Food used to be grown in the immediate vicinity of our homes for most of human history; something that is new in a world after exponential population growth, urbanisation and industrialisation. People are so accustomed to the easiness of supermarkets, it is easy to lose sight of where the food actually comes from. Every person on Earth needs approximately 2300 square meters of land to eat for a year. As the world population reaches closer to 9 billion in the next few decades, the amount of land needed for food production alone is immense. Vertical farming and developing of “Hyperbuildings” can bring food production back to where people live, and in a much more sustainable and effective way. What if we had strawberry fields on the 27th floor of a skyscraper? Stefan Parnreiter-Mathys is best known in the Austrian music and event industry. Stefan was the catalysator for various Austrian bands, such as Soap&Skin, and alternative music institutions, such as Waves Vienna Festival, Electric Spring Festival and the nightclub Fluc and many more. More recently, Stefan has founded the management consultancy dieTREIBER and co-founded the independent research institute Vertical Farm Institute and is all about finding the best way to provide local freshly produced food in metropolitan areas.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx