UK’s Vertical Future unveils new vertical farm with higher yield

UK-based controlled-environment-agriculture (CEA) solutions provider Vertical Future has unveiled its new approach to vertical farming, which the company claims can boost global food production.

The company claimed that the new approach increased yield at its new 1,500m³ farm in south-east London by 172% per cubic metre.

Vertical Future added that the higher yield has been achieved with 60% less power consumption in comparison with other vertical farms.

To achieve the high yield milestone, Vertical Future combined automated technological hardware advances with smart-learning systems.

Its software system, called Diana, was integrated with thousands of sensors located at the farm to monitor individual crop growth and optimise production at a granular level.

The company said that its software system has been designed to autonomously adjust the light wavelength, nutrient concentration, as well as distribution and water flow rate to the plant.

Vertical Future’s site is currently focused on research and development, as well as serving the business-to-business B2B food and beverage industry with its beyond-organic produce.

The food produced at this vertical farm is claimed to be free from pesticides, herbicides or fungicides, and are grown with minimal human interaction.

Vertical Future founder and CEO Jamie Burrows said: “Hundreds of seeds of micro broccoli have the same footprint as one seed for a full head of broccoli but if you harvest broccoli at 10 to 15 days maturity, it has 40 times more vitamin K and far higher levels of sulforaphane.

“We have launched an advanced, intelligent, end-to-end system providing superior tasting and better crops for the future – for both food and pharmaceutical production – at an affordable price-point. The exploitation of land, loss of biodiversity, and overuse of the earth’s natural resources are damaging to our environment and vertical farming offers one long-term solution.

“We take vertical farming a giant leap further, adopting a holistic approach by offering fully automated and intelligent systems that offer endless possibilities.”