I was just reading an article in the 16 December Farmers Weekly titled, Sky’s the limit for this vertical farmer.

Exciting, I thought. Someone in New Zealand is getting on to this as an option to farming the soil, fighting the weather and leaching nutrients. 

But no, the hero of the article is NZ-born Arama Kukutai, of Māori descent on his father’s side, who runs two of the world’s most technologically advanced indoor vertical farms … in southern California. Presently selling produce to the likes of Whole Foods, Walmart and global berry giant, Driscoll’s.

As reported by Farmers Weekly, his company – Plenty® – has proved more than 50 crops can be grown indoors, using high levels of artificial light.

And here’s the shocker. Kukutai’s indoor farms can produce as much on one hectare as can be produced on 350 hectares of outdoor cultivation! Year-round. No pesticides. Far less water. Heavy on robotics. Anyone want to talk ‘productivity’?!

The indoor farms’ artificial lighting requires high energy, so access to affordable electricity is essential. 

Doesn’t that make a solar/water-efficient/vertical option sound feasible for sun-rich Hawke’s Bay? And with a small footprint and access to power, his vertical plant can be located in close proximity to the consumer market served, saving on transport costs.

This is truly disruptive thinking and high-yield food production … happening now, but in California.

Meantime, here in Hawke’s Bay we’re puttering around with a glorified $18 million meeting space, called Foodeast, still searching for a decent ‘innovation’ business case. And touting dams to wet thousands of hectares of soil.

As the Plenty® website notes, “We can’t bury our heads in the soil”.

Watch the video.