Bayer is entering vertical farming with its own startup
With vertical farming, fruit and vegetables are grown on floors in the middle of the city. Bayer is now also interested in the topic.
Bayer knows its way around the open field. Now the Leverkusen-based seed and pesticide manufacturer is venturing into the vertical for the first time. Together with its major shareholder, Singapore's state fund Temasek, Bayer wants to enter the fruit and vegetable business from multi-storey greenhouses. The companies announced on Wednesday that a total of 30 million US dollars will flow into the joint venture called Unfold.
“One of the big questions of our time is how we can feed the growing population with the available arable land. We strongly believe that we are dependent on technological leaps - and vertical farming is one of them, "says Jürgen Eckhardt, who is involved in the project as the head of Bayer's investment arm Leaps.
In vertical farming, food is grown under laboratory conditions in high-tech glass cabinets on several levels. The technology's promise of success is primarily based on one factor: farmers are not dependent on land and climate. Because the life cycle of the lettuce in the showcase has little in common with the lettuce from the field: it grows under LED light, is artificially watered, optimally fertilized and tempered. Agricultural companies hope to be able to harvest faster and a higher volume in this way.
