Future of Farming

SPREAD Co. is planning an indoor lettuce factory that can churns out 10 million lettuce heads per year all on its own.

SPREAD Co.wants to create the first-ever farm that can plant a lettuce seedling and harvest it without any human assistance. The company, which already grows 7.7 million lettuce heads a year indoors, thinks these self-planting and harvesting farms are perfect for a resources-deprived future.

The new SPREAD Co. greenhouse, which will begin construction in spring next year, can cost up to $16.7 million including R&D plus testing. In the 1.2 acre facility, the company estimates a daily harvest of 30,000 lettuce heads or about 10 million heads per year. From seedling transplant to harvest, everything is done by machine. The automation means 50 percent savings on labor costs.

These amazing numbers are possible through "indoor vertical farming," where the lettuce is cultivated inside a climate-controlled environment and on shelves several layers tall. The temperature, humidity, light intensity, etc are all controlled so the greenhouse can create and sustain optimal "weather." Through this control of the plant environ, the yield sits at a whopping 97 percent. The future automated factory promises that 98 percent of the water used will be recycled.