Spread is a Japanese agricultural company that is developing a large-scale, fully automated farm that they boast can produce 30,000 heads of lettuce a day.
The Vegetable Factory follows the growing agricultural trend of vertical farming, where farmers grow crops indoors without natural sunlight. Instead, they rely on LED light and grow crops on racks that stack on top of each other.
In addition to increasing production and reducing waste, indoor vertical farming also eliminates runoff from pesticides and herbicides — chemicals used in traditional outdoor farming that can be harmful to the environment.
The good news is that costs will go down on the lettuce produced and, more importantly, energy use will be cut down while recycling of the water needed will reach 98%. These are all good things. The loss of jobs will be something that needs addressing since farming is still a huge global employer. Maybe the luddites will rise up once again? Regardless, for now, a big selling point is lowering production costs, with promises that the cost will be “passed on to the customer”—we shall see about that.
The Wall Street Journal says the lettuce will be sold in stores in Japan for about the same price as conventional lettuce, but that the price will decrease over time.
I won’t hold my breath. But this and other farming innovations like it are the future of farming for sure. Now we just have to hope that all of this “innovation” ends up truly being used for all of our betterments.