WEBVTT 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:11.679 Can we feed the world? 00:00:12.199 --> 00:00:16.119 MAKING THE FUTURE 00:00:16.359 --> 00:00:20.479 Indoor Farming 00:00:21.347 --> 00:00:22.445 Thank you very much. 00:00:22.445 --> 00:00:26.260 There are quite some misconceptions about growing 00:00:26.260 --> 00:00:29.395 and today I would like to help you to overcome 00:00:29.395 --> 00:00:33.367 at least seven of these misconceptions. 00:00:33.367 --> 00:00:35.684 So the first misconception is that we can keep feeding 00:00:35.684 --> 00:00:38.380 the world's expanding population 00:00:38.380 --> 00:00:43.208 with the existing agricultural technology. 00:00:43.224 --> 00:00:46.123 When we have a closer look at the world, 00:00:46.123 --> 00:00:48.447 we see that we are growing 00:00:48.447 --> 00:00:52.219 from 7 billion to 9 billion, and that we are moving 00:00:52.219 --> 00:00:55.041 to live more and more in cities. 00:00:55.041 --> 00:00:58.798 To produce enough food for all these people, 00:00:58.798 --> 00:01:03.833 water is the most important asset. 00:01:03.864 --> 00:01:06.576 In future, water will be more important 00:01:06.576 --> 00:01:09.608 than fossil fuel or energy is today. 00:01:09.608 --> 00:01:12.198 In order to produce enough food, 00:01:12.198 --> 00:01:19.210 we will create new land for growing food in sub‑optimal conditions. 00:01:19.210 --> 00:01:24.006 In those conditions, plants are not very happy, and they will become ill. 00:01:24.006 --> 00:01:26.044 They will get pests and diseases. 00:01:26.044 --> 00:01:31.061 We will take more and more pesticides, chemicals, to treat them. 00:01:31.061 --> 00:01:35.973 Another thing: even if our trucks would run on water in future, 00:01:35.973 --> 00:01:41.000 35 % of the trucks on the road are busy transporting 00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:45.954 food or food parts from A to B, and probably, in the end, back to A. 00:01:45.954 --> 00:01:51.807 So we have to change the way that we feed the world today. 00:01:51.807 --> 00:01:57.295 The second misconception: we must make plants adapt to nature. 00:01:57.295 --> 00:02:03.513 This is not true. In nature, and even in the best Dutch greenhouses, 00:02:03.513 --> 00:02:07.694 plants only use 9 % of their potentiality. 00:02:07.694 --> 00:02:11.770 In real nature, they maybe use 2 or 3 %. 00:02:11.770 --> 00:02:17.048 So plants are so very smart that they are able to adapt any circumstances 00:02:17.048 --> 00:02:20.498 in order to survive. They can do that with very little 00:02:20.498 --> 00:02:25.723 of their potentiality. But that opens a lot of possibilities for us. 00:02:25.723 --> 00:02:31.211 If we would know how to make plants really happy, they are able to bring 00:02:31.211 --> 00:02:38.157 much more to us. We started back in 1989, 23 years ago, studying plants 00:02:38.157 --> 00:02:43.544 as they grow in the fields, in greenhouses. We have worked for almost 00:02:43.544 --> 00:02:47.202 10 years on producing mathematical models, in order to understand them. 00:02:47.202 --> 00:02:51.278 The more we understood about plants, the more we started to see 00:02:51.278 --> 00:02:54.257 that plants could do much better. 00:02:54.257 --> 00:02:59.012 The third misconception is, this is paradise for plants. 00:02:59.012 --> 00:03:05.702 It's not true ‑‑ this is paradise for us. If plants were to choose, 00:03:05.702 --> 00:03:11.189 they would say, "This is paradise." Plants don't like sunlight. 00:03:11.189 --> 00:03:14.566 They have used to live under the sunlight, but the only light 00:03:14.566 --> 00:03:20.595 that they take up from the sunlight is red and blue, and a little far red. 00:03:20.595 --> 00:03:26.448 So this is what plant paradise really looks like. It's a merger of plant 00:03:26.448 --> 00:03:33.399 physiological know‑how and high technology. We give plants only red, 00:03:33.399 --> 00:03:39.095 blue and far red LED light, and we combine that with very sophisticated 00:03:39.095 --> 00:03:47.881 climate control. By doing so, we are able to grow crops in this kind of buildings. 00:03:47.881 --> 00:03:50.692 We call this a plant production unit. It's a multi‑layer 00:03:50.692 --> 00:03:53.777 production unit and we can make it multi‑layer, 00:03:53.777 --> 00:03:56.027 because we don't want any sunlight. 00:03:56.027 --> 00:04:01.619 In the unit itself, there is only this mixture of red and blue. 00:04:01.619 --> 00:04:04.493 And in front of the unit where the people are working, of course there is daylight, 00:04:04.493 --> 00:04:09.244 or white light. Otherwise, you couldn't see the real colors of the crops. 00:04:09.536 --> 00:04:15.310 If we would have to produce 200 grams of fresh vegetables 00:04:15.310 --> 00:04:18.132 and fruits for one person a day, 00:04:18.132 --> 00:04:21.163 it only takes one square meter in this sort of building. 00:04:21.163 --> 00:04:27.953 So in order to feed 100,000 citizens, it would only take a plant production unit 00:04:27.953 --> 00:04:34.071 the size of 100 times 100 meters, in 10 layers. 00:04:34.071 --> 00:04:39.608 And if you take a closer look at the production unit, this way of producing 00:04:39.608 --> 00:04:43.314 enables us to be totally secure and safe. 00:04:43.314 --> 00:04:46.008 Without changing anything about the genetics, 00:04:46.008 --> 00:04:50.010 but just by optimizing the environment where plants are living, 00:04:50.010 --> 00:04:53.303 we can make them more beautiful and even more nutritious. 00:04:53.303 --> 00:04:58.215 And we can secure a very great taste, much better than we were used to. 00:04:58.215 --> 00:05:03.624 We are able to improve the yields by two, three times the best greenhouse. 00:05:03.624 --> 00:05:08.432 And even 30-40 times compared to the open field. And very important, 00:05:08.432 --> 00:05:12.821 we are able to save at least 90 % on the water use. 00:05:12.821 --> 00:05:18.674 The big gift to us was that we never had any pests or diseases. 00:05:18.674 --> 00:05:24.841 So it appears to be true that when plants are very happy, they never get ill. 00:05:24.841 --> 00:05:28.318 They are not susceptible to pests and diseases, 00:05:28.318 --> 00:05:30.302 so we don't use any pesticides. 00:05:30.302 --> 00:05:35.476 That also solves the fourth misconception: 00:05:35.476 --> 00:05:40.127 Growing food is done horizontally and takes a lot of water and pesticides. 00:05:40.127 --> 00:05:44.699 It's not true. We are able to grow any crop. 00:05:44.699 --> 00:05:50.605 It doesn't matter if it's tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries, cucumbers. 00:05:50.605 --> 00:05:54.994 We can do anything ‑‑ even medicines ‑‑ medical herbs, for instance. 00:05:54.994 --> 00:05:58.480 This is how it looks like. 00:05:58.480 --> 00:06:00.763 (Music) 00:06:00.763 --> 00:06:03.431 This is, of course, the image. 00:06:03.431 --> 00:06:08.320 And this is a plant production unit that we have built over two years ago. 00:06:08.320 --> 00:06:13.703 And it's up and running now 24/7 for more than 100 weeks. 00:06:13.703 --> 00:06:18.145 It works perfectly and we are able to control these units long distance, 00:06:18.145 --> 00:06:23.005 by uploading growing recipes automatically. 00:06:23.005 --> 00:06:28.440 Those growing recipes take care of every minute set point 00:06:28.440 --> 00:06:33.352 to grow perfect lettuce, perfect tomatoes, and even guaranteeing 00:06:33.352 --> 00:06:36.488 that the nitrate content of that lettuce is very low. 00:06:36.488 --> 00:06:40.355 As you see, they are really green when they come out. 00:06:47.776 --> 00:06:53.002 The fifth misconception is that food must grow where nature is kind to it, 00:06:53.002 --> 00:06:57.862 and then we transport it. That's why we grow 10,000 hectares of tomatoes 00:06:57.862 --> 00:07:02.565 in the south of Spain and then we transport these tomatoes to Moscow, 00:07:02.565 --> 00:07:05.962 for instance. We have to harvest them five days prior 00:07:05.962 --> 00:07:07.530 to the consumption moment. 00:07:07.530 --> 00:07:10.404 Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to be transported. 00:07:10.404 --> 00:07:13.121 But that is very bad for taste and nutrition. 00:07:13.121 --> 00:07:17.981 So we want to grow them just where we live, where the consumers are. 00:07:17.981 --> 00:07:22.162 We want to change foodmiles into foodsteps. 00:07:22.162 --> 00:07:26.447 We want to go back to the old concept where we consume food 00:07:26.447 --> 00:07:29.844 that is just harvested. That makes a lot of difference. 00:07:29.844 --> 00:07:34.704 In this system, we are able to harvest exactly at the right moment, 00:07:34.704 --> 00:07:38.101 in the right quantity, meaning we have no waste. 00:07:38.101 --> 00:07:42.804 And we can do this no matter what climate, no matter what season, 00:07:42.804 --> 00:07:47.926 day or night and any place. We can do this in desert, 00:07:47.926 --> 00:07:52.237 at the polar circle or inside the city. 00:07:52.237 --> 00:07:57.045 Then there is a sixth misconception: food must be grown large scale. 00:07:57.045 --> 00:08:00.542 That's not true either. We could do it in the center of cities 00:08:00.542 --> 00:08:04.309 or even at the fresh department of your supermarket. 00:08:04.309 --> 00:08:08.803 Or growing lettuce or herbs inside your restaurant. 00:08:08.803 --> 00:08:14.604 Or even smaller, you grow your own herbs in your kitchen 00:08:14.604 --> 00:08:18.732 or you pick your tomatoes from your kitchen drawer. 00:08:18.732 --> 00:08:22.861 Then the last, and seventh, misconception. 00:08:22.861 --> 00:08:26.937 It will take years before this is going to happen. 00:08:26.937 --> 00:08:32.842 That's not true. We are totally ready to do this, actually, today. 00:08:32.842 --> 00:08:36.030 Within the coming one, two years, 00:08:36.030 --> 00:08:38.695 we will start rolling out this concept. 00:08:38.695 --> 00:08:43.503 Especially in Asia, China, India, Africa, etcetera. 00:08:43.503 --> 00:08:48.415 Indoor farming is the next generation of growing 00:08:48.415 --> 00:08:50.976 and we are totally there to do it today. 00:08:50.976 --> 00:08:52.701 Thank you very much. 00:08:52.701 --> 00:08:55.701 (Applause)