Original 2021 statement: The 40 mega-cities that will account for the majority of the earth’s population 20 years out will grow most of their food within the city, including within 100 story high ‘vertical farms
What Jim has written about this
From “Daily Inspiration: The Reality of Trends - “One person’s skepticism is another person’s gold!”” (November 2023)
One that leads to a potential future in which we are no longer restricted to farming outdoors - in the future, we will be doing much more of it indoors as well. As a global society, we need to do this - because as the world’s population grows to 8 billion, we need BIG, bold solutions to come up with new ways of growing global food production. And what has happened is that our early experiments with the concept of growing indoors are about to enter the industrial scale, as we see the arrival of trends that bring together technology, advanced science, disruptive ideas, and new concepts - bringing into reality a new industry that promises to provide fast innovation that solves one of the biggest challenges of our time!
70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050, up from 50% today - and so this transportation issue becomes a huge opportunity. Africa is urbanizing so fast that by 2030 it will cease to be a rural continent - and is already experienced with the idea. Already there are 800 million ‘city farmers’ according to UN statistics, including 25% of the population of Burkina Faso, 35% of Cameroon, 63% of Kenya, and 68% of Tanzania. 90% of the fresh vegetables in Accra, Ghana come from farming within the city - and so as the industry matures, the opportunities throughout the continent are massive!
speed to market! It’s common for full-size basil plants to grow in but three weeks, and micro-herbs in just one week. A full wheat crop can take six to 10 months to grow outdoors but only 2 to 3 months on a vertical farm. In winter climates, the production increase is huge - in Michigan, we can harvest lettuce 17 times a year compared to once or twice per season in outdoor farms.
From “The BIG Future: Vertical Farming at Scale” (February 2023)
70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050, up from 50% today - and so this transportation issue becomes a huge opportunity. Africa is urbanizing so fast that by 2030 it will cease to be a rural continent - and is already experienced with the idea. Already there are 800 million ‘city farmers’ according to UN statistics, including 25% of the population of Burkina Faso, 35% of Cameroon, 63% of Kenya, and 68% of Tanzania. 90% of the fresh vegetables in Accra, Ghana come from farming within the city - and so as the industry matures, the opportunities throughout the continent are massive!
speed to market! It’s common for full-size basil plants to grow in but three weeks, and micro-herbs in just one week. A full wheat crop can take six to 10 months to grow outdoors but only 2 to 3 months on a vertical farm. In winter climates, the production increase is huge - in Michigan, we can harvest lettuce 17 times a year compared to once or twice per season in outdoor farms.
In Singapore, 90% of the food comes from outside the country - from up to 190 different countries! But they have established a goal to produce 30% of its nutritional needs by 2030, much of that from vertical farms.
From “Daily Inspiration: “Grow your ideas, not your skepticism!”” (February 2023)
we expect the global population to grow to 9 to 10 billion by 2050, but the available arable land for farming is estimated to be but 1/2 of what it was in the 80s - as a result of the growing global climate emergency
70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050, up from 50% today - and so this transportation issue becomes a huge opportunity. Africa is urbanizing so fast that by 2030 it will cease to be a rural continent - and is already experienced with the idea. Already there are 800 million ‘city farmers’ according to UN statistics, including 25% of the population of Burkina Faso, 35% of Cameroon, 63% of Kenya, and 68% of Tanzania. 90% of the fresh vegetables in Accra, Ghana come from farming within the city - and so as the industry matures, the opportunities throughout the continent are massive!
speed to market! It’s common for full-size basil plants to grow in but three weeks, and micro-herbs in just one week. A full wheat crop can take six to 10 months to grow outdoors but only 2 to 3 months on a vertical farm. In winter climates, the production increase is huge - in Michigan, we can harvest lettuce 17 times a year compared to once or twice per season in outdoor farms.
Read the full pieces on jimcarroll.com:
Daily Inspiration: The Reality of Trends - “One person’s skepticism is another person’s gold!”
The BIG Future: Vertical Farming at Scale
Daily Inspiration: “Grow your ideas, not your skepticism!”