The Swiss Thomas Zöllner has been dealing with alternative forms of agriculture for a long time. In 2018 he and others founded the industry association Farmtech Society, which campaigns for the concerns of agrotech companies in Brussels. For Zöllner there is no way around vertical farming.
Technology also opens up new opportunities in agriculture.
Mr. Zöllner, does the world need vertical farming?
Climate change is forcing us to make certain “radical” changes. Just think of the severe drought in the Po Valley. Agriculture makes a significant global contribution to the emission of gases that are harmful to the climate. Vertical farming combined with renewable energy can be part of the solution.
Are you confident?
As in other sectors, a technology-driven start-up scene has established itself in agriculture. Young people suddenly find agriculture interesting because, instead of backbreaking work, it offers secure jobs, a regular payday and career opportunities. At the same time, investors are willing to test innovations with a lot of money and accepting great risks. That alone is very positive, because it gives us real opportunities for innovation.
Do you need startups for innovations?
Thomas Zöllner is Secretary General of the Farmtech Society industry association.
The disruption also came in other industries via startups. The same applies to farmers in day-to-day business: If something works, you let it run. Maybe something will be optimized, but constantly reinventing your own business is not an option. What’s more, as a traditional farmer you don’t have access to venture capital. That is why the development we are seeing now is so important. The industry has long needed young talent to try new types of farming.
How many vertical farming startups are there worldwide?
I estimate that around 10,000 startups worldwide are dealing with these new forms of agriculture. However, the percentage of vertical farming in total agriculture is negligible, and it is not calories that are produced, but mostly herbs, berries or vegetables.
This will not solve the world’s food problems.
In fact, up to now, vertical farming has mainly focused on crops that generate great added value in the market, such as ready-made lettuce from the factory. But what is not, can still be. For example, there are also vertical farms that breed insects and thus produce alternative proteins very efficiently. However, the majority of insects are still used for the production of animal feed because people have not yet accepted them that much.
As a layman, one wonders how useful it is to grow plants indoors, without soil and with LED lamps.
The big advantage of vertical farming is that you can grow crops in a small space with the optimal amount of resources and without pesticides. But replacing the sun with lamps also has advantages, because it allows summer days with 18 hours of light to be simulated all year round, which is ideal for plant growth. There are also completely new ways of influencing the quality of the plants, for example by working with different light spectra.
Can nutrient-enriched water replace soil?
We now know that our food is impoverished because the soil has been so depleted. If you buy carrots today, even if they come from an organic farmer, they are never as good in terms of nutrients as they were 30 years ago. With protected cultivation, the carrot can be produced in such a way that it contains all the important ingredients.
What about the profitability of vertical farming?
The economic side has not yet been fully clarified. But I contend that the high prices for fossil fuels go a long way in making products from companies like Yasai competitive. With current oil and gas prices, a pot of basil cannot be produced cheaper on a “normal” farm than on a vertical farm.
Vertical farms also need energy, don’t they?
Yes, but they work with electricity. Electricity has the advantage that it can be produced from different sources. You don’t normally have this flexibility in agriculture. Many greenhouse companies in Belgium and the Netherlands do not know today whether they will be able to produce in the coming winter. They have their natural gas pipelines and see no possibility of switching to renewable energy in the short term. In my view, the current energy crisis has improved the environment for vertical farms. However, there are other challenges.
Which one?
Agriculture is a highly regulated industry. You can’t even authorize a vertical farm in the farming zone today because that kind of operation doesn’t even exist from a regulatory point of view. At the same time, the authorities are sometimes overwhelmed when someone wants to do vertical farming in the commercial zone. Here, too, new approaches and a dialogue with the sector as a whole are needed.