The parking garage, facing the house that grew up in new York's rapper Jay-Z, may not be the subject of a revolution that has changed the face of the world's agriculture.
Ten containers occupy one corner of the garage, located in the Brooklyn area. Each is equipped with climate control technology, and grows herbs that are distributed to local shops using bicycles. This is the literal meaning of agriculture in cities or in the middle of urban residential areas and not in farms and in rural areas.
These containers are owned by Square Roots, one of the rapidly expanding vertical farming companies, a sector dominated by a group of technology-conscious entrepreneurs, who see food production as
Genoa, Italy, has a global reputation as the best producer of basil. But Square Roots was able to produce genoese basil in one of the containers, where climatic conditions were seized to mimic the city's daylight hours, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels, all dissolved in the plant's feedwater.
"Instead of shipping food around the world, we can ship weather conditions and feed their operating systems," says Tobias Biggs, one of the company's founders.
High cost
Biggs, an expert in artificial intelligence, founded the company two years ago, with the participation of investor Kimball Musk (elon Musk's brother). They signed an agreement with one of the largest distribution companies, Gordon Catering Services, to place containers in some of its stores.
He says that the agreement summarizes everything related to inland agriculture, which grows locally, is rapidly transported to the market, produced fresh and available throughout the year, free of pesticides and not affected by weather fluctuations.
Domestic agriculture 'provides a lot of answers to modern-day consumer concerns, such as origin, environmental sustainability, and the health benefits of food', Biggs said.
Jeffrey Landau, director of business development at agritechcher consulting, estimates that the global value of the vertical farming market will increase to about $6.4 billion by 2023, up from $403 million in 2013. Half of this increase is due to the United States.
Despite the high cost and limited number of species that can be grown in this way, investors have not given up hope. Aero Farms, a producer of lettuce and other leafy vegetables, recently received $100 million in funding from Ingka, the owner of IKEA stores. Puri Farming received $95 million in funding in 2018, supported by Google Ventures and Uber's president, Dara Khosrowshahi, with a total investment of $122.5 million.
One of the largest U.S. companies, Plante, also received funding from SoftBank President Masayoshi Son and former Google chairman Eric Schmidt. The company aspires to build hundreds of vertical farms in China. In the United Kingdom, Ocado Food Delivery is investing in inland farming technology.
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