“We don’t need acres and acres of the field at certain times of the year” How could Vertical farms help solve the Climate Crisis in the United Kingdom?
Traditional farming in the UK has caused thousands of acres of land to be deforested to grow crops, which can only be harvested once a year. Producing 5 times as many crops and taking up less space than a football pitch, could vertical farming be the future?
The idea of vertical farms first started in a lecture hall in 1999 at Columbia University in New York City by lecturer Dickson D. Despommier. However it was not until 2009 in London that the idea of the first farm came to light at Paignton Zoo Environmental Park.
Vertical farming could save farmers thousands of hectares of land in the long term. Instead of growing crops in fields, farmers stack the crops vertically on top of one another and artificially replicate the right growing conditions inside. Vertical farms can also be housed in disused barns as well as brownfield sites, meaning fewer new sites need to be developed.
Jason Hawkins Row, who is the CEO of Aponic International, has been vertical farming in Suffolk since 2013. He said: “Normally we will create a controlled or semi-controlled environment. So it extends our growing period. So we may well be able to have four five or six harvests a year where sometimes you’d only get one yield.”
Neil Coole who is the current food and supply chain director for the British standards institution, has over two decades of experience in standards development, testing, inspection and certification.
He spoke positively of the impacts vertical farming can have on the food industry, he said: “Vertical farming can offer several benefits to the agri-food industry from increased efficiency that allows for maximum use of available space.
Since 2009 the industry has grown to be worth $3.45 Billion. Traditional farms currently take up 903,000,000 square metres of land within the Northwest, with an average farm being 710,000,000. Whereas the average vertical farm plant takes up around 5,000 square metres. This equivocates to being smaller than a football pitch which averages 7,140 square metres.
“So simply by stacking these containers on top of each other, they can create an environment where you can grow year-round crop production at an indoor facility, controlling it through climate control systems and artificial lighting.”
Aponic International claim that this model can save 95% of the water used in traditional farming and crops can grow at a 30% faster rate.
Mr Hawkins-Row also said his farm is more profitable since he started vertical farming he said: “The outlay in the capital is much lower, which again, is very different from farming. We’ve got a business model where you’ll repay the capital in three to five years, whereas farming capital is usually repaid in terms of generations.
“Most farmers have been spending the last 10 years for sure, setting up alternative energy systems on their farm with solar panels and biogas and all sorts of things. They’re in a good position to take that up. They’re seeing that actually what they can do is a much lower capital investment and a much lower energy overhead, they can produce food all year round. So they’ve now got full-time jobs rather than seasonal labour.”
Aponic farms are currently working with other commercial farms to develop the technology and ‘future-proof’ traditional farms, as well as being able to supply restaurants and other kitchens all year round with the same product, without transporting the products thousands of miles.
Mr Coole also said: “You create the ideal environment for that particular vegetable or fruit to grow in a controlled environment. So we don’t need acres and acres and acres of the field at certain times of the year to grow a certain fruit or vegetable.”
However, Trevor Williams, host of the Farm Travelers podcast claims vertical farming does have its downsides. He said: “The problem is that they have just been putting all their money into building these huge plants, these huge manufacturing facilities for the vertical farming, and so they haven’t necessarily turned to huge profit.
“One of the few downsides of vertical farming is that it’s extremely expensive, especially when you have these multimillion dollar companies starting from scratch”
Neil Coole, added this type of farming drives down the transport cost he said: “It has a massive impact on things like reduced transportation cost, if you look at where we get avocados from today, , we have to truck them and train them and fly them in some cases from certain regions like Mexico.”
A lot of people say it’s going to be more sustainable because hydroponics grows plants in water which is what most vertical farms use, it saves like 90% of water over the lifecycle of the plant”
Mr Williams is also sceptical of the current sustainability claims of vertical farming he said: “At least for now, the energy demands for vertical farms is high. Because you’ve got to run the lights, you’ve got to run the pumps, you’ve got to run the air conditioner, you’ve got to run the harvesting systems.”
And so it’s not that it’s completely changing how much energy is being made to produce our food because it’s a lot more. Maybe in 10 or 25 years, it’ll be greatly decreased.”
He also said he could not see vertical farming becoming the norm anytime soon: “At least right now, vertical farms can only produce like a handful of crops, usually, things like leafy greens, for example. fruit trees, vegetables, you can’t really [Grow them] with vertical farming yet.”
Martina Igini, Editor of Earth.org said: “Vertical farming can guarantee regular produce output and boost crop yields based on its controlled environment including temperature, light, humidity, and artificial intelligence.
“This green technology can easily be built into buildings, cities and even shipping containers.”
