34. #Sustainability: the promising perspective of vertical farming

Against the backdrop of demographic pressures and climate change, vertical agriculture is stimulating interest from investors and political decision-makers alike. This type of agriculture, in a controlled environment, can be practiced anywhere in urban areas, in multi-storey structures that eliminate unpredictable factors such as weather and disease. But although the technology is established, vertical farming remains outside the mainstream. So, what are its advantages? What synergies does it offer with conventional agriculture? What about standards, labelling and regulation of this hi-tech sector? The 34th edition of Food for Europe reports from Belgium and meets three personalities with different roles in the sector: Audrey Boucher, manager of an urban farm in Brussels; Maarten Vandecruys, founder of Urban Crops Solutions, whose locally-made equipment may one day find itself deployed on the surface of Mars; and Thomas Zöllner, secretary-general of FarmTech Society, a recently established professional association focusing on the controlled agriculture sector. Fabio Cossu, a policy analyst from the Policy and Perspectives Unit in the European Commission’s DG AGRI, responds to the points they raise and outlines how vertical farming can contribute to a vision of farming in the future.