News & Analysis

PODCAST: Can controlled environment agriculture really feed the world?

We hear from AppHarvest, Plenty, Astanor Ventures and an ETH Zurich researcher about how the industry is measuring up against its goal of sustainably contributing to feeding a growing global population.

-


Subscribe on Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | PodBean | Listen Notes | Google Podcasts | Pandora

Controlled environment agriculture, the practice of growing fruit and vegetables in an indoor or sheltered environment, is getting more attention from policymakers and pulling in investors like never before.

As governments and financiers seek ways to sustainably feed a growing global population in a post-covid world marked by supply chain disruption and geopolitical turmoil, CEA is being looked at as an increasingly attractive way of increasing food self-sufficiency in a climate-resilient way.

In this episode of Spotlight, Agri Investor speaks to AppHarvest president and board member David Lee and Plenty’s co-founder and chief science officer Nate Storey about how their two businesses can contribute to global food security.

We also hear from Astanor Ventures investment principal Arnout Dijkuizen, whose firm has invested in multiple companies in the CEA sector. Also discussing a research paper on the hidden land use of CEA is Till Weidner, a postdoctoral researcher at Swiss university ETH Zurich.