I always loved visiting my friends who were living on farms. Among the green pastures or picturesque canola fields, or amid the silence of the wide-stretched Karoo, the air seemed to be much fresher than in the city. But in New Jersey (and a few other places near cities) there is a very different type of farm inside a massive but unremarkable warehouse in an industrial park overlooking some parking lots.
Although it looks nothing like the wide open farms in South Africa, this is the headquarters of the famous Bowery Farming that is known for their innovative farming methods and technology.
Bowery Farming is trying to change the future of agriculture. In a time of major climate changes, climate warming, overpopulation, crippling global droughts, water scarcity and restrictions, Bowery Farming offers a solution to one of the biggest threats facing our agriculture industry by offering shelf-ready food grown throughout the year, regardless of the weather, without the use of any pesticides, while using an amazing 95 percent less water.
News of Cape Town’s “Day Zero” water crisis in 2018, after three years of extremely low rainfall, ricocheted around the world. People were lining up to collect spring water and were extremely concerned about the day that the city of almost four million people were going to run out of water. There is no doubt that the changing climate is leading to more extreme droughts than in the past - droughts that last longer, are drier, and occur over much larger areas. These droughts are experienced not only in South Africa, but also in Australia, California, south south-west of the US, Mexico, Brazil and many other parts of the world.
The problem of a drier world is compacted by the fact that irrigation for agriculture accounts for 70 percent of water use worldwide according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). While the ever-growing world population demands higher food production, the massive agricultural use of water within a rising global scarcity of water, is alarming. It is calculated that since the 1980s our water usage is increasing by 1 percent or more every year.
According to the United Nations (UN), as many as 700 million people all over the world could be displaced by severe water scarcity within the next 10 years. If these predictions are coupled with a changing climate, global warming and the risk of life-threatening droughts, we all face a petrifying future.
It is therefore imperative that we rethink our current farming practices to become more intensive and water-wise. This is exactly what Bowery Farming is doing by growing food for urban populations in their vertical farms close to the cities, without the intensive use of water seen in traditional agriculture. Vertical farming is the growing of crops in vertically stacked layers and often incorporates a controlled environment to optimise plant growth, as well as the use of farming techniques such as hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics.
It is a highly sterile environment where people have to enter through a decontamination room and wear hazardous materials (hazmat) suits, hairnets and protective shoe covers. It is thus a completely controlled and contained environment allowing the growing of crops all around the year, totally independent of weather and seasonality. The sterile environment that is free from pollutants and pests also makes the use of traditional pesticides unnecessary. Furthermore, only purified water is being used for irrigation purposes.
The typical vertical farm of Bowery Farming has several evenly spaced vertical rows with identically sized non-genetically modified (GMO) seedlings, growing under bright white lights. Instead of focusing on seeds developed for drought or pest resistance, Bowery Farming could thus explore non-GMO varieties that have moderate leaf sizes, intense colours, heightened textures, and deliver vivacious flavours.
In the case of Bowery Farming, the vertical farm is also a “smart” farm using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and robotics. The numerous Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and video cameras with image recognition constantly tracks the growth of the plants, monitors the soil, and collect billions of data points. It then feeds the data into the cloud-based control system, which is then used by the AI to make decisions regarding the various types of crops, each with its own set of environmental preferences.
Due to the AI and machine learning all plants get individualised attention. This allows Bowery Farming to identify in real-time an unhappy wasabi rocket plant that needs more light, while also flagging several trays of baby butter lettuce to be harvested the next day. With each growing cycle the AI gets smarter through machine learning and gains a deeper understanding about the conditions each type of crop needs to thrive.
Every phase of the crop’s growth is thus carefully monitored, controlled and programmed by the AI system according to predefined parameters for each crop that determines the exact spectrums, intensity and photoperiod (day/night cycles) of light; irrigation periods and amount of water; airflow; temperature; humidity; carbon dioxide level; and nutrients that the specific crop needs. These variables together affect the size of each plant, the quality and flavour of the crops, as well as the final yield.
The ultimate goal is to maximise yield and flavour. With their advanced system Bowery claims that it is even possible to make the rocket more peppery, the wasabi rocket more spicy, and the butterhead lettuce smoother and a little bit more bitter. It all depends on the careful adjustment of the variables and formulas by the AI minute by minute to optimise plant health and flavour.
Due to the massive growth in the global population, it is expected that by the year 2050 the world will need to produce 70 percent more food to feed all people. It seems that vertical farms closer to the market could be one possible solution, since they operate 365 days of the year with much less water, no pesticides, a smaller footprint of land, and therefore are a hundred times more productive than traditional farms.
Bowery Farming is just one example of hundreds of innovative farming initiatives, also in South Africa. It is thus quite possible that future farming practices will disrupt the farming industry, departing from thousands of years of agricultural practices. It seems that sustainable modern farming methods will certainly have to become less reliant on the sun, rain or seasons.
Unfortunately, we do not have a choice as the world is facing increasing problems with a changing climate, rising temperatures, water security, finite resources, and threatening climate “tipping points” (points of no return).
Traditional farmland are facing more droughts and floods than before, while growing urbanisation is causing cities to sprawl into areas previously reserved for agricultural use. Although land ownership is very important, it is abundantly clear that subsistence farming will not feed the masses of people in the future. We will probably have to consider vertical farming or similar innovative practices.
Professor Louis CH Fourie is a Technology Strategist
BUSINESS REPORT