The future of food

Food production is set to change radically in the coming decades, raising questions and opportunities for gardeners and traditional farming.

As we emerge from the globally disruptive impacts of a pandemic, it’s clear that the next existential threat we face is that of climate change and the related impacts on the ecological systems that support us (let alone the other 8 million species of organisms we share the planet with).

With food production estimated to comprise around 35% of our carbon emissions, there is increasing interest in intensive solutions for food production that stretch far beyond the realms of traditional farming and market gardening.

Throughout human history, food production has been linked to the basic natural resources of sun, soil and water and our perceptions of clean and healthy farming tend to lean heavily on the archetype of a farmer on the land.

But the agriculture space is changing rapidly as technology and innovation create new systems of greenhouse, and even totally indoor, farms.

In such a fast-paced environment, where innovators and ‘disruptors’ are pushing the boundaries, there are divergent views on the merits of food production systems; organics vs conventional, soil vs growing media and rural vs urban to name a few.

The future is happening

Small-scale integrated food production systems like Joost Bakker’s Future Food System (featured in Diggers Autumn Garden 2021 issue) in Melbourne are energising people to take a fresh look at growing food within the footprint of their homes and local areas, especially in urban settings where space and access to actual soil are scarce. But there are large commercially-scaled operations happening right now, supplying thousands of tonnes of produce and beginning to challenge traditional field farming for cost and efficiency.

Back in the 1980s, NASA pioneered research into controlled closed loop food production using a decommissioned hypobaric chamber left over from testing the Mercury space capsule, stacking rows of hydroponic trays like bookshelves against the walls. This experiment was expanded as part of their Closed Ecological Life Support System project where NASA built ‘Biomass Production Chambers’ at the Kennedy Space Centre to trial feeding humans without access to sunlight and air. This innovative farming approach led to the industry of controlled environment agriculture that has been subsequently picked up by industry and investors.

One such company is AeroFarms in the U.S., who have grown a wide variety of fruits and greens for over 15 years in controlled indoor plant factories with LED lighting, hydroponic (and aeroponic) nutrition and zero pesticide. They claim that their production system is 390 times more productive than traditional field farming!

There are local examples of high-tech controlled indoor agriculture systems too. InvertiGro, an award-winning Australian company, has developed a modular system called InvertiCube, comprising an indoor food production system based around stackable, self-contained and sealed grow boxes (1.5m x 1.5m x 2.2m) linked to integrated software that maximises light and nutrients for optimum harvest. According to InvertiGro, this system is scalable – from a small café or community farm right through to a multilevel commercial indoor food factory.

Where do organics and seed savers fit in?

Here’s a thought to exercise your mind... can a crop that is grown entirely without soil be considered ‘organic’? It appears the answer, at least for now, is ‘no’, as current organic standards stipulate that a crop must be grown in soil to be certified organic. Organic farming strives to reduce the long-term environmental impacts of food production on land with practices such as crop rotation, water conservation, habitat creation and avoiding synthetic or artificially produced insecticides and fertilisers.

When we take soil out of the equation, as these high-tech controlled environment systems do, then the notion of ‘organic’ becomes impossible under existing definitions. Heronswood, The Garden of St Erth and our trial and production gardens are certified organic gardens where we practice soil-based gardening. We feel this type of gardening best suits our garden plants and heirloom crops cultivated for generations in soil.

There is a potential threat on the horizon for seed savers and organic farmers in the traditional realm, as large agribusinesses, such as Bayer, team up with the indoor plant factories to manipulate crop genes to better suit their production systems.

According to a recent report on indoor soilless farming, the World Wildlife Fund states that “major players like Bayer and numerous start-ups are exploring this space, but they are in very early stages. Government players are also showing interest. The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research launched a public-private partnership, Precision Indoor Plants, in 2019 to produce seeds for indoor growth that are optimised for flavour and nutrition”.

A gardener’s perspective

We gardeners are naturally attuned to the elements and cycles of nature. At first glance, these futuristic indoor plant factories seem expensive, energy intensive and divorced from the natural world. But, with the challenges of feeding ten billion humans in the coming century, coupled with the immediate threat to climate, we need to be looking at innovative options to feed us all and sustain a healthy planet.

I have no doubt that controlled environment agriculture is going to play a significant part in this puzzle, but I cannot quite get my thinking to a point where I can see us moving away from using the power of plants to convert simple sunlight into stored energy via photosynthesis. Call me a luddite but, for the time being, I choose to garden outside in the soil.