How are we going to feed the world sustainably

Publish：sanjinlighting Time：2021-07-13 hits：522次

By 2030, 60% of the global population will live in urban areas. How are we going to feed the world sustainably as the distance from farm to table continues to increase – and will the supply chain hold?  

After a long nap since 1918, the global pandemic has woken us and shown us quite clearly that our current food supply chain needs a rethink. In the EU alone, lockdowns have kept labourers from crops, growers have had difficulty getting produce to market, and consumers have had to find new ways to source food in the wake of independent shop and restaurant closures. The positive news is that Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) could provide the solution to food insecurity and supply chain breakdowns. 

CEA includes greenhouse agriculture and indoor or vertical farming, where plants are grown inside a controlled environment. I’ve listed three of the benefits of CEA below, to show how this type of growing can contribute to building a sustainable and resilient fresh food supply chain. 

3 Benefits of Controlled Environment Agriculture 

1. Growing locally in urban settings 

While transportation channels can be disrupted by events like pandemics, CEA operations can be near or even inside cities, bringing the farm much closer to the table. At the same time, CEA can produce more food on a much smaller footprint. Vertical farming, for example, has been known to produce on one acre the equivalent of 10-20 acres worth of crops grown traditionally.  

2. Leveraging technology to grow more with less 

CEA is all about growing more with fewer resources – less land, less water and little or no soil or pesticides. Additionally, growers can save energy resources by switching from HPS lighting to LEDs, which consume 40-50% less energy while accelerating growth cycles and increasing yields year round.  

3. Producing more with fewer hands 

As we’ve seen with the pandemic, labour disruptions are a big contributor to food insecurity. Rather than requiring many workers in a field, greenhouses and vertical farms need fewer people to produce nutritious food – even in uncertain times like these. 

Covid-19 has been a big wakeup call for all of us, and it’s not over yet. In the EU we saw 2021 dawn with supply chain interruptions and crop shortfalls. Should we be concerned? As the global population continues to move away from traditional farms, controlled environment agriculture may be just what the world needs to feed a population that will be 35% larger by 2050. 

 I’d be interested to know your thoughts. Please join the conversation in the comments below or reach out to me directly.