Why your food could be smarter than you think

William Simmonds, CEO of Harvest London's partner, ADI

Plants are plants, right? You put a seed into the ground, and as long as it has water, sunlight and nutrients, it will grow on its own. To a large extent humans are simply caretakers in the farming process.

Over the last 12,000 years, we have bred crops and developed machinery, but the basics have been largely unchanged. Recent dramatic developments in controlled environment agriculture, automation, sensors and artificial intelligence, however, offer a step-change in how we can monitor, protect and improve crops.

At Harvest London, our strategy has always been to work with the most innovative partners in agriculture to keep us at the leading edge of technology. One of these is AgriData Innovations, a company we've been working closely with to capture and understand data on plants growing in our vertical farming system. We put some questions about the collaboration to ADI's CEO:

Please introduce yourself

My name is William Simmonds, cofounder and CEO at AgriData Innovations.

I moved to the Netherlands in 2011 to study Aerospace Engineering. As a student I was introduced to the Dutch greenhouse industry and realised their mastery of horticulture.

Over a decade later my cofounder, Lucien Fesselet, and I are still hooked on innovation in CEA (Controlled Environment Agriculture).

Could you tell us a bit about ADI?

ADI specialises in deploying imaging systems and crop monitoring AI to enable data-driven cultivation. Essentially we install camera systems in farms and use computer vision techniques to measure the plants performance (health, growth, uniformity etc.).

What's it like working with Harvest London?

We love to collaborate with high-tech farms and partners that develop farm management software. The beauty of our collaboration with Harvest London is that we have both of these aspects with one partner.

It’s also great to work with young tech-savvy growers, researchers and entrepreneurs in this sector!

What excites you about the future of farming?

Technology is a beacon of hope for our growing population. We already see challenges associated with climate change and desertification on agricultural supply chains.

With CEA we believe agricultural produce can be grown more locally, with less water usage and far greater productivity than outdoor agriculture.

Farming technology always has and will continue to be a critical part of humanities journey.

Finally, if you could grow any plant in a vertical farm - practicalities aside - what would it be?

Fruits and vegetables are by far the most imported food commodity in the UK.

It would be amazing to see a situation where all of the Solanum family (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants) can be grown in a vertical farm.

If you’d like to hear first when Harvest London’s produce is available near you, use the form below.