A food revolution is coming: Consumer demands have fueled the rise of vertical farms, lab-based meat
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To serve more people and customers, you have to scale and expand your reach, right? Not necessarily, at least not in agriculture.?
The days of growing a head of lettuce in California only to ship it to New York City — or serving a chicken that comes from a factory farm 600 miles away — are coming to a close.
The food industry has entered an era of descaling — taking a vast, sprawling sector and making it smaller, centered around clusters. Consumers want fresher, locally sourced food, and that demand is transforming how companies and farmers work.?
This shift has also led to a new, closer relationship between consumers and farmers, who were once far removed from the end-of-the-food-chain choices.
“More and more, we’re seeing farmers need to know what consumers want, as well, because it’s starting to inform them on what they should put into the ground,” said Rob Dongoski, Ernst & Young’s head of agribusiness. “We say it’s table to farm because, ultimately, it’s the table saying back to the farm, ‘This is what I want.’”
What do consumers want? Sustainably sourced foods, and they’re increasingly willing to pay for it. Seventy percent of consumers say they’d consider purchasing goods from a brand that prioritizes sustainability, according to a recent consumer report from Morning Consult. And 42% believe that consumers and brands should equally shoulder these additional costs.
Investors are latching onto the trend, putting money behind vertical farming and alternative proteins, such as plant-based substitutes or lab-grown meat. The vertical farming industry is expected to be worth more than $33 billion by 2030. New York-based Gotham Greens has benefited from the surge in interest in the sector, snagging $310 million in funding in September during a quarter when many venture capital firms started cutting back on new deals.
The vertical farming company has greenhouses in nine states, including in its headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, equaling about 40 acres. Gotham Greens plans on using the funds it recently raised to launch greenhouses outside of cities in Colorado, Texas and Georgia, CEO Viraj Puri said.
“It makes sense for us to be just outside cities and close to distribution centers … so that from a supply chain standpoint, we can get into the supply chain quickly and efficiently,” he said.
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Speed is particularly crucial for Gotham Greens, as its primary crops — lettuce and herbs — have a short shelf life. Customers prefer to consume these items within a day or two of the produce coming off the stalk.
By sitting outside large cities like Denver or Dallas, Gotham can cut down on the emissions required to bring lettuce to markets. And the company’s produce is grown using hydroponics in a closed-loop system, meaning water is recaptured after it is irrigated, filtered and reused. A traditionally grown head of lettuce requires about 30 gallons of water, while Puri says Gotham’s lettuce uses just two gallons.
Not all of our future food will be grown indoors, of course. Some crops, like soy or corn, require the space of outdoor farms.
Regulators are also taking note of consumers’ shift to sustainable eating. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave its first sign off on lab-grown meat in November. The approval went to Upside Foods, which uses chicken cells to grow meat in steel tanks.?
Will 2023 be the year when we see lab-based meats or plant-grown substitutes hit supermarkets? My colleagues spoke to the experts for LinkedIn’s Big Ideas launch, which you can read about here.
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Global Program Manager | Philomath | Animal Lover | Crafter
2 年No one wants Billy Boy Gates’ lab-grown meat (or anything else he wants to introduce to the populace under the guise of “humanitarianism”).
The rise of vertical farms and lab-based meat is a new phenomenon in the food industry. Vertical farms are indoor farms that use hydroponic and aeroponic systems to grow crops in a vertically stacked structure. This method of farming is more efficient than traditional farming, as it uses less water and space, while also reducing the environmental impact of farming. Additionally, lab-based meat is a form of meat that is grown in a laboratory using animal cells, rather than an animal itself. This type of meat is more sustainable than traditional meat, as it does not require the use of animals or land. Both vertical farms and lab-based meat are becoming increasingly popular, as they provide a more sustainable and efficient way to produce food. Written with ParagraphAI. https://paragraphai.com/?ref=rb26
Electromechanical Technician
2 年Plant based and lab grown meat is about as good as using ethanol from corn as fuel. It takes more energy to make than what it produces, it cost more, it is less efficient and it does more damage.