‘Did you know’…vertical farming has the potential to safeguard food security?
As food security becomes increasingly unstable, John Stapleton, Chairman of Fischer Farms, explains why vertical farming has the potential to bolster resilience against supply chain shocks, both in the UK and beyond.
Food security has been under increasing pressure for many years now. In the UK, we heavily rely on imports to feed our nation, as do many other countries and developing regions. But as the population continues to soar, and societal and environmental factors destabilise supply chains, we need to look at new ways of feeding the world to support traditional methods.
What is Vertical Farming?
What is Vertical Farming?
The term “vertical farming” covers a range of quite similar technologies. Ultimately, vertical farming is all about growing plants indoors under controlled/ optimised conditions, under lights. The most popular and well-known application is based on a “hydroponic” system where nutrients are conveyed through water to the plants’ roots. I like to call vertical farming a “5-Star wellness hotel for plants”. Conditions are optimised for nature to perform at its best and for plants to grow unhindered (by e.g. poor weather conditions, pests or animals).
What is Fischer Farms?
Fischer Farms is a food company where we design our own agriculture technology solutions to optimise hydroponic methods of growing plants indoors. Presently we grow leafy green salad and herbs and our ambition is to grow soft fruit and even high calorific staples like rice, wheat and soy in vertical farm installations, at commercially-viable prices, across the world.
I am the Chairman of Fischer Farms and we currently have two sites - Lichfield and Norwich. Our Norwich farm is coming on stream in late 2023 and we believe it is the biggest vertical farm in the world (25,000m2, with the capacity to expand to 75,000m2).
What are the benefits of Vertical Farming?
The benefits of vertical farming are huge. Vertical farming has purpose written all over it.
Firstly, it is a sustainable message on steroids! Our farms use less than 5% of the water required for traditional farming, need no pesticides, herbicides, or insecticides, and can run on 100% renewable energy (which we’re busy installing).
The produce we grow is of the highest quality and consistency, staying fresher for longer, helping retailers and consumers significantly reduce food waste.
Vertical farming is a revolutionary technology whose time has come, capable of producing yields 250 times greater than traditional farming, delivering quality produce all year round in an incredibly sustainable way and in an environment unaffected by weather conditions and water availability.
Vertical farming can be a key flexible resource in establishing food security across the world. We see this not only in a post-Brexit Britain, helping to avoid empty retailer shelves each winter but also contributing to a solution to food scarcity in vulnerable parts of the word already struggling from land erosion, depletion of natural water supplies and the increasing challenges of climate change.
What’s unique about Fischer farms?
At Fischer Farms we employ scale to deliver accessible unit pricing. We believe the benefits of vertical farming should be available for all. While the product we grow in our vertical farms is of excellent quality and consistency, we don’t believe vertically-farmed products should be premium priced. We build at scale and we invest in automation in order to keep the unit cost low. If we really want to grow high-calorific staples in vertical farms attached to large renewable energy sources across the world, we need to do this in a cost-effective way.
What does Vertical Farming mean for traditional farmers?
I am a farmer’s son from the west of Ireland, so I have traditional agriculture in my blood. Vertical Farming is not designed to put traditional farmers out of business – certainly that is not our objective at Fischer Farms. There is much that is wrong with the modern agriculture and food industries. I believe vertical farming can be part of the solution to rectify these problems. We want vertical farming to complement traditional farming well into the future.
What does Vertical Farming mean to me?
You can see by the above why I’m involved in vertical farming. It’s hard to not be motivated and excited about all that this breakthrough technology is already delivering – for the consumer, for retailers, for investors and for the planet. I’ve always felt a sense of purpose in any venture I’ve been involved with. I’m hard pressed to name another business which delivers purpose so thoroughly than Fischer Farms.
Fischer Farms widens recruitment ahead of major vertical farm
Fischer Farms has announced plans to recruit 27 people in Norfolk ahead of the opening of what it claims to be the “world’s largest vertical farm”.
The 250,000m2 vertical farm is now complete with the office facility fully operational.
The company has already recruited ten new team members to the site, bolstering its senior management, technical and operational teams.
UK vertical farm firm eyes Ireland for expansion after raising funds
Vertical farming requires up to 98pc less water than conventional growing methods and does not use insecticides, pesticides, or herbicides.
Fischer Farms, a UK-based vertical farming firm chaired by Irish food entrepreneur and investor John Stapleton, is looking to several countries including Ireland for potential future expansion. Vertical farming is where crops are stacked in layers.
Stapleton sold the New Covent Garden Soup company in 1998 and then later sold children’s food firm Little Dish in 2017.
Vertical farming can boost the UK’s food security as global supply chains struggle
We are in a global food crisis. Food security is under increasing pressure as globalised supply chain interdependencies unravel. From the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the ongoing climate crisis, the impact is being felt across Europe and is extending across the globe. Add to this the cross-border challenges of Brexit, the recent lorry driver strikes in Spain, non-availability of labour and supply chain disruption, and it’s clear the food industry is facing significant challenges, with no immediate solution in sight.