Is vertical farming the future of agriculture?

Media have sounded the alarm! By 2050, the world population is expected to reach 9.8 billion people... The lack of resources is becoming an emergency and raises a big question: how to feed everyone while the Earth already lives on credit?

Can vertical agriculture be the solution? Vertical agriculture is a growing technique that has emerged in Japan and is now used in many countries, including in France with Tootem!

"Using vertical agriculture, you can grow 400 lettuces per year on a balcony" promises Marc Cases, Tootem founder.

Exit advanced technologies! Tootem is developing a low-tech solution for a healthier, more economical and more local diet. The startup offers tubes for vertical cultivation, a Japanese technique of culture that allows to produce vegetables in larger quantities on a smaller surface and more quickly, all without any chemicals. The challenge: growing 100kg of vegetables per year over an area of 1m²! That's probably THE solution to achieve food self-sufficiency, to know and control one's food, and thus to address the lack of resources and their more and more alarming unfair distribution.

AeroFarms took the challenge!

Crazy bet, you might say? AeroFarms is a proof of the effectiveness of this innovative and sustainable cultivation technique.

Appeared in 2004, this American startup is one of the first to have reproduced this model. It built 8 farms using vertical agriculture. Its head office in New Jersey was in 2015 the largest indoor vertical farm! It can produce up to 2 million pounds of leafy greens a year, around 13 times faster than conventional farming.

Such a great example that we need to democratize!