Across the world, the future of farming is being brought into cities. You have Kimbal Musk, brother of Elon Musk and co-founder of Square Roots, that has a shipping container farm in Brooklyn. And under the streets of London, there is a shelter that has been converted into an

underground farm. There are tiny farms under Michelin-star restaurants in New York City and a Tokyo office building which has its own rice paddy field in the lobby. This is a look at why there is big money being invested into bringing the future of farming into cities, with

sunlit open fields and fresh air. Why would you want to bring farms into cities? It is being done to create a more sustainable future. Right now, there are 7.7 billion people on the planet. By the year 2050, this number is set to rise to 9 billion. And at the

same time, climate change could lower crop production by 25%. Other big reasons for farming being moved into cities include: there is just not enough fertile farmland that can be used to feed everyone. This is why you see rainforests and jungles being cleared, and

fertile land is also being lost to climate change. Another reason is that it is much more efficient to grow leafy vegetables in vertical farms. You can grow a lot more with less space and less resources than a traditional farm. The UN estimates that 20 to 40 percent of

crops that are grown are destroyed by pests. So, growing in a closed environment without soil means no pests and no pesticides are needed. This also means that you get healthier and more nutritious food, and you don't lose nutritious value when the food is being

transported since you can now get your vegetables from farm to table in hours, also reducing the need for energy when shipping. The first city farming company that we will look at is called Arrow Farms. They are a vertical farming company that have a number of farms in New Jersey and

they'll be taking to the skies soon as they supply Singapore Airlines with their new farm-to-plane concept. Arrow Farms have been built in former warehouses, paintball centers, nightclubs, and steel mills. The money coming in to fuel this growth has come from the likes

of the Ingka Group, which is the parent company of IKEA, giving Arrow Farms a valuation of 500 million dollars, allowing them to bring in an estimated 50 million dollars in revenue annually. Like other vertical farms, Arrow Farms is able to grow crops a lot faster and more

efficiently than traditional farms. Arrow Farms is able to go from seed to harvest in 15 days, that's half the time it takes a traditional field-based farm, which takes 30 to 45 days. And because of the closed environment and the vertical stacking of the farms, they can grow more

than 390 times more crops per square foot than traditional farms. This is all achieved by using aeroponics, when you mist water, nutrients, and oxygen onto the roots versus hydroponics where the roots hang down into the water. Misting the roots allows for more efficient

oxygenation, and the plants use 95 percent less water than traditional farms and 40 percent less than hydroponics. The leafy greens that Arrow Farms grow, such as kale and baby watercress, are grown with the help of artificial intelligence and constant

monitoring of data points by plant scientists who work at the farm All of the technology that goes into a vertical city farm is what makes them so efficient and the use of this technology is made possible because vertical farms have closed environments, meaning you can control every aspect of the climate

inside the farm, from the temperature, humidity, lighting, and nutrients. Another reason you can grow more crops in a vertical farm is because you need much less time in between harvesting to prepare the next set of crops. On a normal farm, you need tractors to re-cultivate the land, wait for it to dry,

fertilize it, and then reap, and which could take a week. In a vertical farm, you can harvest the crops and you're ready to plant again. And computers are used to control the conditions in a vertical farm; they're able to provide the optimal conditions

for each type of plant. Being indoors in a controlled environment also means that crops are not affected by climate changes and seasons, resulting in year-round local availability of vegetables and consistent pricing. You'll mostly see expensive leafy greens such as lettuce, kale, and herbs being grown in

vertical farms since these premium greens are more profitable, balancing out the investments made into the new tech used for these types of farms. Blue and red LED lights, which create the purple hue you see in these vertical farms, are used as they are more energy efficient than white lights and they allow for the

most efficient absorption of nutrients in the plants. These lights are used to create specific light recipes for each type of plant. They're programmed to give the exact intensity, frequency, and spectrum suited for growing each plant as efficiently as possible. You can even adjust the lighting to control the color

of the plants, the shape, texture, size, and you can even change the flavor. Another benefit of these automated, programmable vertical farms is the low number of people needed to make them work. A problem facing many countries right now is a labor shortage for harvesting crops. Standards of living have been rising, so

farm work is not as attractive as it used to be since it is highly repetitive, manual, hard work. So, vertical farming is helping combat this shortage of labor, and the high-tech nature of it and them being in cities is bringing a younger generation into agriculture. 100 feet under the busy streets of

London, a vertical farm produces 2 tons of food a month. Growing underground, it grows fresh greens that go from farm to fork in under 4 hours. The World War 2 shelter was built to house 8,000 people, but is now using hydroponics to grow

leafy greens such as pea shoots, mustard leaves, broccoli shoots, and spicy purple radish, all unaffected by the weather and seasonal changes above ground, selling to grocery chains and restaurants all year round. Back in the United States, you have a company called Square Roots. They build

vertical farms in shipping containers and have locations in Brooklyn and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Each container has 250 growing towers, which is the same as 2 acres of farmland, and each container is able to produce 50 pounds of leafy greens per week. Elon Musk's brother,

Kimball Musk, is a co-founder of Square Roots. Kimball holds board seats on SpaceX and Tesla and says that while the technology being developed at Square Roots is being used to bring nutritious food to people in the cities, one day it will be used to feed astronauts on Mars.

[Music] Along with all these vertical farms making their way into cities, you also have the Open Agriculture Initiative. This initiative aims to create an open-source digital library, allowing you to download the specific conditions needed for each type of plant to grow as efficiently as possible.

Plans from around the world would require different temperatures, humidity, amounts of water and nutrients. All of these variables can be controlled in vertical farms, creating a climate recipe for the plants, allowing you to grow different plants from around the world all year round in any location, saving on

resources needed for shipping over on the other side of the world. In Tokyo, Japan, a human resources company has turned their office building into a city farm. Persona Group grows 200 species of fruits and vegetables in their office building. When you walk into their building, you're greeted with a thousand

square foot rice paddy in the lobby. Continue through the building, and you will come across an okra field, a tomato vine covered guest space, and a vegetable factory. Meeting spaces are divided using fruit trees, and bean sprouts are grown under benches, and the

walls are covered with shelves growing herbs. All of this, from the blueberries, oranges, pumpkins, and cucumbers to the rice from the lobby, is all served fresh to the employees in the office cafeteria. You won't be able to get any fresher

food at a restaurant when it comes from a farm directly under it. The idea behind Farm One is to grow rare produce for chefs in the middle of the city. Farm One has two farms in New York, and one of them is under the two-star Michelin restaurant.

Atera, it grows over 500 different microgreens, rare herbs, and edible flowers all year round. They are eaten within hours of harvesting and are delivered by bicycle and subway to over 30 restaurants in New York City. Some of their products include rarities such as

Pluto basil, which sells for $40 per pound, and edible flowers such as purple oxalis for 65 cents each. Farm.One also has the Edible Bar. This is a mini hydroponic system of rare live plants that can be enjoyed by guests at an

event. These plants can be used as garnishes, enjoyed on their own, or paired with cocktails, helping to introduce the idea of eating super fresh greens grown in the city. Other vertical city farms include Bowery and Plenty, both of which have had big-name investors fueling

their growth and expansion. Bowery Farm is based in New Jersey and has been backed by Silicon Valley investors such as Google's venture arm GV and the CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi. And Plenty, which is based in a warehouse in South San Francisco, has been invested in by

Jeff Bezos and Google's chairman Eric Schmidt's investing company, Innovation Endeavors. So, what else could be grown in cities in the future to feed growing populations? Right now, the production of farmed fish is greater than beef, and some people are looking for ways to farm fish closer to cities.

This way, you can avoid using high amounts of energy to refrigerate the fish while it's being transported. Even the growing of meat with a twist is being brought into cities. Impossible Foods makes plant-based burgers and sausages in their Oakland, California facilities. The burgers use 95 percent

less land, 74 percent less water, and creates 87 percent less greenhouse gasses compared to the making of traditional cow-based burger patties. Investors include Bill Gates and Google Ventures. Beyond Meat, based in Los Angeles, is another company making plant-based substitutes for meat. They

also have Bill Gates as an investor along with Leonardo DiCaprio, former McDonald's CEO Don Thompson, and Obvious Corporation, the investment company of Twitter's co-founders. Beyond Meat is even listed on the New York Stock Exchange, adding to the rising number of companies

growing and farming food in cities. On the next episode of Venture City, we take a look at Elon Musk's vision for the city of the future. Hit the subscribe button to not miss a video. [Music]

Why the Future of Farming is in Cities - The Big Money in Vertical Farming

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