Farms of the future

Nowadays, when we imagine farming, we think of the countryside, fields, paddies and fresh air. Well, all that may change in the near future. In many cities around the world, farms are now being created inside abandoned warehouses and factories.

The farms of the future may not be in the countryside but in the cities. Listen to and watch the video to learn about vertical farming.

Now, turn the subtitles OFF - (to do this click on the settings button on the video)

Listen again (without subtitles) and complete the notes with ONE WORD or NUMBER

Keywords to help you keep track during the recording are in red

---

AeroFarms' mission is to build farms in cities and provide fresh, great tasting, highly (1)______ food. Crops are stacked vertically and grown using aeroponic technology.

AreoFarm use a root misting system which uses:

• 95% less water than a regular (2)______ farm

• No pesticides or herbicides.

• Plants are grown in reusable cloth, made from recycled (3)_______

• Instead of the sun, there are rows and rows of LED lighting

Sophisticated climate control system:

• cuts growing time in half

• crops can be grown all year round

• less (4)_______on the environment.

Traditional agriculture:

• 70% of fresh water contamination caused by agriculture

• 70% of our fresh water (5)_______ goes to agriculture.

• one third of arable land has been degraded in the last (6)______ years.

Columbia University ecologist Dickson Despommier

• 1999 - proposed that vertical farms could feed (7)______ cities

• Use less land and less water.

• Reduce greenhouse gases by eliminating the need to (8)______food

Vertical farms now in Vancouver, Singapore, Panama, the UK, and the US.

AeroFarms is building another new farm bigger than a (9)_______ field.

When you are ready, enter your answers in the sheet below: