Inspiring a revolution in food production

In the same way that traditional farming was reshaped by the industrial revolution, many large-scale, models of farming are now being reshaped by technologies that can produce food more efficiently, safely and sustainably.

When a disaster takes place, it exposes the deepest flaws in any system. The coronavirus outbreak was no exception, exposing holes in the political, medical and emergency response infrastructure of many countries.

However, Covid-19 was just the latest in waves of zoonotic diseases that regularly jump the gap between another species and humans, and which emerged in identical contexts. The conditions in the Wuhan meat market believed to be the source of this particular viral mutation mirror the large-scale animal farming facilities from which avian and swine flu have also emerged.

For today’s future-food producers, a range of new, tech-enabled solutions is allowing food production to be de-risked and de-centralised, enabling consistent supplies of fresh produce to be delivered from land previously considered unfertile, and allowing food sources to be created close to consumer markets in urban areas of cities and towns.