There are over eight billion people and rising living on planet Earth. Factor in farm animals as well and that’s a vast number of mouths to feed. The combination of population growth, climate change, urbanisation encroaching on farmland and geopolitical tensions means that food insecurity is now a global problem.
Vertical farming is playing an instrumental role in its solution, and by growing upwards instead of outwards, international agtech business, 80 Acres Farms, continues to sustainably tackle the ongoing challenges of food insecurity.
The capability of its indoor vertical farming model was recently demonstrated to fans this summer at Wimbledon. 80 Acres Farms' vertical growing exhibit at the world-renowned tennis tournament demonstrated how non-genetically modified (non-GMO) strawberries can be grown sustainably year-round, without pesticides or herbicides using minimal water and renewable energy.
Agtech remains a key area of focus for Barclays’ Sustainable & Impact Banking team, and it has been supporting 80 Acres Farms for several years, through the Unreasonable Impact accelerator programme and its Series B financing.