Video Text by Sarah Phillips
I visited AeroFarms on site in Newark, New Jersey, in July, 2021

The entire agriculture and food ecosystem is facing a dramatic climatic change shift that is reshaping the way we grow food and its subsequent impact on our planet. Ever since I started working professionally in the food business 35 years ago, I’ve been passionate about food.

​The Earth’s population is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that farmers will have to produce 70% more food by 2050 to meet the needs of the world’s expected 9 billion strong population. One expert has said that feeding 9 billion people by 2050 in a truly sustainable way will be one of the greatest challenges our civilization has ever faced. It’s because food production around the world will suffer as global heating increases 1.5 degrees celsius with serious effects on the food supply in the next two decades, scientists have warned, following the biggest scientific report yet on the climate crisis. Rising temperatures will mean there will be more times of the year when temperatures exceed what crops can stand according to a stark report by the intergovernmental panel on climate change in the sixth report published this last August, 2021. Plus extreme weather this year has also revealed another major impact. When wet bulb temperatures soar, people cannot safely work in the fields. These conditions occur when both heat and humidity are high and people’s bodies cannot wick away sweat efficiently. Extreme weather is creating nightmares for farmers around the world and making food more expensive for Americans.

World food prices have soared by 31% over the past year according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Supply shortages caused by extreme weather is one of the several factors behind this food inflation. Severe weather events have contributed to natural catastrophic losses of 40 billion dollars during the first half of 2021 alone, according to Swiss Re the world’s largest reinsurance company. That’s the second highest amount on record.

​I feel that the future of food must happen now before it’s too late. In this first video I sought out AeroFarms, founded in 2004. It was built in an abandoned steel mill into the world’s largest technologically cutting edge vertical farm in the middle of Newark, New Jersey. Newark is New Jersey’s largest and second of its kind most racially diverse city after neighboring Jersey City and it’s close to New York City. It is home to Newark International Airport, one of the world’s busiest as well as a major east coast port and manufacturing city. AeroFarms is a 70,000 square foot indoor aeroponic vertical farm producing up to 2 million pounds of food in 12 to 14 days instead of 30 to 45. That means more food faster using less space or up to 99% less land than a farming field. Its headquarters and corporate farm are 70,000 square feet and has an output potential of up to 2 million pounds of baby greens, herbs and micro greens per year. They’re growing units are 12 levels high, 38 feet tall and 80 feet long each. AeroFarms uses aeroponics, a soilless way of growing produce that uses a nutrient rich water mist to cut down on water usage by up to 95%. This is done in a controlled environment through technology which optimizes temperature humidity and delivers nutrients to plants without pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides. AeroFarms plant seeds and cloth made from the recycled plastic bottles.

Using LED lights, this vertical farm draws on specific wavelengths to maximize efficiency of the plant’s photosynthesis, meaning faster growth time and optimization of taste, texture, nutrition and quality. This means growing more food using less of Earth’s precious resources.  AeroFarms puts a lot of effort into making sure it uses the most efficient LED lights. Here is how they think about energy usage: Their LED lights allows them the flexibility to grow indoors in any weather conditions with different hours per day of light, depending on the variety. AeroFarms is a mission driven organization with a holistic approach to both their carbon footprint and energy management. In order to maximize productivity and quality, they exclusively use efficient LED lights, which make up less than 10% of their total costs.

By enabling local production, AeroFarms also bypasses the complex supply chain for traditional field farming that is very energy intensive for refrigeration, transportation miles and food loss along the way. Because they do not use renewables today, AeroFarms is investing in alternative energy to produce its electricity, using natural gas that releases 60% less carbon dioxide than a coal power plant. They look for sources of clean and renewable energy to power the farms under AeroFarms development, an exercise that differs based on the city, state, and country they are considering. AeroFarms greens are currently sold in hundreds of grocery stores across the northeast, including Whole Foods Market, ShopRite stores, Walmart, Fresh Direct, Amazon Fresh and more, from their Newark, New Jersey location, including Virginia and St Louis. Abu Dhabi is next, with more locations on the way. No longer does food have to be shipped thousands of miles away from the consumer and can be grown year round.

Walking into the AeroFarms building, it felt a like I was inside of a spaceship. It felt like I traveled through time into the future. But I was here in the present with food being locally produced. AeroFarms is up to 390 times more productive than traditional field farming. But when I looked up at the farming, endless rows of greens, every kind you can imagine, it seemed infinite and it amazed me how they could fit all these growing and pesticide free greens into this one building in the middle of a large American city. While touring the building, I was amazed by the technology. Each row of crops was connected to computers that collected data for everything that was being grown. To this day, AeroFarms has grown over 550 different kinds of fruits and vegetables with R&D testing going on every day on products like strawberries, blueberries, and even cacao.

But it’s not only about the quantity here. It’s about quality. Better tasting foods, more nutritious foods, improving the way food is grown and distributed locally and globally while keeping the produce freshly grown. Traditionally produce ships long distances, adding to greenhouse gases from truck exhaust, has a higher spoilage rate ending up in landfills and creating carbon dioxide gases with many farms using irrigated water and pesticides. I asked about the type of seeds used. The answer was non GMO, commonly used seeds. AeroFarms responded that they can take any seed, including the same commercial varieties farmers use in the field, and heirloom varieties and plant them in their indoor farms without alteration of any kind. They create optimal growing conditions for each plant using a special recipe of lights, nutrients, temperature, and other inputs to optimize size, shape, quality, flavor, nutrition, shelf life, and more. AeroFarms does not use any GMO seeds in their commercial products.

​In fact, they’re all non GMO project verified. A spokesperson from there said, “In our R&D, we are looking at different ways our vertical farming tech can influence the development of more optimal seed genetics – selecting, optimizing and designing plants for optimal indoor production using our fully controlled platform for speed breeding and genetic development. These are longer term exploratory projects at the moment.” During my tour of AeroFarms, I couldn’t help but notice the workers and how passionate they seemed about their mission. AeroFarms hires local talent and offers training and benefits. These workers are also indoors in a temperature controlled environment. Besides, without an aggressive global effort to reign in greenhouse gas emissions, extreme heat will wreck havoc on construction, agricultural extraction, delivery and other outdoor sectors, warns a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists. Currently, there is no federal standard that protects workers from heat, either indoors or outdoors. Only a few states, including California and Washington, have permanent protections. Oregon adopted temporary requirements following the historic June heat wave. It’s clear vertical farming sits right in the middle of many of the largest issues facing our planet. AeroFarms is trying to tackle a lot of them. Everything from helping solve food insecurity due to climate change, to eliminate a lot of water use and promote zero pesticide use, to ensuring job sustainability and providing truly local food without a lot of waste.

​AeroFarms is revolutionizing agriculture using technology while keeping people and the planet in mind.

​Indeed, the future of food is now.