CEO of IGS, David Farquhar, travelled to the Netherlands recently to attend an exploratory workshop on Urban Agriculture at Wageningen University and Research.

Titled “Urban Agriculture and Adaption to Climate Change”, the workshop gathered some of Europe’s leaders in urban and peri-urban agriculture, including scientists, policymakers, funder, industry, investors, retailers, planners and representatives of Cranfield University, Wageningen University plus the Universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark.

Key topics of discussion included what urban agriculture could offer in terms of benefits such as CO2 reduction, reduction of water supply issues food security and nutritional supply. Attendees were also asked to consider the challenges urban agriculture might face, how circular economies might help and whether changes to public sector policy could unblock some of these challenges.

“Travelling to Wageningen to take part in such an important discussion about how we can ensure food security for future generations was an honour”, commented David. “At IGS, we know that the vertical farming technology we’ve worked so hard to develop will never be the whole solution by itself. To find a way to feed a booming global population while minimising our impact on the environment is going to take collaboration and dedication on a scale that will perhaps be bigger than anything we’ve encountered before. It’s our responsibility to ensure that we leave behind a world that is capable of sustaining generations to come.”

The workshop was hosted by the Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (FACCE-JPI), which was established in 2010 to bring together 24 member countries with an aim to begin tackling the challenges at the intersection of agriculture, food security and climate change.