ACTX releases forecast on Controlled Environment Agriculture industry

Advanced Container Technologies, Inc has stated that the Controlled Environment Agriculture sector, which includes Vertical Farming and the company's own portable indoor farms called GrowPods, have a bright future.  

As reported by Morning Brew, vertical farming is "growing like a weed" and by 2029, could become a nearly US$20 billion market worldwide with a CAGR of 24.30%, according to BIS Research.

What is fueling this growth? According to a recent article in the investment publication, The Motley Fool, "With the global population continuing to expand, the world will need to double its food supply over the next three decades. That's a daunting task, as arable land shrinks due to climate change, urban sprawl, and soil destruction. At the current pace, farmable land could fall 50% by 2050," they add. "Since it's become more challenging to find additional farmland to meet our growing food needs, farmers are starting to go vertical."

This thought is echoed by an article in Digital Trends, which said, "Agriculture has come a long way in the past century. We produce more food than ever before – but our current model is unsustainable, and as the world's population rapidly approaches the 8 billion mark, modern food production methods will need a radical transformation if they're going to keep up. But luckily, there's a range of new technologies that might make it possible."

Quoting Digital Trends, "Indoor farms allow us to grow food 24 hours a day, protect crops from unpredictable weather, and even eliminate the use of pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides. If these farms were built in cities, we could mitigate crop loss due to shipping and storage, and cut down on fossil fuel usage because food wouldn't need to be transported very far after harvest."

In his seminal book, The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century, Columbia Professor, Dr Dickson Despommier, said indoor farming is a world-changing innovation whose time has come. Despommier's visionary book explains how controlled environment farms will have change the face of this planet for future generations.

Controlled Environment farms allow users to grow food 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They protect crops from harsh weather, allows users to reduce and re-use water, provide jobs for local residents, eliminate pesticides, fertilizers, and herbicides, prevent crop loss due to shipping or storage, and prevent agricultural runoff.

According to Forbes, companies including Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons, Whole Foods and Target are embracing indoor farming. Walmart writes on its website: "Vertical farming supplements traditional farming practices to help increase food supply and alleviate current challenges on the food system in a sustainable way."

Doug Heldoorn, CEO of ACTX, said GrowPods are transportable and scalable, so fresh, nutritious food can now be available on a consistent basis virtually anywhere in the world. "GrowPods allow grocers, businesses, non-profits, local communities, and big box retailers the means to grow healthy food, year-round," he said. "Controlled Environment Farming is no longer just an idea... it's the future of our planet."