Humans of Hospitality

#126 Chris Davies - CEO Harvest London - Vertical Farming

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Episode notes

Chris Davies is founder and CEO of Harvest London, a couple of vertical farms in the city of London.  Chris is going to help us understand how vertical farms could be part of the solution to feeding the planet.  As Chris puts it, this will be part of the solution and not all food will be, or can be grown this way.  But the benefits of growing food where it is to be consumed, rather than potentially 1000’s of miles away, the benefits of harvesting food and getting it to the restaurant door within four hours, rather than perhaps four weeks.  The benefit of a perfect summers day, every day, no matter the time of year or external weather conditions.  The use of tech and automation and the potential for companies to ship their perfect growing recipe to perhaps tweak just a couple of bits of the growing process to grow the perfect leaf.  A little more water, 1/2 an hour less light, more blue light than pink light, a slight nutritional change.  All of this can effect the flavour of what we grow and eat.  And in Chris’s case much of this learning is being done around basil, but can be applied to so much more.  And it is clearly a recipe that is working.  Chris and Harvest London have just raised over a million pounds of investment, including from the UK governments future fund and demand is fast outstripping supply as they have grand plans for the future.

Find Harvest London online or follow them on instagram.