Agriculture is being strangled by politics, the countryside destroyed and food production thwarted. At the same time, the belief is gaining ground that farmers are generally dispensable; after all, we buy our food in the supermarket. Soon there will be burgers made from mealworms with lab-grown meat patties fresh from the broth of a bioreactor. So why do we still need fields, why do we need farmers?
by Udo Pollmer, April 02, 2025
Organic is not an alternative; it has turned out to be a dead end. Despite well-meaning ideas, yields often reach only half that of conventional crops. Humanity would therefore...
...need correspondingly more arable land. It wouldn’t even be enough to clear the nature reserves and put them under the plough. That is why the trend is moving away from outdoor farming towards indoor agriculture. Its aim is to take farmland out of production. This is supposed to benefit both the climate and the little beetles.
Chapter 1. Hydroponics: growing without soil
Greenhouses were the starting point. Technical improvements led to a steady increase in yields. As a result, Dutch growers harvested more than double the amount of tomatoes and peppers per square metre in 2020 compared to 1980. And this was achieved whilst reducing natural gas consumption. (1) Enriching the air in the greenhouse with carbon dioxide proved to be a stroke of luck, as did the LED lighting programmes. (2) Another cornerstone of this success was soil-less cultivation, or hydroponics.
The plants’ roots are placed in tubes filled with rice or peanut husks, rockwool, sawdust or coconut fibres. The latter are popular for growing tomatoes, aubergines and peppers. Solutions containing nutrients and trace elements flow through the tubes. Anything the plants do not absorb is recycled. This saves on fertiliser. Hydroponics increases yields whilst requiring only a fraction of the water. Where there is no soil, there are no soil-borne pests, and weeds cannot spread. This saves on pesticides. However, aphids, spider mites or thrips are occasionally introduced.
Harmful organisms, such as root rot (Pythium) or algae, which spread via the irrigation pipes, proved to be a real problem. (3) If depriving the algae of light is not enough, hydrogen peroxide or beneficial microbes can help. (4) More troublesome are pumps blocked by root systems or deposits of nutrient salts. The most common problem is pH drift. If the pH value moves outside the optimal range, the crops can no longer absorb essential nutrients. (5) High water temperatures, for example, are a cause of this drift.
The choice of the right lighting and light management are also of central importance. (6) Plants do not react solely to day length and brightness. A prime example is far-red light (700–750 nm), a light range at the red end of the visible spectrum. (1) Chlorophyll cannot use this light for photosynthesis, but the plant detects it via its photoreceptor, phytochrome. Far-red light influences germination, the size and number of leaves, chlorophyll formation and the timing of flowering.
The artificial environment inside the greenhouse is controlled by heating and cooling units, fans, humidifiers and dehumidifiers, LEDs and CO2-generators. This allows plants to be cultivated all year round, protected from cold, drought and hail, and shielded from locusts, voles and bird droppings. So-called ‘controlled environmental agriculture’ (CEA) offers greater safety to hospitals, nurseries and care homes, which need to avoid hygiene risks.
Bacteria are killed in the greenhouse using UV light. However, this sterility creates new problems: plant diseases that were previously insignificant can spread more easily due to the lack of microbial competition. (3) Yet the industry is reluctant to discuss this; it prefers to talk about how it is saving the environment, the climate, indeed the entire planet.
Chapter 2. Vertical farming: Farming in plant scrapers
Soil-free greenhouses gave rise to vertical farming in multi-storey buildings. Something different is produced on each floor to exploit synergies. Under the roof, for example, laying hens cluck away. Their droppings fall through a floor grate into the fish tanks below, which contain tilapia, as they enjoy eating faeces. The fish waste, still rich in nutrients, flows on to the lettuce crops.
Aquaponics harnesses the natural relationship between fish, plants and microbes. Filters remove solid fish waste, whilst biofilters contain beneficial bacteria that convert ammonia and nitrite from the water into nitrate fertiliser. Dissolved fish waste also serves as a source of nutrients for the vegetables. The purified water is returned to the fish ponds. In this way, a circular economy creates a self-sustaining ecosystem. (7)
Back to the lettuce: the leftover lettuce heads end up one floor below in a vineyard snail farm. The laying hens are fed the surplus snail shells as a calcium supplement, along with the fish heads, bones and offal. Even though this model sounds like squaring the circle, it is not quite that simple in practice. In the past, some vertical farming companies have gone bankrupt.
This has not hindered development. In countries such as Singapore, which have to import their food due to a lack of arable land, there is great interest. Depending on the number of storeys, a single cultivated hectare offers more than just additional growing space. On each storey, the space is utilised three-dimensionally from floor to ceiling, so that over the course of a year, many times more is harvested than on a flat field of the same area.
The next step after hydroponics and aquaponics was aeroponics: here, the roots dangle freely in the air without any growing medium. Ultrasound is used to generate mist in the root zone, which is then enriched with oxygen and nutrients. This saves even more water and fertiliser. Oxygen stimulates growth. (8, 9) As enclosed systems keep harmful insects out, pesticides can often be dispensed with. If the need arises, they are controlled where possible using parasitic wasps and the like. The beneficial insects cannot simply fly off; they have to make do with what is available. Suitable insects such as bumblebees are also released for pollination, depending on the crop.
The biggest hurdle is energy consumption. LED lighting accounts for the lion’s share of energy use, along with the cooling required for the lights, followed by natural gas, which is used for heating in winter. Land and construction costs are also a significant expense in urban areas. That is why new businesses often make use of old factory buildings. For example, in a former Chicago meat factory, hybrid sunfish are fattened in purified water from herb cultivation, whilst goblin loaches help to control mosquito larvae.
Chapter 3. Underground ideas, set to music
More economical than brand-new, glass-fronted, towering farm-scrapers, hyped on the internet as a vision of the future, are old, recycled shipping containers or even deep farms. These are farms that produce crops in underground tunnels or disused mine shafts. (10) As temperature and humidity are moderate and constant underground, they save energy and can often even tap into the groundwater.
The idea has taken hold all over the world. The first facility opened in London in a World War II bunker. Microgreens such as coriander, fennel and wasabi are grown across an area of over 30,000 square metres. (11) The largest facility to date, covering over 50,000 square metres, is housed in a former mine in Kansas City. Although cereals are hardly suitable for deep farms, in Tokyo, in a former underground bank vault, even the symbolic rice was cultivated alongside vegetables; but not with LEDs, but with sodium vapour lamps. (12) Their yellow-orange light promotes flowering and grain formation. Unfortunately, the facility is now closed. Despite high yields, the Robotic Vertical Farm in Basel, a flagship project of the Migros retail chain, has also been abandoned. (13) Rising energy costs are likely to have put an end to many an ambitious project.
In South Korea, a former road tunnel now houses a garden centre. A unique feature is the background music, which features works by Beethoven and Schubert. (14) This not only creates a pleasant atmosphere whilst shopping; plants also respond to pleasing music by growing better. (15) They perceive not only classical music, but also the munching of pests or the murmur of water. They then produce specific defence substances, or their roots grow phonotropically towards the water. (16-18)
Even the buzzing of a pollinator must match the frequency of the flower in question for pollen to be released. At the optimal frequency, the flowers even offer the winged visitor more nectar. (16) Conversely, when under stress, tomatoes themselves produce ultrasound that many insects can detect from a distance of several metres. (19) Having reviewed the experimental studies, Indian biotechnologists are convinced that the targeted use of sound would enable major advances in agriculture. (20) We can look forward to seeing what happens.
It is said that around a third of harvests – a good billion tonnes of food – are lost year after year along the global supply chain. (21) Vertical farming would reduce these losses. Fast-growing and highly perishable berries, herbs and vegetables can be produced year-round close to the consumer and just in time. They require neither large storage facilities nor long transport routes. This is a particularly welcome option for vegetarians. The lion’s share of our vegetables is imported, as is a large proportion of our fruit – not just tropical fruit. Ecologically, this is a no-go.
Chapter 4. Vegetable whisperers and big-game hunters
The idea of coaxing the plants sounds more ecological, but not with kind words and a gentle voice, rather with clever chemistry. Although inaudible, plants do like to have a little natter. A perennial issue in the vegetable patch is the appetite of herbivores. Plants can even distinguish between individual animal species – they identify pests, for example, by their saliva. (22) When attacked, they produce specific defensive toxins. Even a tree is powerless against a herd of grazing animals. That is why they join forces and, after consultation, take joint action against the enemy.
This is what happened in South Africa. There, thousands of kudus – antelopes with twisted horns – perished as a result of the plants’ coordinated counter-attack. The stomachs of the dead animals were full of undigested acacia leaves, which were actually their favourite food. However, these leaves contained unusually high levels of tannins. Tannins make protein indigestible. (23) As soon as acacias are grazed upon, they react promptly: within minutes, tannin levels rise – even in the surrounding acacias that have not yet been affected. They receive this information via ‘air mail’ through signalling substances, in this case jasmonates. (16) To counter this, grazing animals usually eat against the wind. The kudus were unable to do so; their enclosures were too small. The acacias were warned and there was no escape for the antelopes. (24)
Plant languages are chemical languages. In hot and dry climates, these messenger substances evaporate. This is why nature in the south smells so intensely. Here, terpenes, with 40,000 different compounds, make up the largest ‘vocabulary’. (163) These ‘words’ are in turn composed of isoprene units – the ‘syllables’, so to speak, according to the theory. In cool and humid regions, the signalling chemicals are water-soluble. They enter the soil with the rain. There, the roots ‘taste’ the messages. Neurobiologists are researching plant communication, their consciousness and their intelligence. (25–29) Vegans will have some time to chew over these findings.
Insects generally avoid terpenes, and quite a few have insecticidal effects. (30–32) However, due to the complexity of these mixtures of aromatic compounds, it has so far been difficult to attribute a specific function to individual terpenes. Their use has been limited to the spraying of jasmonates, with the aim of stimulating the formation of tannins and terpenes. Jasmonic acids are hormones that the plant activates in response to damage caused by browsing, whether by wildlife or insects, as well as in the event of fungal infections. (33, 34) They are also used in fruit growing to improve the quality and shelf life of fruit. (35)
Following treatment with jasmonate, strawberries produce germacrene D. This sesquiterpene combats grey mould (Botrytis cinerea). (36) Maize uses terpenes to call for help: following an infestation by cotton bollworms (Spodoptera littoralis), its leaves emit special terpene cocktails. This distress signal is directed at parasitic wasps (Cotesia marginiventris), the caterpillars’ natural enemies. When infested by the corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera), the roots of local maize varieties produce the sesquiterpene (E)-β-caryophyllene. It diffuses into the soil and attracts nematodes, which then feed on the larvae. (37)
Naturally, pathogens attempt to manipulate this for their own benefit. The bacterium (Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus), which causes the global dieback of citrus trees (Huanglongbing), inhibits terpene synthesis. As a result, the winged citrus leafhoppers (Diaphorina citri) prefer infected trees to healthy ones with intact defences. (38) The leafhoppers act as taxis for the pathogens, helping to spread the disease.
Tomatoes require vibrations for pollination to transfer pollen to the stigma. This is normally done by the wind. In greenhouses, bumblebees are released for this purpose. They use their flight muscles to generate vibrations that facilitate pollination (a process known as vibration collection or sonication). Viruses exploit this: they manipulate the metabolism of tomatoes so that they produce the terpenes that attract bumblebees. The result is that infected, and therefore susceptible, plants reproduce more successfully than healthy ones. In this way, the virus ensures the survival of its host plants. (39)
Bacterial pathogens coordinate their attacks via chemical signals; they only strike when they outnumber their victim. They determine the right moment through a kind of coordination known as quorum sensing. Other bacteria have learnt to disarm the attackers. They intercept their signalling substances, a process known technically as quorum quenching. (40, 41) This illustrates just how complex the multifaceted relationships between crops, pests and beneficial organisms can be.
It gets even more intricate: a Chilean climbing plant (Boquila trifoliolata) attempts to evade its predators in a truly uncanny way (42): it camouflages itself by mimicking the foliage of the tree it is parasitising. So far, it has not been possible to determine how the plant recognises its specific model in such detail and develops visually identical leaves. If it climbs past another neighbouring tree, it immediately adapts its leaves to match that tree as well. (16) Rupert Sheldrake suspects that it taps into the morphic field. (162) Botanists, however, speculate that it may have eyes on its leaves or obtains the information via gene transfer. Since it also mimics plastic plants, gene transfer is at least rather unlikely (43).
The aim of modern agricultural research is to create a kind of ‘vegetable whisperer’ who understands the chemical ‘languages’ of our crops and their ecosystem and can convey the desired messages to them. This approach has a promising future because it is far more nuanced than the – to put it bluntly – killer arguments in favour of pesticides. (44)
English Editor: Josef Hueber
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