Could houseplant factories be the norm in 10 years?

This story was originally published by The Guardian and appears here as part of the climatic table collaboration.

Behind a sealed door, inside a warehouse a 10-minute walk from Bristol city centre, shelves of vibrant spring onions sprout eagerly into a sky of multi-coloured LEDs. The air they breathe smells of earth, despite the absence of soil, while a mechanical hum provides a soothing substitute for birdsong.

welcome to the future of agriculturewhere herbs, salads and soft fruits are grown year-round in vast indoor plant factories.

In June, UK vertical farming startup Jones Food Company (JFCo) announced it was building the world’s largest vertical farm on the site of an old forge in Lydney, Gloucestershire.

Its chief executive, James Lloyd-Jones, predicts that within 10 years, the UK could be growing all its herbs, salad leaves, soft fruit and potentially cut flowers this way: “Vertical farms will become the norm within of the supply chain and will likely eliminate greenhouse production and imports.”

The seeds of this revolution are being sown, in vertically stacked layers of sheep’s wool, at JFCo’s innovation center in Bristol. Lloyd-Jones said: “Vertical farming can produce anything. It just grows a lot of stuff at too high a price to be commercially viable, so this is where we’re learning how to market it.”

In the first of the four 69-square-meter grow rooms, there are mounds of bright green chives. All environmental parameters in the room are strictly controlled, from the temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide content of the room to the color spectrum, the intensity and pattern of the light and dark cycle, and the nutrients seedlings are exposed.

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By adjusting these parameters and experimenting with different plant varieties, they are investigating the optimal conditions for growing these herbs.

“You are eliminating the need for sunlight and creating each environmental parameter perfectly for the needs of the plants. You’re giving them their prime, effectively two weeks in Barbados, where they come back relaxed, and then you’re harvesting them,” Lloyd-Jones said.

It’s easy to spot which seedlings have hit the jackpot: some of the trays contain lush green carpets of chives; other irregular outcrops.

Down the hall, similar experiments are underway with coriander and dill, while a 276m^two A strawberry lab is being built across the hall.

Growing this way could have numerous advantages. “One of the great benefits is that we are growing in a way that impact on naturesaid Charlie Guy, co-founder of LettUs Grow, a Bristol-based company developing technology for vertical farming.

“It also means we can focus more of our land on things like planting trees. So from a biodiversity standpoint, there are huge benefits.”

Because the nutrient-rich water that bathes plant roots is cleaned and reused up to 30 times, less is wasted. There is also no pesticide runoff into neighboring waterways, and there is no need for herbicides or pesticides because the plants are enclosed indoors.

Stacking plants on top of one another on shelves and growing them in consistent, optimized conditions 365 days a year also means that, in theory, every square meter of land is more productive, compared to conventional farms.

Another benefit is the consistency in the product itself. “Vertical farming allows you to grow things with a very consistent look and taste, which means they can be packaged more efficiently and there is less waste because fewer items are unappealing to supermarket shoppers,” said Professor Antony. Dodd by John Innes. centre, a research center in Norwich.

Even so, as of 2020, only about 30 hectares (75 acres) of operational vertical farmland existed worldwide. A key challenge is that growing indoors 24/7 requires a lot of electricity to power lights, heaters, humidifiers and other equipment.

JFCo’s solution is to invest in renewable energy: the roof of its farm in Lydney, which will eventually provide 1.5 hectares of growing space (equivalent to around 60 tennis courts), will be completely covered in solar panels, with room for more panels or a wind. turbine on neighboring land.

Guy said: “Energy is always an issue with vertical farming, but when it comes to renewable energy then it really is a very sustainable way of growing food, rather than importing it from around the world, and the risk issues of the supply chain and sustainability. associated with that.”

Companies are also exploring technologies that could reduce the cost of labor, for example by semi-automating the harvesting process: “A bit like a [robotic] Amazon or Ocado picking station, where you do what you have to do with the plant: prune it, pollinate it, remove the strawberries, and then put it back in position,” said Lloyd-Jones.

To further boost productivity, LettUs Grow is developing aeroponic growing methods, which involve spraying the roots of the plant with a very fine mist of nutrient solution, rather than letting them sit in it (hydroponics).

If plants have healthy roots, they will be able to use energy more efficiently and grow much better. A good analogy is, “if you think of nice, healthy soil, it’s got lots of air pockets, it’s got the right amount of nutrients, the right amount of moisture — we can effectively recreate that using aeroponics,” Guy said.

Even if these plant pioneers can make vertical farming profitable, it is unlikely to replace traditional farming with staple crops such as wheat, rice or potatoes. These have a longer growing season and require a lot of light, compared to herbs or salad leaves.

“A field of wheat does not sell for as much money as a field of lettuce. There is a sweet spot in terms of the speed at which things grow and the amount of energy that needs to go into the system for these facilities to be economically viable,” Dodd said.

Where vertical farming might be viable is for crops with shorter growing seasons, such as salad leaves, herbs, and soft fruits like strawberries or blueberries.

“It’s not the answer to food security, but it’s one of a number of different things that can contribute to producing food in a more sustainable way,” Dodd said.