Meet the High-Tech Urban Farmers Growing Vegetables in Hong Kong’s Skyscrapers
Hong Kong is a densely-populated city with limited agricultural space. It is therefore almost entirely dependent on outside sources for its food. Over 90% of Hong Kong’s food is imported from China, mainly fresh vegetables. Gordon Tam, CEO and cofounder of vertical farming company Farm66, Hong Kong, says that during the pandemic we noticed the low productivity of local vegetables. The social impact was enormous.
Tam estimates that about 1.5% (or less) of the vegetables produced in the city come from local sources. He believes that vertical farms, like Farm66, using modern technologies such as IoT sensor, LED lights, and robots can boost Hong Kong’s food production, while also exporting its know-how. Tam, in an interview conducted at the company’s industrial estate vertical farm, says that vertical farming is an excellent solution for urban gardening because it allows vegetables to be grown in cities. \”We don’t need to import vegetables because we can grow them ourselves.\”
Tam, who founded Farm66 with Billy Lam in 2013, a cofounder and COO, says that the company was a pioneer of high-tech vertical agriculture in Hong Kong. He says that his company was the pioneer in using energy-saving LED lights and wavelength technologies on a farm. We found that different colors in the spectrum of light help plants grow differently. It was a technological breakthrough. For instance, red LED lights will encourage plants to grow more stems, while blue LED lights encourage them to grow bigger leaves.
Source:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkang/2022/05/23/meet-the-high-tech-urban-farmer-growing-vegetables-inside-hong-kongs-skyscrapers/
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