4 Trends in high-tech horticulture

Farming may be as old as man, but disruptive tech is pushing it far into the future. Next-gen agriculturists are taking plants out of the soil and into water or air, combining hydroponics or aeroponics with sensors, rigorous data collection and algorithms to determine optimal conditions for superior growth. The goal? Plants that are taller and tastier. This internet of plants also enables growers to remotely monitor their crop health over a network, and to alter light and nutrients remotely as needed.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg lettuce. One farm in Japan is overcoming the industry’s labor shortage with the help of Harvesting Robots. Leveraging AI and a camera equipped with image recognition, these farm bots are able to determine which tomatoes are ripe enough to be harvested by scanning their color, then use a primary robotic limb to pick the good ones off the vine.

3D food printing is another trend that’s gaining momentum, and early adopters are using this tech to engineer new breeds of healthier, sustainable foods. The food printers of tomorrow have the potential to allow users to customize their meals, specifying the ratio of calcium, protein, carbs and other nutrients for optimal nutrition.

45% of retailers are exploring indoor farming to meet the rising demand for fresh, sustainable, locally grown food. Inside a 4,000-square-foot warehouse in Singapore, Panasonic grows approximately 80 tons of green leafy lettuce; mini red radish; mustard wasabi; a range of microgreens and other veggies a year, utilizing LED lights and climate controls to overcome the island’s shortage of arable land. In the U.S., urban farms are sprouting in abandoned factories, on high-rise rooftops, and within shipping containers, adopting the “farm-anywhere” approach to bring local produce to a growing population of city-dwellers.

Innovative grocers are taking indoor farming to a hyperlocal level, growing ripe-for-picking herbs, greens, berries and more right in their produce aisle. Hussmann, a Panasonic company and world leader in refrigeration and display systems, supplies smart “living merchandiser cases” for in-store growing, giving shoppers the freshest produce possible – and a unique, entertaining retail experience they can’t get at the supermarket down the street.

Restaurants are also experimenting with on-site growing, installing walls of living herbs as well as “minifarm” grow boxes that enable them to manage costs, cultivate gourmet ingredients and ensure what’s on the menu is always in season.

Pressing on an apple is still a good way to guess its freshness, but digital product tags have the ability to better tell you that and more, from where it was grown and when it was harvested to how the farm treats its pickers – you can even read customer reviews and receive coupons right there in- store. Hussmann’s new startup business, Aperion, is providing Electronic Intelligent Shelf Labels to Retailers that use special NFC tags or QR codes to deliver this intel at the scan of a phone, driven by the desires of tech savvy Millennials and Gen Z to support responsible, environmentally friendly food sources.

Other benefits of this supply chain transparency are safer food and less waste: having the ability to quickly learn where a food was grown means distributors and grocers can be proactive if a crop is contaminated, pinpointing the source of the outbreak without dumping unaffected inventory.