Syan Farm visit
What is a Vertical Farm?
As the vertical farmers at Syan Farm themselves say:
"With space and time running out for open field farming, we’re looking up. We grow beautifully nutritious crops on multiple levels – vertical farming. It saves on space, reduces carbon and gives us total control of conditions. So we can produce more nutritious, better tasting food."
During the Covid lockdown three busy professionals got together online to discuss what they might do with the unexpected time on their hands. With a common interest in healthy eating they decided there was room to improve plant-based diets.
CA-WN first tasted food created by Syan Farms’ sister company Eat Curious in the summer of 2023 at the University of Northampton’s Sustainability Conference1. A year on we were treated to a personal tour of Syan Farm where it all started.
Cofounder Preyesh Patel explained the background. How one of them had land, but not enough to farm conventionally. They needed an alternative method and chose hydroculture, or hydroponics, where plants are grown without soil in an artificial environment nourished by mineral enriched water.
It all started in a shipping container, repurposed as a hydroponics laboratory. The container was kitted out with custom-made growing trays lit by multi-coloured LEDs and a nutrient mixing and delivery system.
Their original grow-space is still being used for small-scale plant growth trials by resident plant scientist Jaypal Darbar whose PhD in Plant Molecular Biology was gained at Oxford University’s Jarvis Lab where researchers are discovering the core, cell-level plant growth relationships between lighting and nutrients. For anyone interested in the Jarvis Lab’s focus there’s an insightful online explanation2.
With the ability to control the composition of plant nutrients and the intensity and colour of his LED lighting Dr Jaypal is continuing his research in a purpose-built, fully automated facility where trays are stacked vertically, each with their own lighting and nutrient supply.
Students from universities all over England are being welcomed into this unusual growing environment in which, for well-informed parametric studies, lighting wavelength and nutrient content are tightly controlled. Through enhancing their own educational experience collectively these academics are accelerating the rate of knowledge accumulation on the entire subject of Controlled-Environment Agriculture. Rupert Knowles, our Food and Farming contributor, has linked us to a technical paper for those interested to learn more. Though lettuce-themed it’s highly informative – but not for the scientifically faint-hearted3.
There are many reasons why this crop-growth research is important. For one we don’t produce enough home-grown food to feed ourselves. In fact, 14 August 2024 was the day the national larder would be empty if we ate only this year’s UK produced food4. Unpredictable weather is wrecking outdoor farmers’ cropping plans. This summer, even the basic field veg we might be serving up at mealtimes is in short supply.
Farmers worldwide are being impacted by climate change. Controlled-Environment Agriculture, such as vertical farming, may not be the universal answer but what’s being learned about improving crop yields at Syan Farms is transferrable to land-based agriculture, like using fertiliser more precisely to cut cost, lessen reliance upon imported chemicals and reduce the risk of damaging runoff into water courses.
What else?
Though originally inspired to improve human edibles Syan Farms are also researching pharmaceutical plant extracts. There’s worldwide interest in the antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-infectious influences of plant extracts. Squeezing goodness from plants for medicinal purposes is nothing new but the supply of a consistent quality of plant extract is an important key to successful research – a supply that plays to Syan Farms’ strength.
Wait - there’s more
Enthralling though we found all this science there was more to come. Moving outside Preyesh outlined how plant-based food is being produced elsewhere on their site. He described how many vegetable-based foods are manufactured by chemically removing plant proteins then retrieving the core ingredient from the resulting slurry.
An alternative to such ultra-processing is used by Eat Curious. Their pea and faba bean protein is simply produced by crushing and drying fresh ingredients. Natural fibres are retained and there’s no need for chemicals.
Eat Curious dehydrated mince and larger pieces contain nothing but protein from peas and faba beans, and a touch of salt. Ready-flavoured versions use only natural spices such as coriander, paprika, garlic, chilli or black pepper. Hospital, school and other institutional kitchens are using these as ingredients in a variety of recipes to easily create nutritious meals that have a far lower environmental impact than the usual alternatives.
Sun powered too
As we leave, we pass the massive array of solar panels that provide the site with its source of renewable electricity.
Such a rewarding visit.
References
1 Eat Curious - growing more than plants... an insight into sustainable food production
2 Changing plant chloroplasts to improve crop performance
3 Research paper: Controlled-Environment Agriculture (CEA)
4 UK self-sufficiency must be upheld amid global instability says NFU