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THE FUTURE OF FARMING

The current state of food:

According to the United Nations, an estimated 821 million people in the world suffered from hunger in 2018. That is, 1 in 9 people do not get enough food to be healthy and lead an active life. Globally, an estimated 2 billion people do not have access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food, including 8 per cent of the population in North America and Europe. Africa remains the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment, at almost 20 percent.

In fact, hunger and malnutrition are the biggest risks to health worldwide – greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.

United Nations

That is why food is at the core of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the UN’s development agenda for the 21st century. The second of the UN’s 17 SDGs is to “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.” Achieving this goal by the target date of 2030 will require a profound change of the global food and agriculture system.

Hunger in Numbers – SDG 2. Photo Credit: United Nations

What is changing?

Founded in 2004, AeroFarms® is a mission-driven company and environmental champion leading the way to address our global food crisis by building, owning, and operating responsible farms that grow safe, nutritious, and delicious food, setting a new standard for culinary freshness and flavour. It’s no surprise that it was named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company.

The company has since been established as world leader in indoor vertical farming.

Through its proprietary aeroponic technology, they are transforming innovation in agriculture, growing with 95% less water than field farming — and with zero harmful runoff and zero pesticides.

AeroFarms′ delicious greens are ready-to-eat with no washing needed while also drastically reducing water usage.

The company is growing more than just greens, they are growing a multidisciplinary team of world-class experts coming together to fundamentally change the way plants are understood and food is grown. At AeroFarms, horticulture intersects with engineering, food safety, data science, and nutrition, and they utilize cutting-edge approaches to machine vision, machine learning and IoT integration to bring agriculture into the future at a rapid pace.

AeroFarms uses smart aeroponics, smart light, smart nutrition, smart data, smart substrate, smart pest management and smart scaling. Photo Credit: AeroFarms

  • Data driven indoor vertical farming company
  • Uses 95% less water than traditional farming
  • Optimizes temperature, humidity and nutrients
  • Growing 390 times more crops per square feet
  • Providing more food with less resources
  • On 1 acre of land they are growing the equivalent of 130 acres of land
  • Grows over 215 types of leafy greens and herbs
  • Uses no soil. The growing medium is made out of recycled plastic
  • The water used is recycled
  • Each plant gets a tailor-made blend of light. This ensures maximum flavor
  • Each leaf is processed and packaged in-house
  • Crops are packaged in special containers that allow the greens to breathe according to their perspiration rate

Feeding an ever-growing global population while conserving valuable natural resources will be one of society’s greatest challenges in the coming years and decades. At AeroFarms, they innovate commercial-scale indoor farming that disrupts traditional growing seasons, all rooted in proprietary growing systems powered by Dell Technologies EMC IoT solutions and expertise that unearth data to drive greater insights and, ultimately, greater yields of tastier crops.

AeroFarms′ commercial farm is built on the site of a formerly abandoned steel mill in an industrial section of Newark, New Jersey, USA – repurposing space through innovation. Their philosophy is to do more with less, to reuse and revitalize, breathing new life into a previously abandoned space. Fast forward to today and what was once an unused building now stands as AeroFarms commercial growing facility. At over 70,000 square feet, it is currently the largest and most technologically savvy farm of its kind in the world.

They utilize and have developed cutting-edge approaches to machine vision, machine learning and IoT integration, bringing agriculture into the future at a rapid pace. Photo Credit: AeroFarms

Establishing local food supply chains is more important than ever before. Most of our regular fresh leafy greens supply is transported thousands of miles every day to reach its destination, emitting harmful carbon emissions and leading up to over 75% food waste along the supply chain. By shortening our fresh food supply chains, we are able to contribute to a resilient food supply system and share local, fresh food with communities.

Through its local retail brand for baby greens and microgreens – Dream Greens, the company provides greens that are locally grown, pesticide-free, non-GMO, consistent quality all year round and widely available in the New York Metropolitan Area. This fun, inviting and inspiring brand is setting a new culinary standard for flavour and freshness. 

Dream Greens by AeroFarms is our local retail brand for baby greens and microgreens. Dream Greens are locally grown in NJ, pesticide-free, Non-GMO, and provide consistent quality all year round and are widely available in the New York Metropolitan Area.

Using its proprietary aeroponic technology and the latest innovations in machine vision & machine learning, AeroFarms have hacked the traditional agriculture system to grow more plants in a fraction of the time & using a fraction of the resources.

At AeroFarms, horticulture intersects with engineering, food safety, data science, and nutrition. Photo Credit: AeroFarms.

The future…

By the year 2050, global population is expected to reach 9 billion, but arable farmland is on the decrease. The world is desperately in need of innovative, sustainable and new farming approaches to ensure global food security, end hunger and improve nutrition.

I think that companies like AeroFarms are already providing the right answers and creating the future of food.

What do you think?

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