Visiting the Farm of the Future

many food producers around the world are asking the same question how can we do more with less conventional farming methods are estimated to have left a third of the world's topsoil no longer fertile enough to grow food and as climate change and water scarcity threaten our growing population seeking out alternatives is becoming increasingly important [Music] doing more with less is something farmers in the netherlands are very familiar with they're the world's second largest exporter of food by value despite living in a country that's little bigger than the u.s state of maryland here in the front are some very small compartments that massive output is set to rise even further thanks to scientists like professor leo marcellus who's developed a method of farming vertically we couldn't travel due to the covet lockdown so marcellus gave us a tour of his lab from his mobile is that lettuce growing there now we grow the lattice under led lights so what we are doing is finding well what is the optimum color for the plants to grow but in the end it's not only about the growth it's also about the quality and quality means the taste the shelf life but also the nutritional value marcellus's model of farming which builds up instead of out is capable of producing up to 50 times more food in the same space as a conventional farm and because it doesn't need soil can be replicated just about anywhere on earth [Music] here on the right we see some tomato plants and with every plant you see a black tube that is for supplying the water and the nutrients that's all controlled by a computer so water is collected in the gutter and will be reused this system is called hydroponics it requires 95 less water than conventional farming it's an impressive feat but one that comes with high energy demands that's indeed the big bottleneck with respect to sustainability we want a society which is not using any fossil energy anymore well these type of systems i expect they will always need electricity just how scalable is this model of agriculture to the developing world so these type of systems they are relatively expensive so i think for the time being i see more opportunities in the further developed countries the work they're doing at bargaining in the university is undeniably technically impressive controlling conditions to improve yields and efficiency may be the future of farming but there might be a simpler solution [Music] here in england a growing movement of farmers is trying to address the same problem by heading in the opposite direction they're taking things back to basics returning to small-scale farms that prioritize low-impact methods and seasonal produce jt hi wow this is incredible how long have you been farming here 17 years jioti fernandez is originally from iowa in the us but moved to southwest england in 2003 for a more self-sufficient lifestyle her family's 20-acre plot is completely off-grid and uses no fossil fuels it's part of a collection of small farms working together to pool costs and tools farming like this they say is viable from dorset to the developing world we have a processing place here where all the smallholders can come and make apple juice and cheese cut meat we have a market garden where we grow vegetables and sell them at the local market so what's the basic idea behind farming like this people can use more hand labor to be able to produce food so your weeding's being done by hand and you don't have to put as many herbicides on the land on a small holding you have your own menu that's produced by your animals that's composted and put back onto the land as the basis of your fertility you also don't need to use pesticides you have loads of biodiversity that attracts insects that can then eat the insects that are a problem that's called natural pest control and we're doing it all so that we can live in more connection with nature and produce great food for the local community is that economically viable doesn't it increase the cost to the consumers well the thing about small holdings is that we sell directly to our local community so often you're cutting out the supermarkets out of out of our supply chains which means food can be sold directly to the end consumer for the same sort of price that it would be at a supermarket it sounds wonderful but isn't it just a kind of romantic anti-modernism 70 of um global food security is provided by small and family farms now using only 30 of agricultural resources you know india is the largest dairy producer in the world um and the average size of the herd is two to four cows there uh you know producing larger volume of milk than any other country there is a future where we can have all of our food coming from small farms these small farms rely on what's called layering outputs having a few animals as well as small amounts of vegetables and orchard trees right next to each other this can actually make them far more productive than farms that intensively produce just one thing [Music] this is our market garden where at the top of the garden my daughters grow vegetables for our family to use and lots cut flowers and the bottom part is where thomas and lally a young couple grow vegetables for the local market the idea of this system is that you you have a thriving soil that can provide the macro and micronutrients that the plants need so basically the thing that makes the plant really healthy is also this also the thing that makes it delicious the soil that's here in this market garden if you look at it it's really you know it's just rich and all of this will be bringing carbon down from the atmosphere and sequestering it in the soil we've got trees planted all through the market garden all around the edges of it integrated into the farming system all of that will be drawing down carbon as well which will be a positive benefit to the atmosphere here in england it's autumn which means cabbages and kale are ready for eating the team is packing up the week's pickings for the market wagon engine's high-tech labs are truly a world away the innovative solutions they're developing can boost productivity and make our supply chains more resilient in areas of water scarcity and poor soil or even in cities the future of farming could well be vertical but what this farm in dorset shows is that doing more with less doesn't just mean producing more it also means farming in a way that regenerates the land and reconnects communities to the food they eat the future of food production cannot be solely high tech keeping things simple local and sustainable has perhaps been part of the answer all along you

Channel: VICE News

Views: 659,769

Keywords: VICE News, VICE News Tonight, VICE on HBO, news, vice video, VICE on SHOWTIME, vice news 2020, farming, agriculture, netherlands, food production, future farming, vertical farming, climate, climate change, science, technology, farming technology, agricultural technology, sustainable farming, vertical farms, sustainable agriculture

Id: 2MlrXExzenU

Length: 7min 51sec (471 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 21 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Ned_Ryers0n]

Exciting that the tech is progressing but unlikely vertical farming will be cost effective anytime soon. We need to be able to produce a lot more energy at much cheaper rates and building vertically needs to be much cheaper as well.

[u/Griffisbored]

I work for a company that manufactures LED grow lights. As for the current economics of indoor horticulture they're already viable in certain applications. Crops like lettuce that can be grown quickly and have a low value density are being grown on-site at grocery stores in retrofitted shipping containers. These types of crops are expensive to ship since they are large and low-value. Being able to grow on-site cuts out that shipping cost and a single container can provide hundreds of heads of lettuce every 3 weeks regardless of the season. Not only are they getting a steady fresh supply throughout the year, it is cost-competitive, completely organic with no pesticides (since it's grown in a controlled environment), and has greater nutritional value since the lighting and nutrients can be tightly controlled and optimized.

[u/stingoh]

I feel like a mix of vertical farming and smaller farms, distributed all over the world, with prioritized delivery to local communities (for the smaller farms especially), could provide for a fault-tolerant sustainable food production & distribution system. Farms could still ship their surplus to locations that are not self-sustainable or fail to produce the required amount of food. And of course certain things can only be grown in specific places.

Centers of dense populations could not be sustained by local farms, or at least this would require a sizable distribution network. Unless the vertical farming can service the denser cities. Otherwise, I have to wonder if this brings us back to the centralized distribution system which requires supermarkets which take a cut, which no longer makes it economically viable for the smaller farms.

But, assuming vertical farms can service the dense cities, and can be complemented with a large network of independent farms that mostly sell the their local communities, all this could make for a very distributed and adaptable system that doesn't depend on centralized food distribution systems.

I'm not an expert at any of this. Just an amateur observing and occasionally reading on the topic.

[u/TOMapleLaughs]

Out of all the existential threats humans will face in the near future, 'food shortage' will not be one of them.