GAIA’s first harvest

We have artificial LED lighting providing energy requirements and a closed circuit water supply with an automated nutrient and UV water Sterilization system. The lighting configuration of the compact two top levels enabled us to have 40% less energy requirement than the bottom level once extended, which shows our 40% energy saving compared to other vertical farms that don’t have bi-directional expanding modular channels. 

We grew a combination of Batavia lettuce & Red leaf lettuce and chose this lettuce because they are the hardest to grow on a farm. They are sensitive to conditions such as light, temperature, nutrients in the water, and insects causing damage. However, we know that if we can grow this type of lettuce successfully, then other forms of lettuce will be simple. 

Why do we need new ways of growing lettuce? 

The global population is estimated to reach 9 billion by 2050. As it is now, a significant percentage of the people will be living in continue to live in urban areas. This will likely require a 70% increase in agricultural productivity (Corvalan et al. 2005; Tilman et al. 2011).  

Furthermore, continued rural to urban migration is predicted to increase the need for urban landscapes and accelerate the loss of cultivated land surrounding towns and cities (Pandey and Seto 2015). The negative impact will be land degradation and loss of soil fertility. Due to land-use intensification and climate change, agricultural land is increasingly becoming a scarce resource (Foley et al. 2011; Lambin et al. 2013)  

Here in Australia, we have recently felt the effects of climate change which has brought on significant weather conditions affecting our lettuce production. For example, from April through till today, as I write this article, many parts of Queensland and New South Wales have been flooded from excess rain. Due to less optimal weather conditions, it’s been exceedingly difficult to grow lettuce in these areas, which has caused a shortage of lettuce and driven up the costs to consumers by up to 10 times regular prices. Even some fast-food chains such as KFC have had to change their menu and replace lettuce with other alternatives to combat this shortage. 

Lettuce crisis issues like this will continue as 98% of all the lettuce grown in Australia is grown on traditional farms in soil and are prone to fail when we have natural disasters or non-favourable weather conditions.  

In addition to this it is predicted we have an average of only 70 more harvest cycles left from soil-based farming as we are depleting the nutrients from our soils and once depleted it will be difficult if not impossible to grow vegetables in soil after this time. 

What’s the future for lettuce production? 

For Australia and many parts of the world, we need to continue our move away from traditional farming (growing vegetables in an unprotected environment and soil) and move to a CEA (Controlled Environment Agriculture) way such as vertical farming or advanced greenhouse. This new age way of agriculture is far more resilient to natural disasters, and unfavourable weather conditions as the plants are protected and provided with optimal growing conditions. 

However, CEA farming has its challenges, the 2019 Global CEA Census report conducted by Agritecture LLC and Autogrow, which surveyed 316 farmers from 50 countries, shows that only 45% of CEA greenhouses are profitable. This poor result was mainly due to operating costs. Here is a breakdown of the top 7 operational costs, with one being the highest and seven being the lowest.