The Largest Vertical Farm in the World Now Grows Big in Dubai
Inside a warehouse-like building near the Dubai airport, a new vertical farm is now beginning to grow more than 2 million pounds of local leafy greens per year. The farm, called ECO 1, is now the largest vertical farm in the world, with the more than 330,000-square-foot facility stacked with shelves growing lettuce, spinach, arugula, and mixed greens.
“Size does matter in the food production space,” says Craig Ratajczyk, CEO of Crop One, a vertical farming company based near Boston that partnered with Emirates Flight Catering, the company that supplies Emirates Airlines with food, to build the farm. Like other indoor farms, the new facility automatically tracks and adjusts lighting, humidity, nutrients, and other factors to boost plant growth. But scaling up production helps spread out the cost of that tech. “When you’re talking about something this large, the economics work out well,” says Ratajczyk. “So it turns out to be a very profitable farm.”
The ECO 1 facility also uses 95% less water than is required to grow greens in a field, and no pesticides or herbicides; because it’s grown in a controlled environment and immediately sent to stores or the airline, Ratajczyk says the greens don’t have to be washed before they’re eaten. The company declined to share details about how much energy the farm will use (lighting is one factor in the emissions from vertical farms, and air conditioning is another (especially in so hot a location).
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