In March 2024, Amber visited the London area to learn more about opportunities and technology in vertical farming. During this trip, she met with Vertical Future (VF), which was recently ranked #1 worldwide for its controlled-environment-agriculture technology. VF‘s experimental farm, Syan Farm (in the pictures below), was impressive to see in person and showed detailed attention to the use of automation and software to carefully manage the growth of crops in its systems. The systems can be designed in a variety of ways and can include automated seeding and harvesting, hyper-spectral imaging and continuous data collection. Growing algorithms can also be designed to match specific crops, which ensures their needs are being met. The use of these technologies helps prevent crop loss by identifying and preventing issues in the plants.

It was fascinating to see how advanced our agricultural systems are becoming. Around the world we are experiencing growing populations, climate change and pressure on our existing food systems. By incorporating vertical farming technology like VF‘s, we can strengthen the reliability and locality of our food supply. We hope to work with Vertical Future in the coming years to develop Ísponica into a high-tech vertical aquaponics farm in Hofsós.