Perfume? Yes. Potatoes? No. Vertical farming tries to grow up

Cleantech is hard. Farming is harder. This week, Akshat Rathi visits entrepreneurs doing both. 

GroGrace in Singapore and Jungle in Paris are two vertical farming companies taking agriculture indoors, and trying to grow crops efficiently and profitably. While the technology to do this has been around since the 1990s, the business model has yet to be perfected, and several other vertical farms have closed down or laid off staff this year. As the world faces rising energy prices, water scarcity, and hotter temperatures, can the entrepreneurs in Paris and Singapore avoid the problems of their compatriots? 

Read more: 

• Akshat Rathi’s reporting on Singapore’s cleantech scene: Singapore’s Building Technology It Needs for a New Climate Era - Bloomberg 
• From AppHarvest to AeroFarms, Funding Is Drying Up for AI-Run Vertical Farms - Bloomberg
• Heat, War and Export Bans: Global Food Threats Are On the Rise  
• Another tale of the Dutch exporting their vertical farming know-how: Saudi City of Future Enlists Dutch Help to Grow Crops in Desert - Bloomberg 
• A transcript of this episode.

Listen to related episodes of Zero: 

• The world's food system needs a radical rethink - interview with George Monbiot

Zero is a production of Bloomberg Green. Our producer is Oscar Boyd and our senior producer is Christine Driscoll. Special thanks to Sheryl Tian Tong Lee, Natasha White and Kira Bindrim. Thoughts or suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. For more coverage of climate change and solutions, visit bloomberg.com/green. 

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