LEADING the FUTURE of FARMING

SHA G.P. 28 Co-Founder, Future Farms

To the uninitiated, The Vegetable Co’s vertical farms look like something out of an apocalyptical movie. Little surprise there, as its seed was planted by the 2015 film The Martian, in which an astronaut tries to grow food in an extreme environment. Shipping containers are filled with rows of vegetables, and every single element, from lighting to temperature, is controlled by AI-powered algorithms to consistently create bountiful harvests of produce.

Sha G. P. is the tech half of the duo behind agrotechnology start-up Future Farms. It aims to grow the most amount of high-quality vegetables in the smallest space possible near end consumers to reduce land and water use and shorten supply chains.

“The Malthusian theory of population believes that population growth will exceed food production,” says Sha. “Breakthroughs thus far involved excessive land clearing and unsustainable methods to increase food production. Based on our current trajectory, humans will quickly deplete the planet of vital resources.

“We wanted to apply our interests in science and technology to an urgent real-world problem. Our goal is to create a sustainable farming model that is infinitely scalable and replicable, and the prototype is going well so far. I think we’re looking at the future of vegetable production.”