Harvest London

🌱 Exciting Developments in Vertical Farming and Precision Breeding! 🍅 We’re thrilled to share that Harvest London is part of a pioneering effort to grow precision-bred tomatoes specifically designed for vertical farms. Phytoform has developed a unique variety that can yield up to 400% more fruit annually compared to conventional tomatoes—perfectly suited to our controlled indoor environment. This innovative tomato variety has shown exceptional results in our first pre-commercial trial, where we successfully grew hundreds of plants. We're now working on refining the growing techniques to maximize yield and quality. It’s exciting to see a crop that could allow British-grown, super-tasty tomatoes to reach consumers year-round, reducing reliance on imports and keeping supply chains local. With regulatory changes like the UK's Precision Breeding Act paving the way, the future of sustainable, home-grown produce is within reach. At Harvest London, we’re proud to be at the forefront of this movement with Phytoform Labs, advancing vertical farming to meet evolving consumer demands. 🌍🚜 Innovation, sustainability, and taste—all grown right here in the UK! Links to full articles are in the comments. #VerticalFarming #PrecisionBreeding #SustainableAgriculture #Innovation

🌱 Exciting Developments in Vertical Farming and Precision Breeding! 🍅 We’re thrilled to share that Harvest London is part of a pioneering effort to grow precision-bred tomatoes specifically designed for vertical farms. Phytoform has developed a unique variety that can yield up to 400% more fruit annually compared to conventional tomatoes—perfectly suited to our controlled indoor environment. This innovative tomato variety has shown exceptional results in our first pre-commercial trial, where we successfully grew hundreds of plants. We're now working on refining the growing techniques to maximize yield and quality. It’s exciting to see a crop that could allow British-grown, super-tasty tomatoes to reach consumers year-round, reducing reliance on imports and keeping supply chains local. With regulatory changes like the UK's Precision Breeding Act paving the way, the future of sustainable, home-grown produce is within reach. At Harvest London, we’re proud to be at the forefront of this movement with Phytoform Labs, advancing vertical farming to meet evolving consumer demands. 🌍🚜 Innovation, sustainability, and taste—all grown right here in the UK! Links to full articles are in the comments. #VerticalFarming #PrecisionBreeding #SustainableAgriculture #Innovation

Sustainability is at the heart of what we do 🎉 A huge congratulations to our friends at Pizza Pilgrims for achieving their #BCorp certification ! It’s fantastic to see more companies in the food industry commit to balancing profit with purpose. We've been working together since 2020 to improve the sustainability of the fresh basil used in their restaurants, cutting out imports and saving 240,000 air miles each year. It’s been a pleasure collaborating with Gavin Smith, Bledi Jahjaga and Tom Mullin, and it's amazing to see a team that not only talks the sustainability talk but goes above and beyond to make it a reality. 🔬 University of Surrey Study: We’re also excited to share findings from a study we contributed to, led by Michael Gargaro and Dr Zoe M Harris. The research shows that using #renewable energy in vertical farming can drastically reduce CO2e emissions compared to open-field growing—without even factoring in the emissions saved by cutting imports of out-of-season crops - link in comments. 🥬 Harvest London is already pushing sustainability forward by improving our growing media and designing a brand-new super-farm that recycles more water than we ever thought possible. Large-scale vertical farms are also boosting energy efficiency and addressing the challenges of profitability and price. We have appointed Crowe UK to manage the fund-raising process for our newest facility, as reported by Ion Analytics (Debtwire) - link in comments. As an industry, we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible, and the future of sustainable food production looks incredibly exciting. #BCorp #Sustainability #VerticalFarming

👏 Congratulations to our Forum members, Pizza Pilgrims on becoming B-Corp certified! Their inspiring journey shows how impactful sustainability efforts can be, particularly with their innovative approach to cutting 240,000 air miles by partnering with Harvest London to grow #basil locally. This kind of forward-thinking progress not only reduces emissions but supports local jobs—an important step for our industry. We also extend our congratulations to Big Mamma Group, Caravan Restaurants | B Corp™, Blacklock, and Hawksmoor for their B-Corp achievements. Their commitment to sustainability is helping to set a new standard across the food and hospitality sector. We’re proud to support businesses making meaningful strides toward net zero. If you're looking to explore your own sustainability journey, please reach out - we're here to help. #NetZero #Sustainability #BCorp #PizzaPilgrims #CarbonReduction B Lab UK You can read more about the basil partnership between Pizza Pilgrims and Harvest London here: https://lnkd.in/dKWQkMG7.

I recently wrote a study investigating the environmental impact of vertical farming in the UK. Thank you to Harvest London for collaborating with us to make this research possible. I’d also like to extend thanks to my supervisors Richard Murphy, Dr Zoe M Harris and Hastings Astley for their support! Check the links below to read the paper; an important LCA study showing the potential of VF systems in the UK.

We were very happy to help Michael Gargaro and Dr Zoe M Harris with this paper exploring the sustainability of vertical farming, and it just goes to show that VF is an important part of our future food system. Using renewable energy can radically reduce the CO2e of the final crops versus open-field growing and that's not even taking into account the emissions produced from importing these products out of season. We're already drastically improving the sustainablity of our growing media, and have designed a brand new super-farm that recycles even more water than we could have thought possible before. Large scale projects have improved energy efficiency and solve the problems of profitability and price. As an industry we're just seeing the beginnings of what is truly possible and it's an exciting future!

We were very happy to help Michael Gargaro and Dr Zoe M Harris with this paper exploring the sustainability of vertical farming, and it just goes to show that VF is an important part of our future food system. Using renewable energy can radically reduce the CO2e of the final crops versus open-field growing and that's not even taking into account the emissions produced from importing these products out of season. We're already drastically improving the sustainablity of our growing media, and have designed a brand new super-farm that recycles even more water than we could have thought possible before. Large scale projects have improved energy efficiency and solve the problems of profitability and price. As an industry we're just seeing the beginnings of what is truly possible and it's an exciting future!

“THE WORK OF CHANGE BEGINS IMMEDIATELY”   With a new Prime Minister and his family occupying 10 Downing Street, what’s in store for the UK #VerticalFarming industry? That the #UK is over-reliant on #imported #fruit and #vegetables – making it #vulnerable to increased international volatility, #climatechange and biodiversity loss, while bringing shocks to its wider #supplychain – has now gained wider recognition. Derek Stewart, Professor at The James Hutton Institute, has indicated that the UK “has an overall £6bn #deficit for fruit and vegetables, which includes £1.7bn for protected salad crops.” While the new #Labour government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer has yet to craft specific budgeted policies, his party has enunciated that it “recognises that #foodsecurity is #nationalsecurity,” which is why it would “champion #British farming whilst protecting the environment." Further, a “Labour government would set a target that 50% of food in our hospitals, army bases and prisons is #local or produced to high environmental standards” in addition to introducing a land-use framework “to ensure the correct balance between food and energy production, housing, and nature recovery.” Vertical Farming entrepreneurs in the UK are confident that the UK can become wholly #reliant on #homegrown #freshproduce within a decade. James Lloyd-Jones, Founder and CEO at Jones Food Company (JFC), has remarked, “It’s clear from what we've achieved and are planning that, within the next 10 years, the UK could be in a position where we no longer have to fly in soft fruits and herbs from southern Europe, North Africa, the Caribbean or anywhere else.” We wish the new UK government and the UK Vertical Farming industry well. The best is yet to come. Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs GrowPura, GrowUp Farms, Zero Carbon Farms, Intelligent Growth Solutions (IGS), Crate to Plate, Cultivatd, Square Mile Farms, Fischer Farms Ltd, Greenhaus Farms, Future Greens, Harvest London, LettUs Grow, Red Planet Farms, AgriTechs UK, Vertiseed Farms, Vertical Future, CambridgeHOK Barry Denston, Christopher Horne, Adam Abadi Association for Vertical Farming

Great to be featured in this. I do agree that vertical farming is finding the right business models that will enable it to scale.

It's #livingwageweek and at Harvest London we want to celebrate our incredible team, who tend and nurture our delicious crops, making sure customers always get the high quality they've come to expect from us. We want to grow in a better way, and while that obviously means producing great-tasting ingredients, with less impact on the planet, it also has to mean paying our staff a wage they can actually live on. Thanks Harikrishnan Sasidharan for modelling our Living Wage Foundation accreditation! #sustainablefood #sustainablefarming