A recent article in the Guardian reports on the start-ups that may be defining the future of agri-tech from the Nobel week dialogue in Stockholm. Luckily for us Caleb Harper, director of Open Agriculture at the MIT was there to point to how sensor-controlled systems are part of the answer. “We are slaves to climate in agriculture. But what if we could give every country access to good weather?” he said.
It reminds us of when Bristol Fish Project was picked up on by Tree Hugger many moons ago (2012) justifying aquaponics thus: “The increased control that closed farming systems give us can protect crops from blight, rain damage, frosts, drought. This complex and unpredictable future poses new challenges to agriculture that highlight the importance of developing systems like RAS and aquaponics. Aquaponics permits the farmer to be more efficient with water, to control light-levels, heat, and nutrition, and to protect crops from the elements“.