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There has long been an argument that when it comes to Jersey’s built environment – limited as the island is by its 45 square miles – the only way is up.
The island sampled it with Le Marais and other developments in the 60s and 70s, but its appetite for tall buildings remains limited, as evidenced by the guarded policies of the current Island Plan.
However, could 'going up' be a solution in our rural environment, which also faces competing pressures for land? Julien Morel explores further...
'Vertical farming' is a concept that the Government has said could be a solution for Jersey – which would not only maximise every vergée of agricultural land but also potentially create new uses for existing buildings and glasshouses.
It could also attract new people into farming, help diversify the range of crops grown in Jersey, strengthen the island's food security, help it meet the Government's carbon neutral goals, and work alongside parallel aims to produce more renewable energy.
Vertical farming is likely to feature in a major strategy document which it due to be published later this summer. The 'Future Economy Programme' will set out a vision on how Jersey's economy will develop between now and 2040, weaving in other aims, such as reducing the reliance on net inward migration, striving for energy self-sufficiency and developing local talent.
Tasked with examining whether vertical farming could become a reality in Jersey is John Vautier, a former farmer who is now responsible for the Rural and Marine sectors in the Department for the Economy.
"Vertical farming is typically growing in a protected crop environment, such as a warehouse, shipping container or glasshouse, where you are making maximum use of the space by growing crops upwards, usually in racks.
"Often the product isn't grown in soil but another medium such as nutrient-rich water. Other essential elements such as light and heat are often controlled, too."
"Historically, the island has had a glasshouse sector – which back in the day was our version of vertical agriculture. If you go to Three Oaks Vineries and La Chasse, our two main salad growers' glasshouse facilities, they are typically using koya or a hydroponic solution, so the water is circulated through a growing medium, with the nutrients added to the water.
"Their modern glasshouse are generally taller than the older ones so that the tomato vines can be strung up five or six metres tall. So, in many ways, vertical farming is already happening here.
"Also, another farm is using a system called aquaponics, which is where you have a fish tank next to your glasshouse or polytunnel. The fish naturally add nutrients to the water, which then circulates through floating trays of plants.
Pictured: The shelves used to grow vegetables take up a smaller area than in the ground.
"Typically, you will have several growing layers of close-to-market salad crops, such as basil, coriander and micro-greens. The benefit of that system is that it uses natural sunlight and even the fish is a usable by-product because they can be eaten."
"In addition to hydroponics and aquaponics, there is also something called aeroponics, which is another closed environment, whereby the air is misted and the plants are growing with roots out in the open. They feed through the mist, which has nutrients in it, and that again will use layers of racks.
"The whole concept around vertical farming is extracting nutrient value out of a very small square footage of space. A lot of that is being driven from a technical perspective now, with things like LED lighting, which is a lot more energy efficient and the light spectrum delivered by these LEDs can be targeted to specific plant varieties and growth rates.
"It costs a lot to get these facilities up and running but once you are operating, they deliver good results. I suspect that some of the new cannabis outfits will be using this type of technology, particularly the ones operating in completely closed environments."
"The whole basis of developing this sector is premised on access to power, which then dovetails into our efforts to develop clean energy. Looking longer-term, that could take the form of an offshore wind farm or it could be capturing the output of a data centre, which is essentially heat. If you channel that into a growing environment, it is basically free.
"Then, there is 'new tech glass', which transmits the right light and are a lot more thermally efficient than our existing glasshouses. Modern glasshouses are also built to a height which maximises productivity, which is why I would cautious about saying vertical farming could be a way to breathe new life into our older structures.
"I think it would be a difficult thing to do because of the level of investment that would be required to rebuild glass, and such is the food-price deflation over the last 30 years.
"Having said that, I wouldn't entirely rule it out because we are facing such a changing dynamic in terms of global food systems, sparked by the Ukraine crisis, the pandemic and Brexit, that it really is a shifting world.
"I've followed agricultural policy development for a long time and what we've seen in 2023 is a paradigm shift in the way agricultural support is delivered, and countries across the developed world are becoming a lot more focused on their own food security in a way that they've not done in a generation.
"We've had an era of abundance and availability of food. Even in our own isolated island community, which relies on the boat coming in each day, we haven't generally experienced empty shelves in our lifetime.
"Yet look what happened this spring in Morocco and southern Spain, which are still experiencing extreme challenges with their climate.
"In the UK, there were empty shelves of staples, which is why we need to seriously look to new farming methods which use new technologies and require less power."
"Already we have more smallholders taking up farming, which is, in part, a consequence of our Economic Framework for the Rural Environment which was published last year and sets out a broad range of Government interventions, which includes encouraging more diversity of crops into the local market.
"These interventions include funding, but it is not a handout to farmers but a payment for goods and services, and an investment in our food system and food security.
"We already have someone looking at growing in a shipping container, and the vertical farm is inside of that. "We have other people looking at new polytunnels and Spanish tunnels. The potato export industry is also changing so there is warehousing there that could evolve for this type of agriculture, too.
"Because of the intensity of the vertical system, it means you can get a lot of production off a fairly small footprint."
Salad crops might be ideal for vertical farms but islanders are likely to want a bit more variety in their diets. Could it be used for other staples?
"I think it could. We are looking to maintain what we have in terms of agricultural production, with bigger companies like the Jersey Royal Company, but start some smaller scale farms, which can then perhaps scale up.
"At that level, if we can get some consolidated activity and a diverse range of goods, that supports their business model. You can then look at some of the other staples.
"We are trying to incentivise the right delivery mechanism because while it is fine to have the goods produced, you also need access to markets. You also need to help them embrace the technology and find sales channels. We are looking at a range of things there.
"This all seems to me to be an important insurance policy. Everyone needs to have food but we have perhaps taken that for granted for too long. This is about looking at opportunities to boost our local food production in a way that can provide better food security for the population.
"It is also seeing vertical farming as an economic opportunity. Such is the seismic change in food economics, that there could be opportunities for new salad crops and, perhaps, a return to tomato crops for export.
"We have fantastic natural resources in our soil and our climate, and the potential to develop sources of clean energy. This is a distinct opportunity not only to supply ourselves with more food but also to potentially sell into the UK market in the coming years."
This article first appeared in the August edition of Connect Magazine, which you can read in full below...
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