Is underground farming the future of food?

Biodynamic farming is slowly spreading across the United States as a practice that improves the health of a farm’s ecosystem by creating a sustainable system that uses its waste to generate its energy. This way of farming also involves practices like crop rotation, cover cropping, and eliminating the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Stonyfield, an organic dairy company, is working with six of its suppliers to pilot how farms can measure the amount of carbon it’s trapping in soil through regenerative farming practices as a way for the company to achieve its goals to cut carbon emissions. The OpenTEAM initiative is working to demonstrate how a dairy farm could improve its soil health to reach carbon net zero and, eventually, have food companies pay its farmers to adopt the new practices.

A startup called Locus Agricultural Solutions has created a "probiotic" for soil that uses a mixture of beneficial fungi and bacteria. Not only does it increase productivity of crops, but it also absorbs enough carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere per acre to offset the emissions of a passenger vehicle. Tests done on an orange grove in Florida showed that areas treated with the product took up an extra 4.38 metric tons of CO2 per acre.

Oftentimes in farming, once farmers spot an issue with a crop, it is too late to save it. Artificial intelligence is changing that, starting with implementing the technology that is used to manage orchards into the practice of growing corn and soybeans.

More than 30-meters below the busy London streets, there is an eco-farm called Growing Underground that's part innovative agri-tech project and part sci-fi inspired netherworld. Created to provide increased food security and combat the environmental degradation caused by mass agriculture, this self-contained, zero-emissions, fully functioning farm provides an exciting opportunity as the world's population grows and food demands increase.

ARPA-E, a Department of Energy program that provides high-risk grants to clean energy startups and universities, has leveraged $4 billion in government funding into $20 billion in additional private investment and 1,400+ patents. Companies like Fervo and Form Energy have advanced clean energy technologies using these grants.

WindowDressers mobilizes community volunteers to build low-cost insulating window inserts for older homes. Their efforts have saved nearly 4 million gallons of heating fuel, preventing 44,000 tons of CO2 emissions, and strengthening neighborhood ties while making heating more affordable—especially for low-income households who now represent nearly 40% of recipients.

Quinn Organic Research Center sits at the hub of innovations slowly transforming farming culture away from industrial agriculture toward organic and regenerative strategies. Countering the decades-old "get big or get out" thinking about farming in Montana, the Quinn operation conducts small-scale experiments to develop new markets based on tactics that decrease soil erosion, improve biodiversity, and capture carbon. These climate-change-ready operations have seen many setbacks. But they've also been embraced by more locals and helped Big Sandy enjoy a subtle but real rejuvenation.

In agroforestry, traditional farming of plants and animals is combined with the planting of different types of trees. It is much more sustainable than traditional agriculture, which takes a huge toll on the environment. In an agroforestry system, the trees planted around a crop can provide shelter and food for the animals, reducing overall greenhouse emissions. The trees also increase other wildlife like bees and insects, and they add more nutrients to the soil.

Inspired by the Dutch concept of “Energiesprong,” or “energy jump,” a developer in France retrofitted a group of townhouses for social housing to be more environmentally friendly. They installed polyurethane facades to avoid heat loss and solar panels on the roof. Upgrading the units to be more green cost more than a conventional retrofit, but over time, energy bills were cut in half. These green retrofits are being implemented in towns around the world and could be a model for developers that want to reduce their carbon footprints.