Vertical farms, where crops are grown all year round

Precision farming and robotics systems will enable farms to become more profitable, efficient and environmentally friendly. This function is already performed by vertical farms, where crops are grown all year round, using much less water and energy than traditional agriculture. Vertigo Farms, the plants are not only cultivated in a completely ecological way, but also thanks to supercritical extraction with carbon dioxide they obtain maximum nutritional value.

Dawid Drzewiecki, owner of the Polish start-up Vertigo Farms, which is first company in Europe which succeed to obtain pure extracts from plants grown with method of vertical farming, explains his own idea for alternative to modern plant breeding, which puts a heavy burden on our climate. Company not only grows plants in completely safe conditions for health, but also uses the so-called supercritical carbon dioxide. In this way, pure plant extracts are obtained without losing their properties. 

Entrepreneur present the idea for a business, its advantages, sources of funding and opportunities for entering to international markets, also in COVID circumstances. Furthermore describes the technology used and process itself: drying the plants, then using so-called supercritical carbon dioxide, which is a technique in which carbon dioxide pass through the dried plants in a gaseous form, which allows to extract oily substances from plants and obtain extracts, which go to food, cosmetics and medicines, to be of the highest quality, free from microplastics, heavy metals, as well as essential oils or essential oils that are already the end product.

This method guarantee primarily the health of consumers, but is also good for the environment as no chemical use is needed, farmland is not degraded and extracts or entire raw materials do not need to be transported from the other side of the world, contributing to carbon dioxide emissions. Moreover, it helps to save water as the technology uses 90 to 95% less water than comparable cultivation in traditional agricultural methods.

Material was produced as a part of the project supported under “Public Diplomacy 2020 New Dimension”, being co-financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Poland. The content expresses only the views of the authors and cannot be equated with the official position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. Project is implemented by the Development Policy Foundation.

Potcast link https://youtu.be/cgKoUB28TeU