Conference Presentation, Fireside Chat, Interview
Irving Fain CEO/Founder, Bowery Farming
- Global population is projected to reach 10 billion within 30 years, driving demand for 70% more food while 70 to 80% of people will reside in and around cities.
- The vertical farming market is expected to grow from 80 billion to 155 billion in four years, supported by shifting demographics and the need to offset climate disruption that has accelerated over the last 12 to 24 months.
- Water scarcity, specifically unreliable aquifers and mountain run-offs, may force approximately one million acres of agricultural land in California offline to rebalance supply and demand.
- Bowery Farming plans to expand its operating system and farm locations globally, including in diverse climates like Siberia and St. Petersburg, to create distributed networks that leverage data for scalability.
- The company anticipates achieving productivity levels 100 times greater than traditional farmland per square foot through increased crop cycles, yield improvements, and automation that shifts human roles to higher-level quality management.
- New product offerings will include year-round strawberries, tomatoes, and 10 distinct tomato varieties, with a supply chain designed to reduce nutritional loss by delivering products within one to two days.
- Technological integration of robotics, AI, and computer vision will enable automatic crop condition adjustments and outcome predictions based on real-time imagery, eliminating the need for human intuition or pesticide use.
- The company aims to make farming accessible to individuals without prior experience and mitigate climatic variance by controlling uncontrolled variables, thereby increasing resilience against geopolitical disruptions and long-term supply chain fragility.
- Commercial viability in vertical farming, previously hindered by light costs, became economically feasible 10 to 15 years ago, though entrepreneurs are advised to embrace uncertainty rather than seek marginal information due to diminishing returns on planning.