In Asia and across the Middle East a growing number of high-rise apartment and office buildings were dedicating as much as 10 percent of their available space to innovative hydroponic farming solutions that required no soil. Advances in water filtration technology and LED lighting made it possible for a surprising number of crops to be grown effectively inside these complexes.
Individual households also began adjusting to new realities of a water-constrained world. Beset by long-term structural unemployment due to the growth of robotics, additive manufacturing and innovative open-sourcing teaching methods that had decimated the ranks of elementary and high school teachers, more people took to growing some of their own food as a way to supplement their shrinking incomes. The University of Michigan even started an experimental new degree program targeted toward individuals interested in pursing a career in urban agriculture, while scores of technical colleges offered courses for those people just interested in learning the fundamentals of growing their own food.
In other cases urban residents, in an effort to cut down on their food bills, utilized new networks to establish more direct relationships with rural farmers that effectively cut out the middleman and allowed farmers to supply consumers with fresh produce and meat directly. Other urban residents repurposed their rooftops, balconies and small yards into makeshift plots, while suburban residents refashioned their larger yards into mini-farms. In response to continued budget cuts, one major city even transformed four of its city parks into community farms and then rented out small plots on an annual basis. (To guard against theft, low-cost cameras with motion detectors were positioned around each plot.)
One curious side effect of the transition to urban farming was that a boutique market in the insurance industry was created to offer small urban farmers protection against the vagaries of Mother Nature. Depending on the location of the farm and the types of crops being grown, policies could be purchased for as little as $5.
600 MILLION NEW MOUTHS BY 2030
In ways small and big, the agriculture industry and hundreds of thousands of new “urban farmers” rose to the challenge of feeding the world’s surging population with a healthier and more protein rich diet in a way that was also more sustainable than past practices. The big question was whether they could repeat their accomplishments again in the coming decade and feed the 600 million new mouths expected to arrive by 2030.
Jack Uldrich is a renowned global futurist and the best-selling author of 11 books.
He is a frequent guest on national media and regularly appears on the Science Channel’s new television program, “FutureScape.” He is the founder and “chief unlearning officer” of The School of Unlearning—an international change management consultancy.
SUSTAINABLE FARMING IN BANGKOK
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