RADIO 4 – Radio broadcasting: The business of the future | AGRICULTURE ON THE HIGH EDGE
Jens Krogshede was invited to a talk about Agriculture on the edge in Radio 4's "Business of the Future"
"Imagine a future where farmers themselves can control the weather. They can control when the sun shines and how much rainwater the plants need. You can grow oranges in Denmark and potatoes in the Sahara. It sounds utopian, but it could be the future , if "vertical farming" takes off. In short, this means that you take the crops indoors and grow them under LED lights with irrigation systems instead of outside in the sun and rain. Instead of only having plants in one plane - you plant the crops on pillars that they grade out the sides on. That way, in the future, you might be able to eat vegetables that haven't been exposed to sunlight before you carry them out of the supermarket. Is that the future of agriculture? Is it even realistic that it will ever become big? Should we have it here in Denmark, or should it be held in cities of millions in the third world, where drought and other extreme weather conditions occur more often than here in Denmark? And in that case, can Danish agriculture come to profit pen give up? "