‘Stacks of snooker tables in a tower’: Why vertical farms are the future of food production

"I think it’s going to be an incredibly important technology for feeding nine billion people."

What does the future of global food production look like? Stacks of snooker tables, according to VC investor Brian Caulfield. Vertical farming, or the practice of growing crops in layers under artificial conditions, is here and is set to completely redefine how we cultivate food, he says. "I spent a couple of days this week at a vertical farming technology business in Scotland," Brian said on this week's All In. "It’s essentially a building that is a tower. It has kind of snooker table-sized trays on which you’re growing plants typically under LED light and then you have kind of mechanical systems that enable you to move the trays around." Vertical farming maximises space, reduces environmental impact and helps to yield a better product, he explained. "It means that you can grow enormously more on a particular piece of land, 60 times more potentially for the size of an individual piece of land. "You can also very, very accurately control and optimise growing conditions. It means for example you can have much, much more locally grown produce, much fewer air miles and also much, much better quality because you have so much control over disease, pests and the environment in which the plants are growing."

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The significance of vertical farming can't be overstated, Brian continued. "I was just absolutely blown away. I just couldn’t say enough good things about it. I think it’s really going to take off and it’s going to be important for our future. I think it’s going to be an incredibly important technology for feeding nine billion people." Brian features on this week's episode of All In, JOE's brand new business show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCh4dlgKonE

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