Growing Underground

There is an ongoing communication about how to stop climate change, what after effect will we have to face from the existing and future changes, will water supply we currently have be enough and based on the number of people on the planet – will we have enough food and places to harvest our food?  

All of these challenges are equally important and raise quite a few concerns and we should tackle them one by one.  

Having said that, I had a great pleasure and opportunity to say that I meat some people that are tackling one of the major concerns – growing food. 

Now, with growing food we ask questions like which soil should we use and what happens if the soil is not as productive for growing plants as it used to be and with the pace, we are going now with food production, how much time would the soil need to regenerate its self so it can once again bring the best, healthy products it used to? Where do we get enough water for our plants and how to maintain year-round warm temperature that our crops need?  
 

In London, Claphan Common to be really specific, I visited the first underground farm – Growing Underground.  
Two friends, Richard Ballard and Steven Dring, had an idea one day to start growing crops in the city area. Growing crops in the existing but abandoned buildings is great but the expenses of setting up the perfect conditions for crops to grow will become more than a big challenge. So, Richard and Steven had to come up with a cheaper, yet sufficient alternative. After thousands of calls made to basically anyone, they would imagine can help them, they heard back from that one that can and did help. Basically, underground tunnels that are leading the tube connection has plenty of “out of use” areas that are 4-8 floors underground and the city was willing to let them use a part that was empty at that point. Pretty great I would say!  

They started setting up the future farm starting with just a couple of crops building it up slowly as the plants developed.  

Today, farm is growing 9 different species of crops and are delivering this freshly grown vegetables to large supermarket chains and local restaurants. I would emphasize the “local” part. With them delivering only locally they are reducing their carbon footprint and helping in a fight with getting to net zero by 2030 (2050 realistically and ideally).  

So how are they making this work? 
Basically, they have a whole set up in the underground tunnels starting from preparing the seeds till planting. One of the many sustainable things that caught my attention is that the crops are growing in the recyclable materials and not in the soil making the “get the right healthy soil” process redundant. When it comes to water, they are reducing water as much as possible (keeping in the health and safety guidelines) making them use less water than what we would usually require in the open space areas. Temperature is strictly set to the 26 degrees Celsius making it the perfect temperature for growth year-around. Because of this closely controlled system, and the opportunity to create this perfect environment for growing crops, they can distribute the crops all year long (as mentioned before). Crops are growing pretty fast and they have teams that are helping with the whole process start to finish!  

I was really impressed with what I saw and with the enthusiasm the staff showed for the work they are doing there.  

This is one step closer towards a more sustainable, green future and it is happening right here in one of the world's biggest cities – London. My hopes are that this will be something we can start doing in all major cities and urban areas and even in our own homes!