This Subway Station In Seoul Doubles As A Futuristic Vegetable Garden

May 8, 2021

Although the image above might look like something straight out of Candyland—drat, my age is showing—I am pleased to inform you that it is part of our world. These aren’t sugar creations, but nutritious plants. In fact, if you lived in South Korea, you could enjoy these leafy greens from the comfort of the Sangdo metro station in Seoul.

These vegetables are not only sold there, they’re also grown there in a vertical smart farm taken care of by artificial intelligence-equipped robots, which control the environmental factors needed for the plants to grow. Managed by smart agriculture startup Farm8, the farm at Sangdo metro station is only 4,240 square feet (394 square meters), or teeny tiny compared to the average outdoor farm.

However, it is an example of how we can use technology to make agriculture more resilient in the face of climate change, which can wreak havoc on our food security.