According to the United Nations World Food Program, 957 million people faced hunger and food insecurity in 2021. With the global population rising continuously, the current estimated 30% of the global population who experience famine is expected to increase. This is a result of climate change, the global Covid-19 pandemic, military conflicts and war, exploitation of natural resources, and poverty.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated three (3) characteristics of global food security: food availability, food accessibility, and food utilization. As we continue to face global issues, we need a new approach that does not exploit natural resources, does not depend on the climate and seasonal change, and natural heat, light, and temperature. The solution: indoor growing.
Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) as a Solution
Controlled Environment Agriculture is when farmers have full control of the environment where they grow their crops. This includes control of the temperature, light, heat, nutrients, growing medium, and the irrigation system which cannot be done in traditional farming. CEA also increases the accessibility of food supply to communities giving them more opportunities to eat a healthy diet. Indoor growing is a widely adopted new method of farming to adapt to the decreasing agricultural spaces worldwide and stop the need to clear-cut forests .
Research shows that this modern strategy can lessen hunger and the global food crisis by enabling people to produce their own food in their homes, backyard, and even commercial spaces. CEA growers need growing medium, LEDs for a light source , and an irrigation system to equally distribute water and nutrients to the plants that maximize production. With a controlled environment, CEA is expected to increase yield production and shorten harvest time. This also allows people to have a sustainable indoor growing system that can meet various amounts of consumption for days and even months.
Scalable Solution to Food Insecurity
The Harvest Wall is an indoor growing system designed with 6 grow ports per tile. These tiles can be linked together to provide growing ports of up to 720 per wall. This scalable grow wall can feed individuals, small and large families, and communities. It is designed to lessen manpower and labor to grow plants.
This carefully engineered grow wall empowers growers to efficiently grow crops without occupying too much land space because it takes advantage of vertical space. With the Harvest Wall, you can turn virtually any space into your very own CEA operation.
References:
- https://www.un.org/en/food-systems-summit/news/2021-going-be-bad-year-world-hunger#:~:text=Today%2C%20the%20UN%20World%20Food,action%20and%20protection%20this%20year
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zsdhbk7/revision/3
- https://agricultureandfoodsecurity.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/2048-7010-2-8
- https://www.actionagainsthunger.org/world-hunger-facts-statistics
- https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/27773/advances-in-controlled-environment-agriculture-for-sustainable-crop-production
About the Author
Naomi Jannah Ratio is a 24-year-old writer who sees huge importance in working towards a sustainable future for her kids and everyone in the world. Aside from being a stay-at-home mom taking care of her family, she often spends time thinking about how she can contribute to helping the environment in every little way possible. Together with the Harvest Today, she is hoping to improve global food security and work towards environmental injustices through her writings.
