While agriculture is suffering from the impacts of climate change, it is also one of the leading causes of the problem. The production of this food is costly: meat and dairy have the highest global carbon footprint and the agriculture sector uses 70 percent of the world’s freshwater. This coupled with higher demand and pressure from the effects of climate change creates a vicious cycle. But how do we break it? Bowery Farming, an innovative farming startup, believes it has the answer. The company’s high-tech, indoor, farms use a hydroponic system allowing them to use 95 percent less water than traditional agriculture to grow crops. On top of that, vertical farming requires less space, meaning that it is 100 percent more productive than a traditional farm on the same amount of land. Using a mix of software, cameras, lights, and robotics, the firm can control precisely how plants grow. And because the farms are indoors, in closely controlled environments, there is no need for pesticides, herbicides, or any other agrochemicals at all. Today, the company grows and sells its own brand of baby kale, butterhead lettuce, arugula, mixed kales, and basil, and has already started experimenting beyond leafy greens with root vegetables such as turnips.
High-tech indoor farming could be the answer to our agriculture problems
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