Visitors to
the Dubai Expo 2020, which opens in October, will be expecting great things,
including gastronomic delights. But Dubai, being a desert country, imports most
of its food. However, the salads and herbs used by the caterers will be grown
in one of the world’s largest “vertical farms”, next to the Expo site.
Vertical
farming involves growing plants in an enclosed environment. To save space, the
plants are grown on non-soil substrates in stacked trays. Each tray is bathed
in artificial light and fed with water and nutrients. The Dubai farm is a
tie-up between CropOne, a Silicon Valley company, and Emirates Flight Catering.
Besides supplying the Expo, it will grow 2,700kg of leafy greens a day for the
inflight catering services at Dubai’s airport. The farm will use 99% less water
than growing crops outdoors.
Advances in
technology, especially in tuning light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to the colors
that encourage plants to grow best, are making such operations more viable, and
for a broader range of produce, including some fruit and vegetables. In 2020
Intelligent Growth Solutions, based near Dundee, Scotland, will start
delivering an LED system for vertical farming that, it says, will cut energy
costs in half.
Most
vertical farms will be built in or near cities to supply local markets
directly. Plenty, another American firm, has opened a highly automated farm
near San Francisco to supply more than 100 grocery stores. Other farms will be
smaller. Marks & Spencer, a British retailer, is installing
vertical-farming units made by Infarm, a German firm, to grow fresh herbs
directly in its supermarket aisles.
From The Economist (edited)
