The objective is to reduce the carbon footprint of food consumed in the UK, eliminate the limitations of the seasons and boost the country’s food security.
Two scientists, an agricultural economist and a farmer are on a mission to eliminate imports of soft fruits, herbs and salads to Britain within a decade with a groundbreaking “skyscraper farm”.
The team at Jones Food Company already supplies nearly a third of the UK’s fresh-cut basil to major retailers, grown in Europe’s largest vertical farm in Lincolnshire. But it is now testing how to also grow soft fruits, cut flowers and vines vertically at scale in an experimental centre in Bristol, and hopes eventually to be able to grow produce in bulk at a new site in Gloucestershire that will open this autumn.
When built, the site is expected to be the world’s largest vertical farm - the growing space of which will equate to 96 tennis courts stacked in vertical layers.
In 2020, nearly half - 46 percent - of the food consumed in the UK was imported.
“It won’t be long in the future that it will become unacceptable to air-freight fresh herbs into the country,” said Glyn Stephens, who was once a dairy farmer in mid-Wales before becoming the company’s head of growing.
The company says it doesn’t use pesticides and that growing food vertically uses 95 percent less water and can be done using 100 percent green energy. A vertical farm sees layers of plants grown on trays, stacked vertically with pipes delivering water, feed and nutrients, the company said. The temperature and humidity is controlled and light mimics the hours of sunlight.