0:00:17.501,0:00:21.589
Not so long ago, in December 2015,[br]I was invited to a party.

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A friend of mine was celebrating his PhD.

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It was a great evening.

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We had lots of fun, couple of beers, [br]really good homemade food.

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And of course, as we were [br]celebrating his academic success,

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after a while, he wanted to talk about it.

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And we the guests were interested[br]to learn more about his work.

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"Do you know that most of our food[br]is highly dependent on oil?"

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This was his question[br]to introduce his work.

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"And do you know we are running[br]out of soil to grow our food?"

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This was his second question.

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Do you know?

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I was stunned because I was [br]absolutely not aware of that.

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I was immediately fascinated by those[br]unknown challenges of food production.

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And I was thrilled, as my friend claimed[br]to have a solution to those challenges:

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urban vertical farming.

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Vertical farming as a method[br]to save soil and energy,

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a solution to grow food[br]locally where we live,

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in the hearts of our cities,

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and save the scarce [br]resources of our planet.

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I was so thrilled that I quit my job[br]and joined my friend

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to found the vertical farm institute.

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So this party, two years ago,[br]led my way to you

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because what I learn about food[br]production every day

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in my work of vertical farm institute [br]is simply mind-blowing.

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And although actually being [br]a rather quiet person,

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I have to be here and talk to you.

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Because I eat, because I love good food, [br]and because I really love our planet.

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And we seriously endanger this planet [br]because of the way we produce food today.

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I live in a perfect world.[br]Here, you see this pin? That's my house.

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Still an urban touch

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but right in the middle of fields, [br]meadows, forests, some farms around.

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I buy locally grown organic food

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every Friday, at our market[br]in my hometown, Ottensheim.

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I know the chicken personally,[br]whose eggs I eat,

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and the farmer of course.

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That's my friend Michael.

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I have my own garden.

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I grow my own tomatoes,

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and I preserve my own vegetables.

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What about you?

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If you live in a similar surrounding,[br]you might live in the same world as me.

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But is this the world [br]we all are living in?

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Let us change our perspective.

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This is how many people[br]live today, city of Beijing.

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This is where our food comes from, [br]Mato Grosso in Brazil,

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once a rain forest, now devastated [br]for the production of our soy beans.

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This is where tomatoes[br]come from - Almería in Spain.

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Actually not,

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this is what we see as tourists.

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This is where tomatoes really come from,

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and what you see here[br]are plastic greenhouses.

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Plastic covering an area bigger [br]than Austria's capital, Vienna.

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So actually, this does not look[br]too good. It is really bad.

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This way of agriculture consumes[br]too much resources, soil and energy.

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It's absolutely not sustainable.

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I need to spell this out for you clearly,

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just as my friend did[br]at the party two years ago,

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to make you understand[br]why I could not let this go.

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It's all about oil.

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Fertilizers consist of fossil resources.

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Fossil resources are needed to transport[br]the tomatoes from Almería to your table.

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Fossil resources are needed

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to heat the glasshouses[br]where our domestic tomatoes grow.

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And fossil resources are needed to heat [br]the stoves on which you cook your food.

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Fossil resources,

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this means with every bite you eat,

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you consume oil.

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Do we really want[br]to eat food fueled by fuel?

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One third of the world's total primary[br]energy is used for the food sector,

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fossil resources, hydrocarbon energy, oil.

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And this is what I mean[br]when I speak of energy related to food.

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So as I said, it doesn't really[br]look good; it's really bad.

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It's bad for our planet,

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and this is only[br]where we are right now, today.

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So let's have a look ahead.

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By 2050, we're expected to be[br]9 or even 10 billion people on Earth.

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Seventy percent of us [br]will live in urban areas,

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and most of us will live[br]in one of 400 mega cities on Earth.

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How will we feed all those people?

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Already today,

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we use arable land as big as the whole[br]of South America to grow our grain

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and not to mention land used by animals.

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To feed us in 2050,

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we need additional arable land as big[br]as Australia; that's a whole continent.

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The good news: there is[br]still arable land available.

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The bad news: it's mostly [br]covered in the rain forests.

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So the only way to access[br]new arable land is deforestation.

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We cut into our planet's green lung

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to grow more grain, to feed cows,[br]to have burgers to eat.

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Really?

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Do you know what this picture shows?

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Each and every of those spots here, [br]hundreds, perhaps thousands, is a fire.

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It's man-made fires and flamed[br]to burn down our rain forests.

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Cultivate new land - cultivation [br]means destruction in this case.

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Destruction of living environment[br]for animals, insects, us people of course,

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and not even to mention the damage [br]done to oxygen production.

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This picture was taken[br]by NASA in spring of 2017.

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It shows the Congo Delta in Africa.

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It's still a bit abstract,[br]so let me give you the idea of the scale.

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The fires burning here

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have a size bigger than Italy,

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and they might still[br]be burning, just right now.

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You think that maybe [br]I'm being overly dramatic.

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In our supermarkets,

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there're so many products labeled[br]as domestic Austrian products,

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so the situation cannot be so bad at all.

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Do we really need to be bothered about [br]what's going on in Brazil or in Africa?

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I say: yes, we should be.

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Let me give you two figures.

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About 80% of all the tomatoes[br]we consume here in Austria are imported,

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and almost 50% of all our[br]livestock products are imported as well.

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This way of producing food[br]is not sustainable.

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Our current mass food production[br]is slowly killing the planet.

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So what can we do?

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Every single one of us here in this room?

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Buy organic, locally grown products.

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Eat, preferably, only seasonal[br]fruits and vegetables.

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Eat less meat.

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Generally, be a little bit more humble,

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and try to live by what [br]nature provides, if possible.

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We all here, we can change the world,[br]and we will change the world.

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That's why we are here today.

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We are not just the bystanders[br]of history, we make history.

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Well, at least that is[br]what we like to think.

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To reach big goals,[br]we have to think really big,

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we have to think outside the box,

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and we have to bring[br]food production to where we live.

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Wait a minute. Outside the box?

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Food has always been grown[br]just where people lived

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for eleven thousand years.

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Only until 100 years ago,

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when alongside the rise[br]of trains and transportation,

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food was grown elsewhere[br]and brought to our cities.

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Not sold at markets anymore,

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but in stores and supermarkets[br]spread all over the cities.

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And this complete decentralization[br]of food production and distribution

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is only possible because a massive [br]amount of resources is put in:

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soil and energy.

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So to solve this problem,[br]we'll just do what always has been done.

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But using today's technology,

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by growing locally,[br]we cut out transportation.

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By growing vertically,[br]we massively reduce the soil needed

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by a factor 50 or even more.

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And by growing in intelligently designed,[br]multi-functional buildings,

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we massively reduce the energy needed.

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We can grow food without[br]or almost without fossil resources.

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Our solution, today's solution[br]of vertical farms.

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Remember the party[br]I told you about, two years ago?

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My friend celebrating [br]was Daniel Podmirseg.

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His work is dedicated to vertical farming,[br]and it's groundbreaking.

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Daniel is the head of research[br]at the vertical farm institute.

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And he has one very strong vision,

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urban vertical farming[br]in multi-functional buildings,

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integrating urban functions,[br]such as markets, restaurants, offices,

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and using sunlight[br]as efficiently as possible.

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Call it hybrid system,

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stacked greenhouse, hyper building,[br]or simply vertical farm.

0:11:02.837,0:11:07.108
What you see here is the blue print[br]of the future of food.

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That's not my words,

0:11:08.890,0:11:13.082
according to Dickson Despommier,[br]the godfather of vertical farming.

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The currently dominant design [br]in indoor farming is a closed system,

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controlled environments, 100% LED light,

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an environment rather easy to control

0:11:26.562,0:11:31.137
because all the disturbing [br]external influences are cut out.

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But if we consider not only soil,[br]but also energy, a really scarce resource,

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why do we cut out the most [br]precious resource we have, sunlight?

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Sunlight, it's a matter[br]of overall energy efficiency,

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but it's also a matter of taste.

0:11:50.430,0:11:52.946
The deeper we get into plant physiology,

0:11:53.353,0:11:57.214
the more we learn about so called[br]secondary metabolites.

0:11:57.658,0:12:00.651
Secondary metabolites [br]are organic compounds

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not directly involved in the normal[br]growth and development of plants.

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Chemical structures adding surplus[br]to the plants, taste among others.

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Researchers, by the way, also believe[br]that they are beneficial for human health.

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I think you all have eaten[br]a tomato grown in a greenhouse

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and tasting of absolutely nothing.

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It's those secondary [br]metabolites that add taste,

0:12:28.485,0:12:31.347
make our food really good [br]and really healthy.

0:12:31.891,0:12:33.384
And as far as we know today,

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they need the full range[br]of sunlight in order to develop,

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not only ultra violet[br]and red light as provided by LEDs.

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So indoor farming as we know it today

0:12:46.526,0:12:50.527
is not really a solution, [br]but vertical farming is.

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Let me explain to you why,

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and let me explain to you [br]why our proposal is so special.

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We want to design multi-functional [br]buildings for food production,

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buildings that also provide other[br]important functions for and to a city.

0:13:08.973,0:13:12.419
And we want to produce[br]as sustainably as possible

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by minimizing resource input.

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Food production in the heart of the city

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opens opportunities for local economy,[br]social life, public life.

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We need new market areas,[br]new public spaces to buy the food.

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Perhaps, we even watched[br]how the food grew.

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Over the last months, weeks, days,

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we were looking forward[br]to finally tasting it.

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We form a new relationship[br]with what we eat

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as we see where and how it was grown.

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The black box, as we've seen it. [br]You remember the closed system?

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It's easy to control.

0:13:57.750,0:13:59.861
It provides very stable conditions

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and therefore high [br]predictability of the outcomes.

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Economically seen, that might make sense.

0:14:07.740,0:14:12.192
But why should we bring [br]the light to the plants

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if we could also bring [br]the plants to the light.

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This question might seem weird.

0:14:20.252,0:14:25.019
But letting in sunlight might be[br]the real game changer in urban farming,

0:14:25.338,0:14:28.140
as it leads to more energy[br]efficient production

0:14:28.145,0:14:31.159
and better and healthier products.

0:14:31.470,0:14:35.948
So in our farms we use sunlight[br]to grow the food.

0:14:36.368,0:14:38.342
Wow, what an invention.

0:14:41.307,0:14:47.290
Instead of putting lots LED in the farm[br]and turning them on for 16 hours a day,

0:14:47.778,0:14:51.420
we grow behind transparent facades,

0:14:52.507,0:14:55.063
just as in a greenhouse, simply.

0:14:55.525,0:14:58.242
But still, there is one challenge left.

0:14:58.242,0:15:01.432
In buildings as huge as ours,

0:15:01.432,0:15:04.155
the sunlight does not penetrate[br]the building completely.

0:15:04.155,0:15:08.724
So the further away from the facade,[br]the darker it gets inside.

0:15:08.724,0:15:10.034
But we have to make sure

0:15:10.034,0:15:13.830
that each and every plant receives [br]the same amount of daylight.

0:15:14.890,0:15:20.114
And to insure this, we transport [br]the plants through the building,

0:15:20.114,0:15:23.557
we deliver the plants to the [br]facade and to the sunlight.

0:15:23.557,0:15:27.483
And for this transportation, [br]we use conveyor belts.

0:15:28.123,0:15:32.501
Depending on design of the building [br]and a lot of other parameters,

0:15:32.501,0:15:35.053
such as geography, surroundings,

0:15:35.053,0:15:37.989
those belts might be [br]rotating horizontally,

0:15:37.989,0:15:40.656
vertically, or in three dimensions.

0:15:41.242,0:15:47.303
In any case, they move really slowly,[br]and they consume very little energy.

0:15:48.703,0:15:55.080
Yes, we also do have LEDs in our farm,[br]but they only go on when and where needed,

0:15:55.700,0:15:57.767
triggered by photo sensors.

0:15:58.164,0:16:01.165
So the overall energy[br]consumption in our farm

0:16:01.683,0:16:04.888
is way less than in the black box.

0:16:05.985,0:16:08.287
And of course, by letting in sunlight,

0:16:08.287,0:16:11.389
we promote the creation[br]of secondary metabolites,

0:16:11.389,0:16:15.012
and therefore we produce [br]better and healthier food.

0:16:15.646,0:16:20.289
Together with the institute[br]of building and technology at Graz -

0:16:20.844,0:16:25.737
of building and energy - sorry -[br]at Graz University of Technology,

0:16:25.890,0:16:28.780
we develop what is the future of food,

0:16:29.148,0:16:33.636
multi-functional vertical farms[br]in the hearts of our cities.

0:16:35.373,0:16:38.826
What we propose here [br]will be the new normal.

0:16:38.832,0:16:41.853
It's not today, at least not in Europe.

0:16:42.448,0:16:45.148
Japan or China are way ahead of us.

0:16:46.288,0:16:48.940
A lot of struggling [br]still lies ahead of us.

0:16:48.940,0:16:52.366
Research has to be done[br]and technology has to improve.

0:16:52.366,0:16:54.081
We have to create acceptance

0:16:54.081,0:16:58.223
for products grown indoor [br]in the hearts of our cities,

0:16:58.766,0:17:01.372
and we want to help to raise awareness

0:17:01.372,0:17:05.156
in how food and energy[br]depend on each other.

0:17:05.897,0:17:09.408
But I am sure vertical farming

0:17:09.948,0:17:13.607
plays a crucial part[br]in securing the future of food

0:17:13.946,0:17:16.826
and in securing the future of our planet.

0:17:17.563,0:17:22.896
And I hope very much that I was able today[br]to plant the seed in your head.

0:17:23.453,0:17:26.435
(Applause)