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The High-Tech Vertical Farmer - YouTube
Channel: Bloomberg Quicktake: Originals
[1]
(electronic music)
[5]
It might look like we're
inside a spaceship,
[8]
but this is actually a farm.
[10]
(buzzing)
[11]
The crops here are
grown mostly by machines
[14]
with the help of just a few
humans, like this woman.
[18]
Her life offers an early peek
at a new kind of farming.
[22]
It's a promising twist
to an ancient career,
[25]
but only if the robots don't
replace her altogether.
[29]
(upbeat music)
[33]
As technology replaces old jobs,
[35]
it's also creating new ones.
[37]
I'm Aki Ito, and I'm here to
[39]
show you the jobs of the future.
[42]
(upbeat music)
[47]
My name is Katie Morich,
and I'm a vertical farmer.
[57]
Katie works for a three year old
[58]
startup called Bowery.
[60]
(intercom buzzes)
[62]
Its farm is here, in this
industrial park in New Jersey.
[66]
How are you?
[67]
It's the last place you'd
[68]
expect to find any sign of life.
[72]
We take extra precaution
to make sure we're
[73]
not bringing any
contaminants into the farm,
[75]
so we're gonna wear
hairnets, and then this
[77]
is just gonna cover all
your street clothes.
[82]
Katie wears a clean uniform every day.
[84]
Visitors like me are handed
a non-negotiable jumpsuit.
[91]
Alright.
[95]
Step inside and you'll see a cross
[97]
between a factory and a lab.
[101]
(shimmering notes)
[106]
Trays of produce are vertically
stacked to save space,
[109]
and each of them is given
just the right amount of
[111]
light, water and nutrients at the
[114]
optimal temperature and humidity.
[117]
It's an incredible level of precision,
[119]
which is why Katie can
grow more faster with
[122]
less water and no pesticides.
[124]
(shimmering notes)
[127]
It's also what let's her grow things that
[129]
taste like nothing you've ever had before.
[131]
What's this?
[132]
This is the sorrel.
[134]
Mmm.
[135]
That tastes like candy apple.
[137]
Whoa!
That's good, right?
[139]
It's so sour.
I know.
[144]
The majority of this
facility is automated.
[147]
(electronic notes)
[151]
The data is collected by sensors
[153]
and a computer controls growing
conditions for the crops.
[157]
For the things that the
machines can't do yet,
[159]
Katie and her fellow
human farmers fill in,
[161]
and even those tasks are dictated by
[165]
the software that runs
this whole operation.
[168]
It lets me know what I have to do,
[169]
what time I should be doing it by,
[171]
and that's how I get my day done.
[174]
Do you ever, like, rebel
against the computer's orders?
[176]
Uh, once in a while, if we're trying to do
[178]
a little experiment of
our own, we'll be like,
[180]
okay, is the system telling
us the correct things?
[183]
Most of the time it is.
[184]
All the time it's right. (laughs)
[194]
After a full day at the farm,
[195]
Katie likes to bring home
samples to her husband, Jase,
[198]
(blender whirrs)
and her cat, Burt.
[203]
(blender stops)
[205]
Salt, pepper?
[206]
Maybe a little more...
Garlic?
[208]
On the menu are two
items from Katie's farm.
[211]
Basil, for pesto pasta.
[214]
That's so good.
[216]
And mixed greens for a salad.
[218]
I'm terrified, everyone's judging.
[220]
Cheers, guys.
[221]
Cheers.
Cheers.
[223]
(bottles clink)
[226]
Katie fell in love with environmental
[227]
science in college, but after graduating
[229]
she struggled to find a
full-time career in the field.
[235]
Jase had to deal with me a lot (laughs),
[238]
you know, coming home to me crying
[239]
and trying to figure out if
I'm making the right decisions.
[245]
And then, somehow,
online, Bowery popped up.
[252]
She told me about this
job, like, Bowery Farming,
[254]
it's like an indoor, vertical
farm, and I was like,
[257]
alright, this sounds like total BS.
[260]
So, I took my work truck
and I said, "You know,
[262]
let me swing around and see
what this is all about."
[264]
So I drove up to it,
[266]
doesn't look like there's
a farm in there at all.
[268]
So I called her and I was
like, "Listen, I know you're
[271]
psyched about this job, but
it seems super sketchy."
[275]
But I figured I'd go and
check it out for myself
[278]
and I pulled up and it was
exactly as how he described,
[281]
but I gave it a shot.
[284]
And so in 2017, Katie joined Bowery.
[289]
She became employee number nine.
[293]
(door shuts)
[294]
This is really my first real,
full-time, big-girl job.
[299]
(indistinct chatter)
[302]
And it was a little intimidating at first,
[304]
coming into this company
with people that have like,
[306]
their PHD and I don't
necessarily have that background,
[309]
so I constantly doubted myself when I
[313]
first started at Bowery.
[315]
I wasn't worried about
her at all, you know.
[318]
She said to us, "Can I do this?"
[319]
And I used to tell her to have
a little faith in herself.
[325]
Katie grew up in a
typical New Jersey suburb
[328]
with two working parents.
[333]
They've tried to stay away
from putting too much pressure
[335]
on their only child.
[337]
When we heard about what she was doing and
[340]
realized that this is
something that didn't exist
[342]
when we were younger and I
thought back from my generation,
[347]
you know, PC's came out
when I started working
[351]
and my parents probably
would've said I was crazy
[353]
if I went into an IT field at the time,
[356]
but now look what happened.
[358]
So, it's not a good idea
for us to try to tell her
[360]
what to do because it's a different world.
[365]
(beeping)
[371]
Bowery is backed by some of
[373]
Silicon Valley's top investors.
[375]
And with almost $30
million dollars of funding,
[378]
the startup is expanding fast.
[381]
And in May, after all that time
she spent doubting herself,
[385]
Katie got promoted to lead
a team of her own farmers.
[389]
The produce she grows supplies
a few nearby grocery stores
[394]
as well as this restaurant in Manhattan.
[398]
(pan sizzles)
[399]
It's less than 10 miles
away from the Bowery farm.
[407]
What do you think?
[409]
It's delicious! (both laugh)
[411]
You made that.
[412]
It's like, crazy to see
stuff I grew on a plate.
[416]
Alright, let me get some of...
[417]
But for Katie, it's not just about making
[419]
premium vegetables for
people who can afford them.
[423]
I want people to have the
purest produce imaginable,
[426]
and I want that to be
readily available to anybody.
[430]
(electronic music)
[436]
The world's population is set to reach
[438]
9.8 billion people by 2050.
[442]
Two-thirds will live in cities.
[445]
And we're gonna need all
kinds of new technology
[447]
to sustainably feed everyone.
[450]
The key to making that food affordable
[452]
is to continue to make
more with fewer farmers.
[456]
But no matter how high-tech all this gets,
[459]
Katie thinks there will
still be a place for her.
[462]
I just think there's something about the
[463]
human mind that you
can't really replicate.
[465]
So I think we could still
work closely with technology,
[468]
but I still think it's
nice to have a human there.
[471]
It'll also be pretty lonely for the robots
[472]
if they don't have anybody
to talk to. (laughs)
[478]
(beeping)
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