The Sweet Future of Vertical Farming | Hiroki Koga | TED

[@AdvantestInc]

The shift from a Budweiser factory to a strawberry vertical farm is a fantastic example of how we can repurpose existing spaces for a sustainable future.

[@syedsaqibrazarizvi]

"Absolutely inspiring talk, Hiroki! 🌱 The transformation of a Budweiser factory into a vertical strawberry farm is a brilliant example of innovation in agriculture. It’s amazing to see how vertical farming not only addresses food security but also repurposes existing structures for sustainable practices. I can't wait to see how this approach evolves and impacts our future food systems! 🍓✨"

[@rdapigleo]

Awesome talk, TED brings the optimistic future again. 🙏

[@Minus-One-san]

The topic, the gestures, the presentation, everything is just so pefect !!!

[@urbanstrencan]

This is the future, I just started experimenting with vertical farming at home here in Slovenia ❤❤. Great video

[@toni4729]

Keep it up. Do it with more and more fruits and vegetables, teach more and more people to do it as well. We no longer want to be poisoned by chemicals. We've had enough of them. Our animals have also had more than enough chemicals to kill us all as well. If you can grow fresh food vertically, there will be more land for animals to eat fresh grass as well. The world will be a much healthier place. Thank you for this talk.

[@doctordelatierra]

As someone who studied regenerative agriculture in university this is a really cool concept from a few perspectives. One, now more than ever we need hope, and this system provides people hope. It makes you wonder, "Maybe a container of organic strawberries wont cost $10.00 for forever." This is also a great model we could use to provide clean, healthy food to people in masse while we transition the conventional agriculture system away from pesticides, tilling, and other environmentally degrading practices towards regenerative organic agricultural practices. That being said, this is not the end solution to the food problem. This model requires tons of things which are equally destructive to the environment. All those wires, lights, robots, solar panels, etc... Where do you think they came from? Someone mined those metals, extracted the oil used for plastic from the Earth, likely polluted large amounts of land making the solar panels. What do you think happens when the robots are replaced? What are the odds every single component is recycled? On a human level - do you want all of your food grown by robots? There is something really special about knowing who grew your food when you go shopping at a local farmers market or CSA. Robots offer none of that. Just clean, sterile, food units. Finally - the Earth is our Mother. The Sun is our Father. The Universe has created systems of growing food over the last couple trillion years that are so much more efficient than anything the mind of man could come up with. I know where my future lies - out in the field, growing food with my wife and kids under the sun with our feet firmly planted on the Earth. I tend to be wary of anyone claiming that the best solution for humanity moving forward is one which is rooted in technology rather than natural systems. Technology is relatively new on the scene. Living as a human being in tune with the natural world has a much longer proven record of sustainability and success. I believe the best use of technologies such as these is to use them to make healthy food as accessible as possible while buying our conventional farmers enough time to transition to organic regenerative practices, but I hope the sweeter future ultimately comes from strawberries grown in rich, healthy, organic soil. Not factory farms owned by hedge funds.

[@skatestu5829]

couldn't agree more. Iwould also like to add that he is taking up valuable field space with his solar panals. This space could be used to probably supply 100 people with a variety of veg every week.. he's not sequestering any carbon or feeding soil life, not even on the green space he owns, so at the end of the day as amazing as his presentation was he is hiding all the downsides, a common problem with our society that only ever talks about the positives..

[@amodjp]

The world needs more of vertical and roof top gardens to reduce heat and give space in densely populated areas

[@tanhimdhrubo8128]

I have liked your presentation I appreciate your decision Go ahed❤ Love from Bangladesh 🇧🇩

[@mammabear2183]

Interesting idea. Missed the opportunity to hear from those who sampled them on how they tasted. Also a comparison of the nutritional value and how they addressed the bee problems were not discussed.

[@Feanarth]

Most likely a business secret

[@CanadaBananaFarms]

If you’re in the tri state area, you can order them. Also, regarding the bees, my personally opinion is they are growing the bees inside and the bees are adjusting to the conditions and the lighting they use.

[@ambersocie7174]

My strawberries are different. I talk to them 😂❤ I think we need to do some studies on the concentration of sugars, flavor sweetness and poly phenols differences in mass production and smaller strawberry patch plants.

[@ilaphroaig]

$10 for a few strawberries? Insane. Vertical farming has already long been around here in the Netherlands. It is profitable.

[@OceanBeachBoy]

It definitely is a splurge, but when I was in Japan, they were consistently the best strawberries I have ever tasted

[@georginafermin8917]

It is worth to pay $10 for no pesticides rather that a $1 full of pesticides, that is my dream to be able to do it here in NY planing on leafy greens for now 😅

[@jamesgibson3582]

Its for special occasions.

[@woody1856]

I truly hope this is the future of fruit farming. It will also need to work in harmony with the labor force.

[@hideki.yamane]

Awesome presentation, Hiroki-san!

[@donaldauguston9740]

Outstanding video. I wish he and his team all the luck in the world. DA

[@-AkhilTej-]

🎯💎🏆 Great insightful & fruitful video 🏆💎🎯 लोकः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु ( May all beings lead prosperous life across Globe 🌍 )

[@baxterblack3700]

So....what is the bee recipe? Bummed that part wasn't spoken too since that seemed to be the key to success

[@neilgreisman2687]

Seriously? Why would he provide his IP?

[@baxterblack3700]

@@neilgreisman2687 he said at the start of the video he's gonna tell us his secrets

[@blackwaters26]

@@baxterblack3700 "some of" his secrets, he didn't say all.

[@baxterblack3700]

@@blackwaters26 well the rest aren't secrets because those are widely practiced technologies to deploy at an indoor farm

[@zarazalazar]

This gives me hope for the future.

[@MikeHodgkinson]

Convert the office towers as more people work from home... Automated downtown farmer's markets and deliveries 😋

[@jasonward808]

This is exciting

[@ANGÉLIQUEBEL]

Sweeter future indeed 🥹♥️

[@neilifill4819]

This is so great! I’m curious… who financed these guys to get started and to do all the experimentation? In 2018, they were barely producing anything. They impressively got better and scaled up. But, that’s the part of the story I wish he had time to share.

[@Danestani.master1]

Sweet future !!! Can we see ???!!!!

[@mel_arquiza]

"Brilliantly and intelligently AI innovation that counts that serve it's true purpose. A better produce outcome for a better world." ❤❤❤👍👍👍🙏🙏🙏

[@samuelzev4076]

The future of vertical farming is already here. I have hydroponic rig on my roof that grows about 120 vegetables per harvest and I have been eating ny own greens to the point of getting bored of eating them

[@5678connie]

Think of all those empty malls - we could even include housing along side vertical farming.

[@Sq7Arno]

Bravo. Valuable work. The science and data is so very important. Vertical farms are capital intensive to get off the ground as businesses. However I'm certain that one day there will be a massive body of data informing entrepreneurs on how to make such operations profitable and highly productive. For a wide variety of produce. Maybe even grains, and mushrooms. Optimally, in the shortest possible time, with the least possible risk. And it's not out of the question that even the building of such facilities may one day be automated, and highly optimized. Tech improvement just doesn't have brakes. Traditional methods are forever constrained. It's like you say. See the progress in 5 years. Forever is still to come. Also, well done with the bees. We may one day be able to have machines do pollination as effectively; But I doubt it would ever be as energy efficient. At least such would be a mean feat indeed.

[@AQuantumCraig]

Amazing!!

[@acornhomestead3575]

I love your passion, and I applaud your innovation. But... A few decades ago not everyone could afford steak, or mince (hamburger) then we started to mass produce meat (chicken included). Now we are over-producing meat and a lot goes to waste because the choice of locations and sheer volume of product. How do you plan to deal with the over-production, and under-consumed products when people get bored/sick off/need a change? Will you freeze them, or ship them to further away places? Will they become the next fight against Air pollution? I understand mass production is almost needed to offset the cost of the AI and Robot assistance and while I love strawberries "seasonal" fruits and vegetables are important both for soil and humans. Could we just take better care of our environments as to not have such severe weather that dashes crops. I'm a wee homesteader, I have strawberry plants. And while I did have some success this year (combinations of being just transplanted this year, poor weather, bug infestation, farm location, likely some soil issues also) I'm hopeful that next year my crops will produce ridiculous amounts like my peas did this year. I'd rather have a bug-bitten, soil-grown, sober bee-pollinated seasonal variety than the 100% environmentally controlled, 100% perfect variety. But I completely understand your experiences with western fruit flavours🤮

[@Melissa0774]

I wonder if they could figure out how to grow grapefruits that you don't need to put sugar on.

[@Morberis]

Man, vertical farming keeps failing in North America where we have plentiful land. There are use cases for it but it doesn't work everywhere. Having to pay for power for lighting vs free sunlight is a huge cost.

[@CanadaBananaFarms]

Also depends if you can have solar helping out and depends on each state, electric prices vary from state to state and from province or province.

[@Morberis]

@@CanadaBananaFarms Solar just increases the initial cost of the capital investment and the maintenance costs. Don't forget the maintenance costs for all those lights that need to be running when they could have been off. Compared to free it's a huge cost. It's also much more efficient to just let in that sunlight rather than converting it to electricity and then back to light. Sure now you have a purpose built building but in exchange its operating costs are much lower and you get a better growing product. Full spectrum light does make a quality difference unfortunately.

[@CanadaBananaFarms]

@@Morberisthe problem with greenhouses and the free sunlight, you still consume a ton of electricity with huge fans trying to control the heat temperatures. We have tried it and it’s crazy how much we consume in electricity especially in peak demand hours. I personally like the geothermal play or a biodigester. Have you seen the movie “The need to grow”, excellent film on how simply to create electricity and heat for a greenhouse facility.

[@Morberis]

@@CanadaBananaFarms the ones near me don't have any fans for cooling, natural wind ventilation because they orientated the building to take advantage of it and it blows through a wall swamp cooler which lets them also control the humidity. That's in addition to the roof open by having panels swivel. I actually don't think I've ever seen a modern commercial greenhouse that uses fans and I've travelled a fair bit to do work on them. I can respect that you have your own experience though. I don't understand why you would use fans though, the best you will get is down to ambient temperatures and you can get that with natural ventilation.

[@lgg937]

There is no mention of the nutritional value of the product

[@Laralinda]

Neither is of conventional strawberries tasting like cucumbers. In their farms they can plant good varieties, that are more delicate to handle and adjust "weather" conditions, soil conditions, everyhing and don't need to transport them around for days. So maybe they will start off with the tastiest option but they also COULD grow the richest in nutritions. I think the best advantage is that they are pesticide-free.

[@larrybuckner8619]

If you’re feeding the plant the nutrients that it needs to grow there’s absolutely no reason why it wouldn’t be nutritious to eat. Potassium phosphate and nitrogen….. all this is put into the water that feeds the plants. Plus micro nutrients.

[@Fenixswe]

Some of the cons may be: *Electronic waste *Indoor requirement *Dependence of artificially manufactured nutrients *Electricity

[@ericdanielski4802]

Nice talk.

[@engineersintravel4377]

I've heard before Japan has problems with berries supply, but in Russia strawberries just grow in every countryside or as a home plants, in a grocery store 1kg for $5, sorry man wrong country to born

[@garciavashchino1]

I couldn't help but think about Judge Dredd where they had the Mega Buildings but in these buildings they could have Vertical farms inside them so that people can shop in their own buildings FRESH FOOD....

[@anderslunde861]

I love this video!! But has anyone seen The Black mirror episode with robot bees? Kinda reminds me of this..its all fun and games until someone hacks your robots and they go rogue

[@toni4729]

Just one question: Why are the solar power units on the grass and not on the roofs where they should be.

[@만찐두빵-n5i]

It doesn't matter where they are. I think they installed the solar power units on the grass to get more lights to use more area.

[@zettaiengineer4202]

Vertical farming could be competitive in seasonal fresh produce but not with calorie dense foods made of corn, wheat, rice, or soy nor animal feed.

[@spirit9091]

I think you are right, but if we could move even a part of the normal crops into vertical farming, much could be gained. I think. I could imagine that a lot of vegetables could work in an environment like that, but I don't have any knowledge.

[@davidval7188]

I thought that the capital cost to produce food was to high to produce affordable food which is why so many vertical farms are going bankrupt

[@rrdgz5355]

Honest question. Can anybody tell me how this is different from all the other vertical farming start-ups that have already failed? I'm not hating here, but who is the target market for this product? Farmers won't be able to afford these

[@skullandbones1832]

💚

[@TheHungryOne]

Bee recipe

[@mariaantoniettamontella9173]

bravissimo

[@johnnyrabbitslaughing5761]

I'm just curious about what happens to the hundreds of thousands of farmers who will lose their entire livelihood due to this

[@komfyrion]

What happened to the millions of farmers who lost their livelihood during industrialisation?

[@TheyJustCallMeDom]

But fruits are becoming so sweet that they are even giving the animals diabetes

[@Nemsis19]

Wow how can i start that in a very low cost in a third world country?

[@ericdanielski4802]

Nice question.

[@northernnaysayer1240]

You can't, I'd cost a fortune, it's a terrible idea.

[@doctordelatierra]

Just grow the food in the ground if thats possible. Research market gardening, its intensive vegetable production on small areas of land as practiced in Europe for centuries. The practice is made possible due to rigorous soil health regimens including cover crop rotations, compost, no till, etc. The future of food is organic, in the ground, and natural systems. Not factory farming. Theres a huge list of suggested reading you could look into that will really open the rabbit hole here: The market gardener by JM Fortier New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman Who really feeds the world? by Vandana Shiva Holistic Resource Management by Alan Savory (not about gardening/vegetable farming but about Holistic Design. Very intersting theories put forth in this book.) Ultimately the only sustainable future is one where people return to the land and become self sufficient again - to a reasonable degree at least, lest say growing 40% of the produce you eat in a year. These factory farms are a great idea in theory, but lack practicality in execution. Just to name a few examples - rather than grow strawberries with the sun, which requires no solar panels, this suggests growing strawberries with lights powered by electricity generated through solar panels. The plastic components in all of those electrics contain oil. The metal had to be mined. The process of making solar panels is very bad for the environment. The lost goes on and on. The question remains, why not just grow the strawberries in the ground on abandoned lots in the city where this factory is? Why not teach local kids how to grow their own food and empower them?

[@user-gs8nv7lf2g]

Except for, cucumbers from vertical Farming causing diarrhia, the Natural ones doesnt. I am No expert for Farming or agriculture bit my digestive system seems to be picky....

[@IngeniousDimensions369]

😍😍😍😍

[@manishsingh-qs4hk]

But too much dependency on AI and robotics may create problems for humans

[@frenchtoast4574]

"...thanks to data science and AI..."

[@yannroth]

It is the least resilient way to grow strawberries. If we rely too much on this technology to feed people, it will get dirty when the supply chains are going to fail. This is what we can find in dystopia.

[@chrysanthalas]

Less land, less water, less energy? Explain that please?

[@yannroth]

​So, instead of using directly the energy from the sun you have to provide it through electricity. And as you have to control everything, it uses quite a lot of it. We are living right now with the first big scale energy outbreak, it will get worse. Then, the reliance on nutrient is also concerning. But it also explains why it's so popular, as nutrient are synthesized from fossil fuel, so we are still making ourselves ever more reliant on fossil fuel. This is happening for the same reason single use plastic has been pushed for everything, it's just so we consume and are forced to consume fossil fuels.

[@lavidaesunviaje5169]

Yey! we dont need farmers anymore!!

[@TomEdwardi]

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[@DerickSams]

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[@HaholBarton]

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[@DerickSams]

Without a doubt! Ruth Ann Tsakonas is a trader who goes above and beyond. she has an exceptional skill for analyzing market movements and spotting profitable opportunities. Her strategies are meticulously crafted based on thorough research and years of practical experience.

[@TomEdwardi]

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[@DerickSams]

look up her name on the web for her website.

[@sooma-ai]

Hiroki Koga discusses vertical farming technology that grows sweeter strawberries year-round using AI, robotics, and indoor bee colonies. He explains how this method can solve agricultural challenges and become more cost-effective than traditional farming.

[@Picci25021973]

I grow my strawberries in the fertile ground, using homemade compost, sun and spring water. With all the respect to vertical farming, there's no match to flavor and consistence.

[@AnuragSharma-mq9ub]

❤❤

[@SparkyTom1]

Has the company filed for bankruptcy yet?

[@rl8073]

As an actual permaculture farmer I think this is a bad idea, and its shown to have failed time and time again. Save you the 10 minutes this guy is selling a pipe dream that is borderline fraud. This only works under the most specific of conditions, most of these company's have gone bankrupt.

[@InsaneTreefrog]

Big deal. Mark Watney grew potatoes on Mars years ago, this is nothing special

[@kevoreilly6557]

Honestly - vertical farm wheat or soy or rice … then let’s talk Seriously - garbage

[@darkjill2007]

The last time I heard anything about vertical farms was on free think. It was a piece on why vertical farms didn't take off in the US yet. We've been trying do do this for years. The long and short of it was you couldn't staff the buildings and when you could the maintenance and salaries made the business non competitive with dirt farming. Dirts cheap and so is unskilled labor. It's a cool idea I'd love to see work but I just don't buy it.

[@umwha]

I know there does seem to be reasons that verticals farming hasn’t taken off, but I think these are very solvable problems. Staffing a vertical farm can’t require that much skill. Dirt may be cheap but land sure isn’t.

[@darkjill2007]

@@umwha Well, there's a bunch of robots in there so you need a PLC programmer and control experts. They're growing unique strains of plants tailor made to grow in vertical farms. Which requires a botanist to maintain (this supposedly is the Achilles heel of the whole system) those plants. Maintainers to work on the complicated HVAC these farms require. Which are unique to indoor farming. HR, management, etc. Whereas regular farms are functionally slaves to large food corps that exploit their labor to produce cheap goods. Lands cheap if you own the land already. Labors cheap if you own the people's livelihood that work the land. Of course there are Independant farms, but the vast majority didn't use to be. Also Strawberries are not corn or Soybeans. A lot of our farming production does not go to food stuffs but chemical production. I want this to work, I really do. But there's a bunch of special unicorns that work in that building that need to be replaced first.

[@darkjill2007]

Jesus I've lived long enough and watch enough of these kinds of projects fail to become a bitter old man.

[@changyone]

do you want blocks of factory buildings all around the world? instead of the beauty of mother nature?

[@MikeHodgkinson]

Farms currently cover 50% of the world's habitable land (Our World in Data) and all cities, roads and building cover 1%, so this kind of increased productivity can only free up land for nature, especially if repurposing obsolete buildings like office towers 🤓

[@changyone]

@@MikeHodgkinson I totally agree that farming is taking much of the habitable ground but that is because farming of animals, we need farms to give them food and living ground to put them on. imaging how much ground you need to get vertical farming. Like to preserve big trees for exotic fruit. So to maintain we need skyscrapers to haverst them. They will not color them. I do not say vertical farming is not the future but it is not everything. Also do you rather have artificial made food or natural made food.

[@MikeHodgkinson]

@@changyone I agree with you! Yes, 70% of all farmland is for animals and their food. Maybe the vertical farms need to be growing protein instead 🙂

[@th3gughy]

I think this is one of the most misleading TED videos I've ever watched.. this is the pitch for a startup, not for something innovative or needed. There is so much incomplete and misleading information that it's the opposite of informative, it should be taken down! Yes, this is better than any GMO, but GMO done well can be so much better than this..

[@evagreen9968]

I prefer not to eat strawberries than to eat these AI artificial grown straberries. Poor bees too that have to spend their life indoors to pollinate strawberries just so that we humans can get met our strawberry desire each day of the year, any place. What kind of energy do these strawberries carry? What kind of world are we heading towards? This TED talk sadly didnt inspire me at all. Intelligent young man, but he should use his intelligence for something that supports life.

[@larrybuckner8619]

You’re not inspired because you don’t know enough about indoor growing. These plants are fed optimal nutrients and micro nutrients. Everything a plant needs to grow perfectly add to taste perfectly and to be perfectly nutrient for the human body. Everything about the environment is controlled and I do mean everything. And I’m sorry I’m just not going along with the poor bees thing. They also have everything they need in that environment or they would die.

[@Morberis]

That may be the vision statement but the reality for many vertical farms has not been like that. What you're talking about costs a lot more. The ones that I know of that have thrived are not these vertical hydroponic structures with artificial lighting but wide greenhouses that make use of free sunlight and supplement with artificial lights. Plants that live on conveyors in pots that move from automated station to station.

[@Bogas76]

No. You play silly with nature you will be punished . It’s a matter of time .

[@umwha]

It’s just shelves. It’s growing plants on shelves

[@darinherrick9224]

and pesticides and herbicides aren't playing with nature???

[@AlaahAkbr-q9c]

God loves you and cares for you so that this message reaches you. God is the one who created this large universe and controls it completely. The greatest loss a person loses in this life is that he lives without knowing God who created him and knowing the Messenger of Muhammad, the last of the messengers, and the Islamic religion, the last of the heavenly religions. Great intelligence, before you believe in something or not, is to read it, study it, and understand it well, and after that you have the choice to believe in it or not to believe in it. I advise you to do this now, before you no longer have time to do so. Life is very short. It is just a test, just a passage to eternal life. Great advice to those who... Understands

[@vincentlarochelle6521]

So God wanted us to have robot strawberries 🍓? Cool! 😂

[@Lolcoca]

@@vincentlarochelle6521Robot Fruits 😂🤣😂🤣😂