How vertical farming can future-proof our food supply chain to withstand crises
The spread of Covid-19 across the globe has brought to light many new challenges, from insufficiencies in healthcare to the stability of the global economy.
Equally as important, but less talked about, is whether our global food supply chain is able to withstand the impact of pandemics — now and in the future.
It is clear that our food supply chain is at risk. In fact, it always has been at risk, but the Covid-19 pandemic is making it impossible to ignore. Today’s crisis is highlighting the urgent agricultural and ecological challenges of our time — challenges which have already been made worse by the effects of climate change, soil degradation, and the loss of natural ecosystems.
Conventional agriculture — industrial farming — is primarily what fills the produce departments of major grocery stores around the world. But this type of farming places an incredible burden on our environment. Plants need to travel long distances to reach consumers, and are sapped of vital nutrients by the time they arrive in the supermarket. They also pass through many different hands, compromising the safety of workers and consumers.
There’s also the issue of supply and demand. Consumers’ access to fresh, healthy produce is at the mercy of retailers’ supply and demand challenges, particularly in urban environments where local agricultural farms aren’t possible. With Covid-19 shuttering restaurants and schools, large-scale farms that depend on these buyers have an issue of demand not meeting supply. And on the smaller scale, local farms are struggling, as farmer’s markets are being shut down in cities around the world.
With the world’s population only continuing to grow, it has become more evident than ever that we need another way to feed our cities’ populations.
The answer is more resilient local food economies. We need to shorten supply chains so they are leaner, more accountable, safer, and more sustainable. And we need to increase cities’ self-sufficiency by diversifying local food production.
Urban farming is one of the most important innovations of our time, and one of the most effective ways to tackle these urgent challenges.
In built-up environments where traditional local farms aren’t possible or sustainable, urban farms grow produce as close as possible to where it is consumed. Vertical farming models mitigate retailers’ supply and demand challenges by integrating farming directly into their own supply chain. Farms that are grown directly inside supermarkets, or at least within the local community, supply hyper-local, safe and transparent food production, and almost completely eliminate the supply chain of food.
Covid-19 and future pandemics will continue to highlight the importance of healthy food. While pantry items are the first to fly off the shelves, people need access to nutritious, fresh produce, and the challenges of our global supply chain that we are seeing right now will put our cities at risk of a shortage for these vital nutrients.
It is essential our cities look at options to shift towards self-sufficiency, autonomy and control of food production. Shortening the supply chain and considering vertical farming is the most effective way to affect the change needed.
Let’s not wait for the next pandemic to address this challenge.
Main image credit: Getty