Why We Believe Vertical, Urban Farming Can Help Save The Planet!

Sophie | 2020

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Our vertical, hydroponic farm based in Paddington, London.

Increasingly, we are all becoming aware of the negative impact of our food system on the environment. As individuals many of us are taking action to reduce the environmental impact of our diets, whether we’re reducing our meat and dairy consumption by trying out ‘meat-free Mondays’ or ‘veganuary’, buying zero waste foods, trying to buy more locally produced food or even growing our own.

Ultimately, we are looking for ways to minimize the negative environmental impacts of our food system. At Square Mile Farms, we believe that urban farming can play an important role in building a sustainable food system. Not only can we reduce food miles and prevent natural habitats from being converted for growing, we can also re-engage people to help them understand how food reaches their plates, which we believe is essential to enact real change going forward.

How does the current food system negatively impact the environment?

Conventional industrial farming contributes significantly to issues such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, and the release of carbon emissions. According to the Food Climate Research Network, the global food system is responsible for around 20-30% of greenhouse gas emissions. The WWF notes that food is responsible for 60% of global biodiversity loss and the UNFAO records that food production accounts for 70% of freshwater withdrawals.

The clearing of forests for livestock or growing crops is doubly concerning: not only do these practices have their own environmental impacts, e.g. methane emissions and issues related to fertilizer run-off, but they are also destroying forests which are important ‘carbon sinks’, absorbing approximately 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide yearly according to the UN.

Clearly, our current food system is flawed and this is only set to worsen as demands increase.

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Infographic from: FCRN, ‘What is the food system’s contribution to the global GHG emissions total?’

Growing pressures on the food system

By 2050 the UN predicts the world population will grow to 9 billion: this is expected to require 60% more food and increase demand for water by 20% in the agriculture sector alone. So we need to find ways of making the food system more sustainable. We need to increase food production, while minimizing the environmental impact, or ideally making it negligible.

How can hydroponic farming in offices lessen the environmental impact of our food system?

We believe hydroponic, vertical farming is part of the solution to this issue. This method of growing food uses around 90% less water than conventional agricultural systems and can increase crop yields by up to 500%. So we can tackle two key problems in our current food system, the demand for water (by using considerably less) and the spatial impact (growing vertically allows a much more efficient use of space). By using existing urban spaces, such as workplaces, we can grow veg and herbs without converting more land for agricultural purposes.

Growing in offices also has the benefit of reducing food miles. By bringing food production to population centers, and further to that, by bringing it to people’s workplaces we are able to provide fresh produce where people are. If you’re taking home fresh produce once a week from work, there are virtually no food miles involved as you’d be traveling to and from work anyway!

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Our office farm installations.

Another important way in which office farming can help improve our food system is by re-engaging consumers in cities. Writing for the World Economic Forum, Ellen MacArthur, a champion of Circular Economy, emphasized the important role cities will have in achieving a sustainable food system, especially because “80% of all food is expected to be consumed in cities by 2050”. She notes that cities should source food locally where possible and that they should avoid being “passive consumers” and instead, use their demand power to reward responsible farming practices. Office farming allows us to bring food production to the forefront of people’s minds, driving engagement, and encouraging conversation around our food system. We believe this is vital in order to educate and to inspire the change that we need to secure a sustainable future.

We believe that individual action is important when it comes to enacting change, but to achieve this we need innovative ideas that make it achievable for consumers to make such changes a reality. That’s why we bring urban farming to offices. We install farm walls and displays to improve employee wellbeing, drive engagement, and of course, provide fresh, nutritious produce. If you’d like to find out more about our offering click here.

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Sources:

Bradley, P. and Marulanda, C., ‘Simplified Hydroponics to Reduce Global Hunger’, Acta Hortic. 554, 289-296.

Innovate UK, ‘Predictions - The Future of Food’.

MacArthur, Ellen, ‘Our food system is no longer fit for the 21st century’.

FCRN, ‘What is the food system’s contribution to the global GHG emissions total?'

UNFAO, ‘Water’.

UNFAO, ‘Water Use’.

UN News, ‘Climate Change’.

WWF, ‘Why we’re working on food’.

UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme, ‘The United Nations world water development report, 2016’.

UAE Farm Tech To The Fore

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