Greater sustainability and improved nutrition through smart technology and supply chain logistics
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The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for shorter, more resilient supply chains and for diversified, fresh and locally-grown food, says a recent story in the Financial Times.
From community vegie gardens to vast vertical farms, city-based cropping ventures are proliferating as the coronavirus pandemic up-ends food supply chains and heightens food-security fears.
The ACT’s first vertical farm installation has landed at Canberra’s Ginninderry development, a 6-star Green Star Community west of Belconnen.
University of Florida research suggests wheat yields could be boosted exponentially if this staple grain was grown undercover, in vertical farm facilities. To make it economically viable, just add reliable renewable energy.
As British farmers struggle to provide fresh food for the UK’s citizens, grappling with labour shortages and complex export supply chains, vertical farm facilities are attracting increasing interest.
This video highlights some of the high-tech commercial vertical-farming operations supplying fresh greens to cities across the world – and some of the big-name investors backing them.
The supply-chain disruption precipitated by the pandemic shutdown may provide the motivation needed to reinvigorate urban agriculture, contends protected cropping expert Oula Ghannoum.
Sprout Stack runs Australia’s only commercial-scale vertical farm, growing fresh salad greens in the Sydney metro area. And with COVID-19 disrupting supply chains worldwide, the company’s low-food-miles position is proving advantageous.
The COVID-19 pandemic illustrates how critical it is for major centres of population to have localised agri-food production sites, contends Joel Cuello, Professor of Biosystems Engineering at The University of Arizona.
Interviewed by New Scientist, the acclaimed filmmaker is calm in the face of the coronavirus pandemic but expresses dismay at the state of the Earth – and offers suggestions on redressing the balance, including advice for food producers.