has come.
The views expressed by the author are personal and do not in any way represent those of Times Network.
Urban Farming: Four Reasons It Should Flourish Post-Pandemic
Since lockdown, public interest in growing fruit and vegetables at home has soared. Seed packets are flying off shelves and allotment waiting lists are swelling, with one council receiving a 300% increase in applications
Since lockdown, public interest in growing fruit and vegetables at home has soared. Seed packets are flying off shelves and allotment waiting lists are swelling, with one council receiving a 300% increase in applications. Fear of food shortages will have motivated some, but others with more time on their hands at home will have been tempted by the chance to relieve stress doing a wholesome family activity.
The seeds of enthusiasm for home-grown food may have been sown, but sustaining this is essential. Urban farming has much to offer in the wake of the pandemic. It could help communities boost the resilience of their fresh fruit and vegetable supplies, improve the health of residents and help them lead more sustainable lifestyles.
Here are four reasons why food growing should become a perennial feature in our gardens, towns and cities after COVID-19.
1. Growing greener towns and cities
More than half of the global population lives in urban areas, and this is expected to rise to 68% by 2050. For the UK, this is even higher – nine out of 10 people are expected to live in towns and cities by this time.
Weaving food growing into the fabric of urban life could bring greenery and wildlife closer to home. The COVID-19 lockdown helped reawaken interest in growing at home, but one in eight UK households have no access to a garden. Thankfully, the opportunities for urban farming extend beyond these: rooftops, walls – and even underground spaces, such as abandoned tunnels or air raid shelters, offer a range of options for expanding food production in cities while creatively redeveloping the urban environment.
Edible rooftops, walls, and verges can also help reduce flood risk, provide natural cooling for buildings and streets, and help reduce air pollution.
Paris hosts the largest urban rooftop farm in Europe. EPA-EFE/Mohammed Badra
2. Resilient food supplies
Diversifying where and how we grow our food helps spread the risk of disruption to food supplies.
The UK’s reliance on imports has been growing in recent decades. Currently, 84% of fruit and 46% of vegetables consumed in the UK are imported. Brexit and COVID-19 could threaten the steady supply, while the problems created by climate change, such as water scarcity, risk disrupting imports of food from abroad.
Growing fruit and vegetables in towns and cities would help resist these shocks. The harvest labour shortages seen during the pandemic might not have been felt as keenly if urban farms were growing food right where people live.
Vertical and underground crops are more resilient to extreme weather or pests, indoor growing environments are easier to control than those in the field, and temperature and humidity is more stable underground. The high start-up costs and energy bills for this type of farming has meant that indoor farms currently produce a small number of high-value crops, such as leafy greens and herbs. But as the technology matures, the diversity of produce grown indoors will expand.
À lire aussi : Vertical farms offer a bright future for hungry cities
3. Healthier lives
Getting out into nature and gardening can improve your mental health and physical fitness. Our research suggests that getting involved in urban food growing, or just being exposed to it in our daily lives, may also lead to healthier diets.
Urban growers may be driven to make healthier food choices for a whole range of reasons. They have greater access to fresh fruit and vegetables and getting outdoors and into nature can help reduce stress, making people less likely to make unhealthy food choices. Our study suggested that urban food growing can also help change attitudes towards food, so that people place more value in produce that’s sustainable, healthy, and ethically sourced.
4. Healthier ecosystems
While urbanization is regarded as one of the biggest threats to biodiversity, growing food in towns and cities has been shown to boost the abundance and diversity of wildlife, as well as protect their habitats.
A recent study found that community gardens and allotments act as hotspots for pollinating insects, because they tend to contain a diverse range of fruiting and native plants.
Vegetables, like this courgette, can produce flowers for pollinators to enjoy. Natakim/Shutterstock
If designed and implemented properly, allotments and community gardens can really benefit biodiversity. Not only should barren spaces be converted into green and productive plots, it’s also important that there are connections between these environments to help wildlife move between them.
Canals and cycle paths can act as these wildlife corridors. As we begin to diversify the spaces used to grow food, particularly those on our rooftops and underground, an exciting challenge will be finding novel ways of connecting them for wildlife. Green bridges have been shown to help wildlife cross busy roads – perhaps similar crossings could link rooftop gardens.
All these reasons and more should compel us to scale up food production in towns in cities. COVID-19 has given us cause to reevaluate how important local urban green spaces are to us, and what we want from our high streets, parks, and pavements. Judging by the garden center sales, allotment lists, and social media, many people have decided they want more fruit and veggies in those spaces. The opportunity is there for urban planners and developers to consider what bringing farming to urban landscapes could offer.
Lead photo: Joshua Resnick/Shutterstock
Déclaration d’intérêts
Senior Research Associate in Physical Geography, Lancaster University
Does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Chair Professor in Sustainability, Lancaster University
Receives funding from the UK Research and Innovation Council and the European Commission. The research described here was funded under the Global Food Security’s ‘Resilience of the UK Food System Programme’, with support from BBSRC, ESRC, NERC, and The Scottish Government (BB/S01425X/1).
Unless We Change Course, The US Agricultural System Could Collapse
“There’s no great mystery about how to halt the withering away of California’s water or Iowa’s soil”
Opinion by: Tom Philpott
26 August 2020
Our Food Supply Comes From An Environmentally
Unsustainable System That Is Going To Unravel
Picture an ideal dinner plate. If you’re like most Americans, it features a hearty portion of meat, from animals fattened on midwestern corn and soybeans, and a helping of vegetables largely trucked in from California. The unique landscapes we rely on to deliver this bounty – the twin jewels of the US food system – are locked in a state of slow-motion ecological unraveling.
California’s agricultural sector has flourished from decades of easy access to water in one of the globe’s biggest swaths of Mediterranean climate. The Sierra Nevada, the spine of mountains that runs along California’s eastern flank, captures an annual cache of snow that, when it melts, cascades into a network of government-built dams, canals, and aqueducts that deliver irrigation water to farmers in the adjoining Central Valley. In light-snow years, farmers could tap aquifers that had built up over millennia to offset the shortfall.
But the Sierra snowpack has shown an overall declining trend for decades – most dramatically during the great California drought of 2012-2016 – and it will dwindle further over the next several decades as the climate warms, a growing body of research suggests. A 2018 paper by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory researchers articulates the alarming consensus: a “future of consistent low-to-no snowpack” for the Sierra Nevada, the irrigation jewel of our vegetable patch.
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Even as snowmelt gushing from the mountains dwindles, the Central Valley farming behemoth gets ever more ravenous for irrigation water, switching from annual crops that can be fallowed in dry years to almond and pistachio groves, which require huge upfront investments and need to be watered every year. As a result, farm operations are increasingly resorting to tapping the water beneath them. Between 2002 and 2017, a period including two massive droughts, farmers siphoned enough water from the valley’s aquifers to fill Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain three times.
As the water vanishes, the ground settles and sinks in uneven and unpredictable ways, a phenomenon known as subsidence. By 2017, large sections of the Central Valley were sinking by as much as 2 ft a year. In addition to damaging roads, bridges, houses, sewage pipes, and pretty much all built infrastructure, subsidence snarls up the canals that carry snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada. Thus we have a vicious circle: reduced snowmelt means less water flowing through government-run irrigation channels, which pushes farmers to pump more water from underground, causing more subsidence that damages those channels and reduces their flow capacity, pushing farmers to accelerate the cycle by pumping more water from underground.
“There’s no great mystery about how to halt the withering away of California’s water or Iowa’s soil”
Seventeen hundred miles to the east, the prevailing agriculture system consumes a different but equally precious resource: soil. When white settlers seized what we now call the corn belt from indigenous inhabitants in the 19th century, they found thousands of miles of prairies and marshlands, with hundreds of species of perennial wild grasses, legumes and flowers that towered over their heads, with roots plunging just as deep into the earth, burying carbon from the atmosphere and feeding a teeming web of micro-organisms that break down and cycle nutrients. Aboveground, vast herds of bison ate their way through fields, stimulating new plant growth and recycling nutrients through their manure.
Interactions between Native Americans, plants, animals, microbes, and climate left behind a majestic store of fertile topsoil that scientists call mollisol. Even today, the US midwest boasts the largest of four major mollisol stores on the planet. Mollisols develop over millennia yet can be squandered in decades. US colonial-settler agriculture transformed this ecological niche, a landmass 1.5 times the size of California, into a factory churning out just two crops – corn and soybeans.
This kind of agriculture fouls water as a matter of course. Since corn and soybeans are planted in the spring and harvested in the fall, the vast majority of corn-belt farmland lies bare for the winter months, leaving the ground naked when storms hit. These deluges pummel bare topsoil and send it – and the agrochemicals and manure farmers apply to it – cascading off farms and into streams and creeks that flow into rivers, lakes, and ultimately the Gulf of Mexico. But there’s another problem with subjecting the land to the same two crops every year: loss of the region’s precious black topsoil. According to research by the soil scientist Rick Cruse, Iowa – and much of the surrounding corn belt – is losing soil at a rate 16 times the pace of natural replenishment.
Again, climate change is a driver. Today’s farmers encounter a weather regime radically different from that of their grandparents: more intense off-season storms, and thus ever-heavier pressure on the soil. If global greenhouse gases continue rising, the region faces a 40% increase in precipitation by the late 21st century, according to the Fourth National Climate Assessment. The soil that makes one of the globe’s most important growing regions so productive is vanishing before our eyes, degrading a crucial food production region at the very time when climate change and global population growth call for building resilience.
Extreme weather just devastated 10m acres in the midwest. Expect more of this | Art Cullen
There’s no great mystery about how to halt the withering away of California’s water or Iowa’s soil. California needs to shrink its agricultural footprint to match the scale of its water resources, which means other regions of the US should ramp up their own fruit and vegetable production to make up the difference. In the corn belt, US federal farm policy should stop paying farmers to overproduce corn and soybeans, and instead push them to diversify their plantings and keep their land covered all winter – practices known to maintain high levels of production while also preserving soil, decreasing water pollution and slashing the need for pesticides and fertilizers.
Reduced demand for agrichemicals, however, pinches the bottom line of the agrichemical behemoths, and a turn from corn-and-soybean dominance will dent profits for the meat companies that rely on cheap, overproduced feed. These companies divert a share of their income into lobbying and campaign finance, and their interests shape US farm policy. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Just as creating a sane climate policy requires the rise of a social movement to negate the power of the fossil fuel lobby, a better agricultural regime will require a direct political challenge to big agribusiness.
Climate justice and food justice are, in fact, the same fight – the struggle to beat back corporate dominance and make the world livable for everyone.
Tom Philpott is the agriculture correspondent for Mother Jones and the author of Perilous Bounty:
Agtech Sector Blooms As More Dollars And Startups Rush In
Farming has been around for thousands of years, but investments and startup activity in agricultural technology, commonly known as “agtech” or “agritech,” have only exploded over the past five years
Christine Hall | August 20, 2020.
Twitter: ChristineMHall
Farming has been around for thousands of years, but investments and startup activity in agricultural technology, commonly known as “agtech” or “agritech,” have only exploded over the past five years.
In fact, in each of the last two years, venture capitalists invested $4 billion in startups in the agtech space, according to Crunchbase data. Based on the $2.6 billion already given out as of Aug. 14 of this year, 2020 is poised to repeat or even exceed the previous years.
Better Food Ventures Partner Seana Day began tracking agtech startups more than five years ago. She said that farming is an area that isn’t typically tech-enabled. In fact, COVID-19 reminded the world about the food supply chain, she added.
“There was a disconnect between demand signals and supply, which is why you saw empty grocery shelves,” she said. “At the same time, the dairy farmers were dumping milk because they didn’t have a process in place to massively produce small consumer packaging.”
Day estimates that global food and agriculture fund managers have about $130 billion in assets under management, which is driving a surge in investments as well as a shift in thinking.
Farmers have historically been resistant to change, Day said, but at the end of the day, they are rational business people. That means that if a startup can show a farmer a product or service that will boost the return on investment—increasing revenue or decreasing costs—the company will have a better chance of making the sale.
The challenge comes in for tech companies that offer apps meant to save time and increase job productivity, areas that aren’t necessarily needed for farmers, she added.
There is also a shift in legacy food companies thinking digitally. Day points to Tyson Foods as an example. The meat producer earlier this month promoted Dean Banks to CEO. He joined Tyson as president last December from Alphabet’s high-tech incubator X.
“That is a huge signal from a company making bold moves, saying ‘we want to be a leader in this space,’” Day added.
New investments
This year has been particularly busy for the agtech innovation sector, as startups secured both big and small investments.
One of the largest went to Farmers Business Network, which raised $250 million in Series F funding earlier this month. Day said the San Carlos, California-based company was one of the pioneers in e-commerce models, helping farmers optimize their financial performances by finding demand for supply.
Meanwhile, Berkeley-based Pivot Bio announced a $100 million funding round in April, led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Temasek, to scale its microbial nitrogen technology. The company said the technology increases crop yields, and in turn, farmers’ revenues. Biodesign startup Geltor brought in $91.3 million in a Series B round in July, led by CPT Capital, to make proteins, such as collagen and elastin, but without animals. The startup’s products are used in beauty, and food and beverage products.
One of the newest is iFarm, a Finland-based startup providing indoor farming technology for growing fresh greens, berries and vegetables. On Thursday, it announced that Gagarin Capital led its $4 million investment with other investors including Matrix Capital, Impulse VC, IMI.VC and several angel investors.
iFarm, founded in 2017, has more than 50 ongoing projects with clients in Europe and the Middle East for 2020, Max Chizhov, co-founder and CEO, told Crunchbase News. The company will use the funding to develop its iFarm Growtune tech platform; expand into new regions in Eastern and Northern Europe and the Middle East; and will experiment with growing strawberries, cherry tomatoes, sweet peppers, radishes and other crops.
“We think this is an interesting time to be in agtech, and we think we are in the right time and right place, especially as there is more attention on food and agtech and a pipeline of investments,” Chizhov said. “We are focusing on how to change the supply chain, and we believe we are one of the solutions to solve this problem.”
Last week, we also reported on a new company, Unfold, which is focused on vertical farming. Bayer’s investment arm, Leaps by Bayer, and Singapore-based investment firm Temasek infused $30 million into the new company.
Unfold’s President and CEO John Purcell said he is bullish on the farming sector, seeing a need for genetics in vertical farming. The company has an agreement for certain rights to germplasm from Bayer’s vegetable portfolio that includes lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers.
“Technology has to catch up with the promise,” he said. “There has been an overall trend in produce moving toward vertical farming and greenhouse, but the hard part is you have to have the tech to make it feasible.”
The “tech” in question is lighting, mechanics and a system in place. Then it has to be competitive with the other forms of production so potential customers will see its value, Purcell added.
New areas of agtech
Purcell sees three promising areas for the agtech industry:
Major urban areas, where there is a desire for local, fresh food;
Self-sufficiency, or helping places where there is limited arable land; and
Produce supply chains, or getting food from the farm to fulfillment centers.
Ashley Tyrner, founder and CEO of Farmbox Direct, thinks there should be one more area: food as medicine. She is in the process of raising $10 million for her East Coast-based organic and natural produce delivery service.
Tyrner said she saw her business grow more than 2,000 percent during COVID-19. In that time, Farmbox also began working with Medicare to provide box services to patients identified as those who need to eat healthier to manage chronic disease.
“The climate has changed in Silicon Valley, and VCs are welcoming because we are doing food as medicine,” she added. “We were the first to find an insurance company to work with us to help patients change their eating patterns. We are creating a new space here.”
In the area of crop protection is Canada-based MustGrow Biologics, an agricultural biotechnology company taking natural compounds from mustard seeds and turning them into pesticides that fortify the soil.
The pesticide industry is valued at $65 billion, but most are synthetics, Corey Giasson, president and CEO of MustGrow, told Crunchbase News in an interview. The biologics side of the pesticide industry is growing, but is still worth only about one-sixth that amount, he said.
The slower growth is due to biologics in the past not being as effective as synthetic fertilizers, so MustGrow has been doing a lot of studies to show that its product works.
“Farmers want to use products that are healthy and safe, but need something effective to grow a crop that will suppress pests,” he said. “We also have a growing population globally, and we need to feed people, doing it in a safe, environmentally sustainable way.”
New opportunities
Crunchbase data shows that is the most active agtech venture investor, having made 20 venture investments in the agtech space since it was founded 10 years ago. It was most recently involved in India-based Intello Labs’ $5.9 million Series A round. The company uses image matching and machine learning to measure the quality of crops.
A new player is FTW Ventures, led by Brian Frank, who on Thursday announced he is raising his first “problem-focused fund” aimed at early-stage food and agricultural startups.
Frank already raised the $4 million fund, in which he will invest in 15 to 20 deals at about $200,000 to $250,000. He has already made five investments, the most recent in April as a part of Plantible Foods’ $4.6 million seed round. He was also an investor in Plantible’s pre-seed round. The San Marcos, California-based B2B food technology company is developing plant-based protein.
Frank predicts some of the hotter areas will include hardware and automation, software and SaaS, novel products–such as Plantible–and personalized nutrition. He also said that consumers are driving the way food makes its way from the farm to the fork.
“I came into this sector from mobile technology, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, with a deep-seated passion for food,” he said in an interview. “There is a major shift in consumer trends as they look for more resilient and sustainable food. Climate change is both an effect of food and it impacts food. Plants can’t just move to a new climate, so we need to help them.”
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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Are We Ready For Indoor Wheat Farms?
They Could Feed The World on a Fraction
of The Land Area, But at What Energy Cost?
By Emma Bryce
July 31, 2020
Bread made from high-rise farms may be a thing of the future. Researchers have found that if we started growing wheat in stacked vertical farms instead of the field, we could generate 600 times more of this grain than traditional farming methods do—all while freeing up huge amounts of land from agriculture.
But before this could become a reality, we’d need some serious technological innovation to offset the controversially high energy costs of vertical farms.
Wheat currently supplies 20% of calories and protein for the world’s population, which is projected to grow to 11 billion people by 2100. With that expanding population, we’ll need a 60% increase in the worldwide production of grain. The researchers on the new study wanted to investigate how vertical farming—the production of crops across multiple floors in enclosed buildings—could help to plug that gap.
To find out, they used a crop simulation tool called DSSAT-NWheat, which projects yield based on the simulated field conditions, incorporating inputs like temperature, light, and water. This simulation showed that if wheat were grown inside a 10-floor vertical farm, covering one hectare of ground land, and under optimal conditions, the crop could generate almost 2000 metric tons of grain per hectare. That’s about 600 times more than the current annual world average of 3.2 metrics tons per hectare. Ramping things up to simulate a 100-floor farm, the researchers showed that the vertical farm could generate 19,400 metric tons of grain per hectare —6000 times more than the average hectare of farmland produces every year.
In some countries, vertical farming is already used to produce foods like lettuce and herbs where plenty can be grown at more confined scales. But crops like wheat—which require more space and typically need a lot of sunshine—haven’t yet been commercially produced in this environment. Showing that we could grow staple crops in this way, instead of only niche foods like salad greens, is an important step.
This massively efficient production approach would generate enough food to feed an expanding world population. By growing food vertically on smaller plots of land, it could also drastically curtail farmland expansion, an enormous source of emissions, and a driver of biodiversity decline. Growing food indoors, under perfectly controlled conditions, would shield crops from the vagaries of climate change and therefore bolster food security. It would also reduce pesticide use, and limit the chances that they’d get into soil and water.
But as the researchers caution, we shouldn’t get too swept up by these possibilities: farming wheat in high-rises—such a tantalizing idea—nevertheless comes with one considerable caveat. The cost, both financially and energy-wise, of artificially lighting up the interior of a vertical farm so that crops can photosynthesize, is enormous, enough to draw a question mark around the viability of this farming method. This is a problem that already haunts vertical farming in general: considering that its image depends partly on the idea that it’s better for the environment, the high energy usage—and consequent emissions contribution—makes it somewhat controversial. The researchers also point out that most field-based cereal farming around the world is heavily subsidized to make it financially viable, so the elevated costs of vertical wheat farming would make it difficult to compete with traditional modes of production.
Innovation in energy production could go some way to closing this gap. The researchers highlight the growing potential of renewable energy to provide all the light needed to keep crops growing artificially indoors. But even so, if vertical wheat farming does take off, it’s likely to form only a tiny part of the market at first, until we figure out how to make it less costly. And in the meantime, the researchers acknowledge that there are more urgent agricultural challenges to tackle, and which we already know can improve food security and ease the pressures on our planet—such as reducing food waste, and diversifying our food sources so that we’re perhaps not so reliant on single monocrops.
Yet, it may also be the case that entirely separate forces speed up energy innovation and make vertical wheat farming a reality one day. For example, the association between wheat prices and food riots we’ve seen in the past “could be reason enough to develop and install some indoor wheat production facilities,” the researchers suggest. Climate change in regions already beset by food insecurity might also hasten the arrival of bold new farming approaches like this one.
So, while we might not quite be ready for vertical wheat farming, options like these are likely to become more important in our changing world. “Although it is unlikely that indoor wheat farming will be economically competitive with current market prices in the near future,” the researchers say, “it could play an essential role in hedging against future climate or other unexpected disruptions to the food system.”
Source: Asseng et. al. “Wheat yield potential in controlled-environment vertical farms.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2020.
The Underwater Habitat With A Greenhouse
Swiss designer Yves Behar has unveiled his design for French ocean conservationist Fabien Cousteau's underwater pressurised research station that will be "the ocean's equivalent to the International Space Station".
29-07-2020 | Msn News/ India Block
Swiss designer Yves Behar has unveiled his design for French ocean conservationist Fabien Cousteau's underwater pressurised research station that will be "the ocean's equivalent to the International Space Station".
Behar designed the station, which is called Proteus, for the Fabien Cousteau Ocean Learning Center. It will have its own greenhouse to allow scientists to grow their own food 18 metres under the sea near Curaçao, an island in the Caribbean.
Up to 12 researchers and aquanauts – scientists who remain underwater breathing pressurised air for over 24 hours – will be able to live in Proteus at a time.
Like the International Space Station, Proteus will allow scientists to collaborate and make new discoveries in an inhospitable environment.
"The research station will enable the discovery of new species of marine life, create a better understanding of how climate change affects the ocean, and allow for the testing of advanced technologies for green power, aquaculture, and robotic exploration," Behar told Dezeen.
Living underwater in a pressurised environment, rather than just diving in, allows scientists to spend far more time in the water and only decompress at the end of their assignment.
Proteus is the result of Behar's studio Fuseproject being commissioned by Cousteau, and his non-profit the Fabien Cousteau Ocean Learning Center (FCOLC).
"We needed to understand the constraints that come from building underwater and the challenges of living in an underwater structure," Behar said.
"The social isolation, the humidity, the lack of light and lack of exercise all needed to be addressed," he explained. "I learned about these challenges from Fabien, who had the record as the person who lived longest in an underwater habitat."
© Provided by Dezeen Proteus by Yves Behar
Cousteau broke the record, previously set by his grandfather, with a 31-day-long stay in an underwater laboratory off the coast of Florida called Aquarius.
Behar used Cousteau's experience to inform the design of Proteus, which has two levels connected by a curving ramp with pods set around the edges.
Circular-shaped main spaces are designed to encourage teamwork and social interaction for the scientists. Pods around the perimeter are designed to hold specific laboratories, bathrooms and areas for sleeping.
"Both circular floors are offset to allow as much natural light as possible through skylights and portholes, and are connected by a sloping ramp which creates the opportunity for physical activity," said Behar.
Social spaces will be kept separate from the more humid areas of the wet labs and the moon pool – the space in an underwater habitat where occupants can access the water directly in a protected environment.
© Provided by Dezeen Proteus by Yves Behar
An underwater greenhouse will allow occupants to grow their own food, allowing them to stay underwater for longer and cope more comfortably with the confines of a pressurised environment where no open flames for cooking are allowed.
Behar deliberately gave the underwater habitat a retrofuturist vibe in keeping with the way science fiction has traditionally imagined underwater living.
"Fabien and I looked at many exploratory designs from the 60s and 70s, a golden era of interest for the oceans pioneered by the Cousteau family history," Behar told Dezeen.
"We felt that Proteus could incorporate a new visual language based on modern hull and composite building technology, as well as be a state-of-the-art scientific environment while delivering a comfortable social interior space."
In keeping with the Cousteau dynasty's ocean conservation goals, Proteus will be powered by renewable energy. The habitat will use a mixture of wind, solar, and Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), a process that produces electricity using the difference in temperature between warm water on the surface and cold water from the deep ocean.
Cousteau will head to Curaçao to map the site as soon the borders shut due to the coronavirus pandemic open, hopefully in September. Behar estimates it will then take 36 months to build and lower Proteus to the ocean floor.
Behar hopes Proteus will be one of a series of marine habitats dedicated to research and conservation. As well as scientists, the designer hopes the facility will be able to welcome civilian visitors.
"Proteus is designed to be a scientific environment, but also to create that desire in people to want to visit," he said.
"For me, it’s a lot more exciting to visit Proteus than going to Mars."
Behar embraces technology with his designs, which include plans for 3D-printed houses for impoverished farmers and a wearable UV sensor to protect against skin cancer.
The post Proteus is an underwater habitat with a greenhouse designed by Yves Behar appeared first on Dezeen.
Source: Msn News/ India Block
Photo Provided by Dezeen
Second Chances Farm Secures $1.5M Investment, Eyes Growth
The company, founded and led by the well-known fundraiser and marketer Ajit George, seeks to solve several different societal issues at once, including recidivism, climate change, unemployment, and food insecurity
July 20, 2020
Caleb Brown checks on some of the plantings at Second Chances Farm in Wilmington. The company is receiving increasing investment and attention. | DBT PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
WILMINGTON – For Second Chances Farm (SCF), what began as a dream just a few years ago has quickly turned into a growing spotlight, increasing financial strength and the hope of one day replicating its burgeoning successes elsewhere.
The company, founded and led by the well-known fundraiser and marketer Ajit George, seeks to solve several different societal issues at once, including recidivism, climate change, unemployment, and food insecurity. It does so through vertical farming, or the indoor, hydroponic growing of plants, and exclusively hiring those leaving prison.
After opening in late 2019, the state’s first vertical farm began tending more than 60,000 plantings in February. To date, it has hired two dozen former inmates, which gained the attention of the Trump administration.
Founder Ajit George wants to address many societal issues through Second Chances Farm. | DBT PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Earlier this year, it was featured in a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development report on Opportunity Zones, a redevelopment program that focuses on underserved communities through tax-deferred investments. Located in the Riverside community in Wilmington’s northeast, SCF is located in an Opportunity Zone, which has helped it attract investors.
On July 20, two appointed members of the Trump administration attended a showcase for the company that highlighted its journey and growth. More than a dozen of the employees – who include Blacks and whites, men and women, Delaware natives and transplants, high school dropouts and a Harvard University grad – shared their personal stories for Scott Turner, executive director of the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, and Pastor John “Tony” Lowden, executive director of the Federal Interagency Council on Crime Prevention and Improving Reentry.
“Being here is not a second chance, it saved my life. It’s a last chance,” said Kalief Ringgold, who served years in prison after falling into Wilmington’s drug dealing and thanked SCF with helping him to turn his life around.
“We have a remarkable group of saints who used to be sinners,” George added, noting that five employees have begun a yearlong, entrepreneurs–in-residence program.
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The Road Ahead For Vertical Farming
"In the next 10-15 years, it will rise as one of the dominant forms of agriculture." In a recent webinar presented by the Association for Vertical Farming and Heliospectra, the opportunities and challenges facing the vertical farming industry in 2020 and beyond were highlighted, resulting in quotes like the one introducing this article
"In the next 10-15 years, it will rise as one of the dominant forms of agriculture." In a recent webinar presented by the Association for Vertical Farming and Heliospectra, the opportunities and challenges facing the vertical farming industry in 2020 and beyond were highlighted, resulting in quotes like the one introducing this article. Moderated by AVF Chairwoman, Christine Zimmerman-Loessl, the three guests, Nate Storey (Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer of Plenty), Joel Cuello (Professor of Biosystems Engineering, University of Arizona) and Ali Ahmadian (President & CEO, Heliospectra) shone their light on where the industry is headed.
"On the cusp of growth"
According to Joel, the vertical farming industry has had a historic run in growth and proliferation globally in the last five or so years. "Going forward, especially in terms of the enormous COVID-19 disruptions in fresh produce chain, vertical farming will continue growing", he says. "It should be economically viable, but it shouldn't just be a growth story, but also of sustainability and resilience."
Nate adds that currently, the vertical farming industry is still in its infancy. "We're on the cusp of growth and expansion as an industry. By and large, the world is still skeptical because vertical farming isn't a dominant form of production yet, but in the next 10-15 years it will rise as one of the dominant forms of agriculture."
Tech catches up with vision
Having moved on from the stage of pioneers and visionaries (who were, in a sense, "too early", because they saw the potential for vertical farming, but the tech didn't match up to their visions), Nate says that "we're now at a point where the tech matches the need; technology has caught up with the vision", adding that it's not going to be a pain-free road. "Folks will be challenged by the economic fundamentality of the business. We need to either offer a differentiated product, or a product that is cost-competitive with the field, so they're accessible to people."
At Plenty, he says, the primary tech inputs are LED and semiconductors. "As costs go down, we reap the benefits - same with data storage, genetics, etc. So we have created our own tech cost curve around indoor ag, which drives costs down and quality up." As a result, the yield for the same amount of energy increased by 12x at Plenty, Nate explains.
There's still a world to win when it comes to the proper use of tech, however. Ali: "50% of vertical farms today are profitable, while the other 50% are struggling. The main reason why vertical farms are struggling is because farmers underestimate the true cost of labor: many farmers overlook the way in which growing techniques make workers more or less efficient."
A small test of Mother Nature: "Get your act together"
Of course, the elephant in the room wasn't ignored by the panel. COVID-19 has had an impact on all industries, and vertical farms are no exception. "In the US, the fresh produce supply chain has been dramatically upended by COVID", Joel says. "Lots of growers were suddenly left without a place to deliver their produce. They need to establish new contacts, which is hard to do, so lots of fresh produce goes to waste."
At the same time, in a lot of major cities in the US, there's been a huge increase in demand for produce from vertical farms. The same thing happened in Europe, although there the dependence on seasonal workers from outside the EU has proven problematic, Joel explains, with a shortage of workers, again leading to produce going to waste.
Nate points out that in many cases the food supply chain is global now. "We've been pushing yield increases in the field to the max, but it's a system under stress, operating at the max all the time - break a link and the whole system comes crashing down." With instabilities like climate change, Nate argues the industry has a lot of buttressing to do. "COVID was a small test of Mother Nature, basically saying 'get your act together'. As the COVID situation affected the Bay Area (where our flagship farm is), our sales have doubled - indoor produce is a supplement to produce from the field, and retailers are realizing the usefulness of indoor produce."
The crucial role of governments
With the COVID crisis, governments have been giving more attention to indoor/vertical farms now. According to Ali, this will open up huge opportunities for current and future vertical farmers.
Nate agrees. "Government recognition is super important - it's a capital intensive business." At Plenty, they're building agricultural infrastructure, comparable to electricity and water. Nate even goes so far as to say that in the future, food production will become one of those utilities. "Government has to play an important role in getting the industry off the ground, cutting red tape and supporting producers, like with loans and capital to help the industry get started. Government support will be a critical step for this industry."
Christine agrees that the role of governments is important, but they also need to be made aware of the opportunities of vertical farming, they need to be informed of what it is and what it isn't. "Governments always say: 'Human beings can't live on salad - so where do we go with this vertical farming industry? Will we produce things like corn and maize in a vertical farm? What is the blueprint of the future?" So informing and educating is also of the utmost importance.
Attracting investors
The same goes for attracting investors, another important pillar under the industry. According to Nate, "folks are starting to view vertical farming not as an if but a when question - what we've earned over the last decade or two is the recognition that this is a necessary thing. It's driven by incredible demographics changes, so it's an inevitability. We are proving that it can be an extremely profitable venture."
As a result, more people are starting to think about investing in this. "The money out there is going to get smarter and smarter about this industry", Nate adds. "Investors tended to be super-specialized in agriculture; now folks who don't come from that background are also approaching the space, having enough info to start making huge investments. So, access to capital will grow, but there is a gap between the capital which is more risk-tolerant and the capital with very little risk tolerance. We'll have to build relationships with risk-tolerant capital."
For more information:
Association for Vertical Farming
Marschnerstrasse,
81245 Munich,
Germany
info@vertical-farming.net
vertical-farming.net
Publication date: Thu 4 Jun 2020
Author: Jan Jacob Mekes
© HortiDaily.com
Growing Up: The Rise of Vertical Food Production
Vertical farming is a novel food production system that doesn’t require arable land, but instead makes use of derelict spaces in an urban environment. Instead of growing crops the traditional way, in fields, utilizing the sun or greenhouses, vertical farming grows crops by stacking them vertically, in cities, utilizing UV lights
Today the population of the world is approximately 7.8 billion, and it is predicted to grow by another 2 billion people by 2050. Arable land is continuously lost due to industrial development and urbanization, and as such the increasing food demand of the growing population alongside the decreasing of arable land is an enormous challenge. There is thus a need for realistic strategies for implementing novel food production systems around the world. Could the answer lie in vertical farming?
What is Vertical Farming?
Vertical farming is a novel food production system that doesn’t require arable land, but instead makes use of derelict spaces in an urban environment. Instead of growing crops the traditional way, in fields, utilizing the sun or greenhouses, vertical farming grows crops by stacking them vertically, in cities, utilizing UV lights. This method of indoor farming meets all seventeen requirements of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. These goals are a plan to attain a better and more sustainable future for the world’s population and address current global challenges. Furthermore, vertical farming also incorporates all of the Urban Future program’s ten tracks, who believe that cities are key to a sustainable future for our planet.
Furthermore, it has been proposed that rooftop greenhouses be developed in schools in Barcelona, Spain. It is believed that schools can play an important role in environmental sustainability and the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology in Barcelona has developed a procedure to install rooftop greenhouses in compact cities. The implementation of urban agriculture proposals supports the development of novel methods for environmental sustainability in our ever-growing world.
How Does it Work?
There are three main models for vertical farming:
Hydroponics, where plants are grown in a nutrient-rich basin of water.
Aeroponics, where crops’ roots are periodically sprayed with a mist containing water and nutrients.
Aquaponics, which involves breeding fish to help cultivate bacteria that is used for plant nutrients.
Aeroponics uses less water overall but is technically more complicated. Interestingly, the water used in hydroponics can be recycled several times after it has evaporated from the plant and recaptured from the humid air.
Pros and Cons of Vertical Farming
Vertical farming is able to yield more crops per square meter than traditional farming or greenhouses can. Furthermore, vertical farming is not weather or season dependent, and as such year-round crop production is possible. Vertical farming also uses 70-95% less water than traditional methods and as the crops are produced in a well-controlled indoor environment it is possible to eliminate the use of chemical pesticides and grow organic crops with a faster harvesting method. This is key, as one of the biggest problems with fresh vegetables is the time it takes between harvest and consumption. A faster harvesting times could mean that more vitamins and nutrients are also maintained within the produce.
Vertical farming is a relatively new venture and as such, the financial and economic feasibility remains uncertain. Yet several vertical farming companies have been set up in the past decade utilizing old warehouses and disused factories with structures to grow vegetables and herbs. One certain disadvantage is the initial cost of real estate in cities, which could impede the viability of urban locations. In addition, labor costs in cities tend to be higher. Although, maybe most impeding is the total dependence on power for lighting, maintenance of temperature, and humidity, and as such the loss of power for just one day could see a significant loss in production.
Conclusion
Vertical farming has the ability to provide fresh and safe food in sufficient quantities, independent of climate and location. Today, we are well aware of climate change and the immediate need to change our current way of life, as such vertical farming and food production has the potential to become a necessary solution in global food production.
References
The United Nations. Sustainable Development Goals. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
Urban Future Programme’s Ten Tracks. https://www.urban-future.org/about/
What You Should Know About Vertical Farming. https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-you-should-know-about-vertical-farming-4144786
Association for Vertical Farming. https://vertical-farming.net/
How Vertical Farming Reinvents Agriculture. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170405-how-vertical-farming-reinvents-agriculture
Nadal A et al. (2018) Rooftop greenhouses in educational centers: A sustainability assessment of urban agriculture in compact cities. Science of The Total Environment. Jun 1;626:1319-1331
VeggiTech Builds and Operates Digital Smart Farms For Customers
In conversation with Hemant Julka, Chief Operating Officer, VeggiTech
By GN Focus | May 28, 2020 | Gulf News
In conversation with Hemant Julka, Chief Operating Officer, VeggiTech
Could you tell us about VeggiTech and its operations in the UAE?
VeggiTech is an agro-tech organisation focused on disrupting the agriculture industry to create sustainable and eco-friendly farms. We focus on LED-assisted hydroponics for indoor vertical farms and protected hydroponics to farm sustainably even in the UAE’s challenging conditions, where soil, temperature and water are not conducive to traditional farming. Our farming landscape has grown to over 60 acres of protected hydroponic farms and more than 45,000 sq ft of indoor vertical farms, with a team of over 150 qualified agronomists, engineers and farmers.
How could you help traditional farms in the country incorporate hydroponic farming practices?
VeggiTech’s business model is to build and operate digital smart farms for our customers. We drive the transformation of farms with these innovative technologies in a cost-effective manner. The year 2019 saw more than 35 acres of traditional farms converted into protected hydroponics and the introduction of 45,000 sq ft of indoor vertical farms in Sharjah alone.
Given our expertise, we ensure the latest innovation in farming technology is delivered with optimal return on investment for our customers.
Could you talk about a couple of key projects that you have handled recently?
Some of our recent successes were the conversion of a traditional farms (640,000 sq ft) into modern protected hydroponic farms and the commissioning of the indoor vertical farm of 25,000 sq ft grow area. Our protected hydroponics technologies provide a harvest of 40-45kg per sq m per annum, while our indoor vertical farms provide a harvest of 85-90kg per sq m per annum using less than 5 percent of the water used in traditional farming.
What initiatives have you taken to create more awareness on hydroponics and other innovative farming technologies for a sustainable agricultural ecosystem in the UAE?
Education is key for long term sustainable impact. We work closely with the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE). Our Chief Agronomy Officer, Bhaskar Rao, leads our Learning Hub platform that hosts the Urban Grower’s programme for students, parents and teachers. We have had more than 50 graduate participants from the programme.
PAKISTAN: Responding Creatively To Crisis With Non-Traditional Farming
Vertical gardens and microgardens have enjoyed new popularity in recent years, which the COVID-19 pandemic may catalyze further
27/05/2020
Rehman produces okra, gourds, melons, and tomatoes in the two tunnel garden units he built in the back yard of his home in Aka Khel, a town in one of Pakistan’s most food-insecure regions. Each less than a meter wide, these creative and economical structures are a type of low-technology greenhouse, consisting of steel tubes clad with a plastic covering and lined with irrigation hoses.
FAO helped him install these earlier this year and now “it’s a relief at a time when markets and transports are closed due to the pandemic,” he says. He is one of the millions of people around the world responding creatively to mitigate the pandemic’s disruptions to the food supply chain, which risk making food less available where it is needed most due both to logistical bottlenecks and declining incomes triggered by the health emergency. In this scenario, solutions that shorten the food supply chain, including vertical and urban farming have taken on new importance.
Despite the fact that prices for wheat and rice, staple foods for Pakistani families, rose sharply in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province due to COVID-19 restrictions on movement, Rehman was still able to feed his family. With the produce from his garden, they also have a more diversified diet. FAO, working with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), also helped 75 of Rehman’s neighbors build tunnel farms, which help lengthen cropping seasons, intensify yields and boost local availability of fresh nutritious produce. Rehman says his tomato plants are producing five to ten times as much as they would in an open field.
Farming vertically
Vertical gardens and microgardens have enjoyed new popularity in recent years, which the COVID-19 pandemic may catalyze further. The former are often high-tech urban facilities allowing vegetables to grow indoors or outdoors using hydroponics while the latter are tiny farming plots that fit in urban settings. Both can offer high-yield opportunities to grow leafy green vegetables and other high-value food crops. Restaurants are even engaging in a type of microgarden, also called “precision indoor farming”, thanks to a company in Budapest, Tungsram, that was the first to patent the modern light bulb. Today it produces a closet-sized cabinet with computer-controlled lighting and temperatures and an integrated hydroponics system that allows businesses to create their own indoor gardens with minimal labor. Vertical farms, on the other hand, are often large urban operations, housed in old warehouses or basements. Some practitioners can even duplicate conditions needed to grow the world-famous basil from Italy or the prized Omakase strawberry from Japan.
But vertical farming isn’t just a trend in developed countries. In Kibera, a densely populated part of Nairobi, households use sack gardens made from local sisal fibers to grow onions and spinach without blocking alleyways. In Kampala, locals stack wooden crates around a central composting chamber and use old plastic water bottles for a precision-drop irrigation system to grow kale.
In Dakar, FAO helped galvanize microgardens as a food and nutrition strategy for poor households vulnerable to malnutrition. Today the city, with the participation of thousands of middle-class families, runs that program, which relies on one square meter structures made of coconut fibers to facilitate soil-less cultivation. “It’s ideal for short-cycle, high-value horticultural crops, including mushrooms and spices,” says Rémi Nono Womdim, Deputy Director of FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division.
There are a host of extra benefits compared to open-field farming, including the possibility to reduce water use, limit pesticide applications and produce year-round, garnering additional income and insurance against temporary interruptions of normal access to food, he says. In Cairo, elaborate rooftop gardens can reduce ambient temperatures by as much as seven degrees Celsius.
Urban farming & greener cities
A longtime advocate of engineering greener cities and a lead author of FAO’s landmark report on efforts to do so in lower-income cities, Nono Womdim estimates that more than 360 million urban residents in Africa and Latin America alone already engage in some form of urban or peri-urban horticulture. The trick is to recognize their efforts with policy frameworks that ensure they have access to necessary inputs – including some form of land tenure as well as access to water and energy. Urban gardens and shorter food supply chains also underscore how food security depends on access to nutritious food, Nono Womdim says. “Additional benefits include reducing food waste and minimizing packaging,” he adds.
Producing locally may not always be the answer, but as the COVID-19 emergency has highlighted, in times of crisis, every little bit helps in reducing food insecurity. By the same logic, rudimentary vertical farming makes a lot of sense in extreme and remote conditions. The case is even stronger for ensuring that food systems can innovatively respond to natural disasters, conflict, or the chronic stresses expected to intensify with climate change.
That is why FAO is urging policymakers to facilitate shorter supply chains as a complement that can add sustainability, inclusion, and nutritional value to the world’s remarkably efficient production systems for staple carbohydrates. In the Khyber highlands, Rehman agrees. He’s already installed an additional tunnel unit at his own expense and enjoys his transformation from someone who always had to look for extra income to support his family to someone keen to keep his children in school and who people in the region seek out for advice. “I am very motivated now,” he says.
Tags: COVID-19, FOOD CRISIS, FOOD INSECURITY, FOOD SECURITY, VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES, FOOD CHAIN, AGRICULTURE, FARMERS, CLIMATE CHANGE, CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE,
Pros and Cons of Vertical Farming Systems: What You Need to Know
When you live in the city, there isn’t room for fields and fields of farmland. So, vertical farming systems allow for urban areas to organically grow their own food without taking up too much space
As urban areas become more populated, cities need to turn to vertical farming methods as the primary way of growing food. Vertical farming systems allow cities to grow microgreens, vegetables, and fruits in small contained spaces.
When you live in the city, there isn’t room for fields and fields of farmland. So, vertical farming systems allow for urban areas to organically grow their own food without taking up too much space.
But, what are the pros and cons of vertical farming? We’ll cover everything you need to know in this article.
What are the advantages of vertical farming systems?
There are plenty of advantages to vertical farming. Some of the main advantages include:
Year-Round Yields: When you grow crops with vertical farming methods, you will have year-round grows. Since the crops are grown in a controlled environment, they are able to keep growing throughout every season.
Weather Resistant: Crops grown indoors aren’t susceptible to damage by flooding, droughts, or pests! One of the main reasons as to why vertical farming works is that farmers can have full control of the environment.
Produces Organic Foods: Vertical farming systems promote the growth of organic, healthy foods. You don’t have to use pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers to grow plants.
Leaves a Smaller Footprint: Vertical farming uses upward growth methods to harvest crops in small settings. These methods use less land to grow foods, which allows farmlands to their natural habitat.
What are the disadvantages of vertical farming?
While there are many advantages to vertical farming, we still have to understand the disadvantages. There are a few cons that come with these intricate systems.
They're Pricey: To start, vertical farming can be expensive in urban areas because of the construction and technology costs. This is why developers are reluctant to invest in vertical farming.
Requires Large Amounts of Electricity: In order to grow foods like grains, vegetables, or fruits, a lot of electricity is needed. We’ll have to rely on artificial lights to encourage growth, which can be expensive.
Can Lead to Potential Job Loss: As a new agricultural industry, vertical farming could replace a lot of traditional farming jobs. Food demands will be met by urban vertical farming, and the demand for traditional farmers could go down. This can result in a loss of jobs. But, it will also create new jobs within the city.
The Importance of Vertical Farming Systems
Vertical farming is a sustainable solution to growing foods within urban areas. As populations increase, food demands will rise. To meet these needs, we have to start implementing vertical farming systems to meet demands.
We at the Nick Greens Grow Team understand the importance of vertical farming, which is why we teach our followers how to successfully grow microgreens at home.
To stay on top of advancements in sustainable food growing, you should read our new blog posts every Thursday. Wanna learn how to grow your own microgreens at home?
Watch our new YouTube videos every Friday on our personal channel!
#verticalgrowing #verticalfarming #verticalfarmingsystems #urbanfarming #urbanfarm #indoorgrowing #indoorgrow #growfoodindoors
UAE Farm Tech To The Fore
New technologies are helping the country make more of its own produce
New technologies are helping the country make more of its own produce
Over a span of just six months, Covid-19 has not only changed the way we work, celebrate occasions and stay healthy but also forced countries to take a hard look at how they feed their residents. “I believe the current pandemic has provided us the opportunity to completely reimagine the global food system,” says Tony Hunter, a global food futurist.
Going urban
One of the factors pushing the global agri-tech agenda is the growth and increasing density of cities. “By 2050, more than two thirds of the world’s population is forecasted to live in cities,” explains Smitha Paresh, Executive Director of Greenoponics, a UAE-based retailer of commercial and consumer hydroponics systems, adding that urban agriculture will be crucial for feeding burgeoning urban populations.
“On a macro level, we will see a rise in urban farming, mostly using high-tech farming methods such as hydroponics, aeroponics or aquaponics.” Paresh cites Singapore’s conversion of car parks into urban farm centres as an example. “In the UAE, as per the national food security strategy for 2017-2021, we have already witnessed a huge increase in climate-controlled greenhouses all over the country.”
Arable environments
For Hunter, who spoke about potential silver linings of Covid-19 at a recent Gulfood webinar, new technologies present the best means of achieving domestic self-sufficiency. “They can release countries from the tyrannies of arable land and water stress.” He singles out algal products that rely on low rainfall and can use seawater; cultivated meat and biomass products; cell-based products such as milk proteins; and synthetic biology that can manufacture a range of food products.
Over the long term, Ravindra Shirotriya, CEO, VeggiTech, believes there are three critical areas for sustainable farming in the UAE. The first is precision agriculture, which focuses on growing conditions for plants using hyperbaric chambers and nanotechnology-based organic nutrition. Photo bio-reactors, meanwhile, can cultivate food-grade algae such as spirulina. Finally, Shirotriya cites smart farms, which work with smart cities to create harvest plans based on real-time data on food demand and consumption within communities. “This will address our current broken food ecosystem, where we waste 35 percent of food while 15 percent of the world population goes to sleep hungry.”
VeggiTech’s primary focus is on setting up LED-assisted hydroponics for indoor vertical farms and protected hydroponics for sustainable farming in the UAE.
In terms of crop production, Avinash Vora, Co-founder of Aranya Farms, says new technologies aim to boost yields, reduce waste and grow produce entirely. “Technology is being applied at every stage, whether for plant seeding, monitoring growth, managing water, energy conservation, harvesting and packaging. “We are making huge strides adapting all of them here in the UAE; the interest and investments in agriculture prove that.”
For Philippe Peguilhan, Country Manager of Carrefour UAE at Majid Al Futtaim Retail, the UAE had already been seeking self-reliance in food production, but coronavirus amped up its importance. “The disruption that Covid-19 caused to the supply chain highlighted the importance of local produce and presented an excellent opportunity for local farmers to grab a greater share of the market.” Majid Al Futtaim recently made headlines for opening the UAE’s third, and Dubai’s first, in-store hydroponics farm.
Hydroponic hope
Hydroponics is one agri-tech that’s attracting keen investor interest. “As an indicator, Madar Farms’ 7,000-sq-m factory will produce 365 tons of tomatoes a year, and about 14,000 tons of cherry vine tomatoes were consumed in the UAE in 2019,” says Hunter. “There’s therefore the market opportunity for 38 Madar farms in the UAE for tomatoes alone. Add in other nutrient-dense crops such as cucumbers, peppers and leafy greens. Depending upon their size, we could be looking at several hundred businesses.”
On an individual level, more people are leaning towards home farming, especially towards soil-less cultivation since it is simple and easy, according to Paresh. “It guarantees a certain amount of yield. Home farming will be on the rise, considering the disruption we may face in trying times like this.”
As with most technologies, Hunter says the biggest challenge of hydroponics is profitability. “Fortunately, the costs of technology inputs required to optimise hydroponic production efficiencies are falling rapidly. This drop, together with simultaneous increases in performance, is driving down the costs of hydroponics, making acceptable ROIs much easier to achieve.” He adds that economies of scale can help achieve good ROIs. “Currently most farms are in the 1-2 ton per day range but farms of 50 tons per day are being projected by as early as 2025.”
Sustainability challenges
“Challenges in building our own farm were access to sufficient and cost-effective electricity; renewable sources of water; and the availability of locally made raw materials, specifically growing media, nutrients and seeds. With seeds we are adapting — we have been growing our own seeds but having a library of seeds to choose from that are suitable for our climate and environment would be a huge boon to all farmers.”
— Avinash Vora, Co-founder of Aranya Farms
By Riaz Naqvi, Staff Writer | Gulf News | May 28, 2020
