Can strawberries grown inside a building taste sweeter than those grown in a field? Farming entrepreneur Hiroki Koga explores how his team is combining solar-powered vertical farms with AI, robotics and indoor bee colonies to grow delicious strawberries year-round — and how this practice, if widely adopted, could deliver a harvest of benefits for the future of food. (Recorded at TED2024 on April 16, 2024)
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@Bogas76
October 3, 2024 at 9:44 am
No. You play silly with nature you will be punished . It’s a matter of time .
@umwha
October 3, 2024 at 1:17 pm
It’s just shelves. It’s growing plants on shelves
@darinherrick9224
October 3, 2024 at 4:19 pm
and pesticides and herbicides aren’t playing with nature???
@TheyJustCallMeDom
October 3, 2024 at 10:20 am
But fruits are becoming so sweet that they are even giving the animals diabetes
@user-gs8nv7lf2g
October 3, 2024 at 10:43 am
Except for, cucumbers from vertical Farming causing diarrhia, the Natural ones doesnt. I am No expert for Farming or agriculture bit my digestive system seems to be picky….
@Picci25021973
October 3, 2024 at 11:04 am
I grow my strawberries in the fertile ground, using homemade compost, sun and spring water. With all the respect to vertical farming, there’s no match to flavor and consistence.
@AdvantestInc
October 3, 2024 at 11:15 am
The shift from a Budweiser factory to a strawberry vertical farm is a fantastic example of how we can repurpose existing spaces for a sustainable future.
@acornhomestead3575
October 3, 2024 at 11:20 am
I love your passion, and I applaud your innovation. But…
A few decades ago not everyone could afford steak, or mince (hamburger) then we started to mass produce meat (chicken included). Now we are over-producing meat and a lot goes to waste because the choice of locations and sheer volume of product.
How do you plan to deal with the over-production, and under-consumed products when people get bored/sick off/need a change? Will you freeze them, or ship them to further away places? Will they become the next fight against Air pollution?
I understand mass production is almost needed to offset the cost of the AI and Robot assistance and while I love strawberries “seasonal” fruits and vegetables are important both for soil and humans.
Could we just take better care of our environments as to not have such severe weather that dashes crops.
I’m a wee homesteader, I have strawberry plants. And while I did have some success this year (combinations of being just transplanted this year, poor weather, bug infestation, farm location, likely some soil issues also) I’m hopeful that next year my crops will produce ridiculous amounts like my peas did this year.
I’d rather have a bug-bitten, soil-grown, sober bee-pollinated seasonal variety than the 100% environmentally controlled, 100% perfect variety.
But I completely understand your experiences with western fruit flavours🤮
@zettaiengineer4202
October 3, 2024 at 11:29 am
Vertical farming could be competitive in seasonal fresh produce but not with calorie dense foods made of corn, wheat, rice, or soy nor animal feed.
@ilaphroaig
October 3, 2024 at 11:35 am
$10 for a few strawberries? Insane. Vertical farming has already long been around here in the Netherlands. It is profitable.
@ANGÉLIQUEBELR
October 3, 2024 at 11:54 am
Sweeter future indeed 🥹♥️
@woody1856
October 3, 2024 at 12:12 pm
I truly hope this is the future of fruit farming. It will also need to work in harmony with the labor force.
@northernnaysayer1240
October 3, 2024 at 12:34 pm
Vertical farming is one of the most inefficient and expensive ways to grow food, its been a proven failure for decades now, only ,ade popular by tech bros who have never worked in AG and know nothing about growing.
All that plastic and noone has even thought of the microplastics in EVERYTHING you grow. Stupid, short sighted idea thats going to cause massive issues. You want to grow vertically? Do it outside using methods used for thousands of years.
@IngeniousDimensions369
October 3, 2024 at 1:20 pm
😍😍😍😍
@InsaneTreefrog
October 3, 2024 at 1:20 pm
Big deal. Mark Watney grew potatoes on Mars years ago, this is nothing special
@kevoreilly6557
October 3, 2024 at 1:59 pm
Honestly – vertical farm wheat or soy or rice … then let’s talk
Seriously – garbage
@johnnyrabbitslaughing5761
October 3, 2024 at 2:39 pm
I’m just curious about what happens to the hundreds of thousands of farmers who will lose their entire livelihood due to this
@AQuantumCraig
October 3, 2024 at 3:36 pm
Amazing!!
@5678connie
October 3, 2024 at 6:18 pm
Think of all those empty malls – we could even include housing along side vertical farming.
@frenchtoast4574
October 3, 2024 at 6:29 pm
“…thanks to data science and AI…”
@rdapigleo
October 3, 2024 at 6:33 pm
Awesome talk, TED brings the optimistic future again. 🙏
@lavidaesunviaje5169
October 3, 2024 at 6:37 pm
Yey! we dont need farmers anymore!!
@garciavashchino1
October 3, 2024 at 6:59 pm
I couldn’t help but think about Judge Dredd where they had the Mega Buildings but in these buildings they could have Vertical farms inside them so that people can shop in their own buildings FRESH FOOD….
@toni4729
October 3, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Keep it up. Do it with more and more fruits and vegetables, teach more and more people to do it as well. We no longer want to be poisoned by chemicals. We’ve had enough of them. Our animals have also had more than enough chemicals to kill us all as well. If you can grow fresh food vertically, there will be more land for animals to eat fresh grass as well. The world will be a much healthier place. Thank you for this talk.
@toni4729
October 3, 2024 at 7:03 pm
Just one question: Why are the solar power units on the grass and not on the roofs where they should be.
@Melissa0774
October 3, 2024 at 8:19 pm
I wonder if they could figure out how to grow grapefruits that you don’t need to put sugar on.
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