A new agricultural revolution has begun. Congress must invest now to secure the future of US food
At a certain point we have to ask ourselves how much more the global food system can sustain.
Historic floods in Pakistan. Droughts in the American West. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The global food system and supply chains that have long enabled us to move food from where it’s grown to where it’s needed have rarely been so thin or stretched so far.
The consequences are showing up in the cost and availability of food in most parts of the world, including the United States. Americans’ growing demand for fresh produce will only accelerate our dependence on an increasingly fragile food system.
The story of this decade need not be one of scarcity and strain, however. A different future is within reach: one of abundance, affordability and sustainability. The US has an historic opportunity to shorten supply chains, ensure long-term food security and reduce the environmental cost of farming. Innovation can make this possible – but only if America invests in new agricultural technologies. Not just to feed ourselves, but to reaffirm our role as the world’s largest exporter of food and innovation.
If you’re not in the industry, you might not know that farming is undergoing a silent technological revolution. Drones, sensors and satellite imaging systems are helping farms manage their crops more effectively with more information and knowledge than ever before. Amid labor shortages, farmers are looking to robotics and automation to fill the gap. Artificial intelligence is used today to monitor soil, control pests and improve overall yield. These and other advances are allowing the industry to rethink its most fundamental assumptions: how we grow, what we grow, and how we transport what we grow.
For example, recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, computer vision, and sensor and control systems have enabled our company, Bowery, to grow fresh, local, and pesticide-free in large-scale, intelligent indoor spaces with plants stacked floor-to-ceiling. This approach, powered by renewable energy, uses significantly less land and water. It is a sustainable model that works regardless of changing climate conditions or severe weather events.
Vertical farms can be built almost anywhere. But by bringing them close to the markets we serve, we can radically shorten the supply chain – reducing disruption and the environmental costs of long-distance shipping and increasing the overall resilience of the food system.
Many Americans have probably eaten vertically grown produce without realizing how differently they are grown. But vertical farming is only part of the broader transformation the world needs to make. With the world population projected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050 and the climate crisis worsening, we need to produce more and more sustainably food. This requires collective effort – and collective investment.
Much like the crops on a farm, a business needs the right inputs to grow. Great ideas, seed capital, and state and local commitment enable companies to thrive. But for a cutting-edge industry to thrive and have national and even global impact, the federal government must play a key role as an innovation accelerator.
Think solar power in the 1990s or electric vehicles in the early 2000s. The promise was obvious. But these innovations could not have become the transformative, ubiquitous technologies they are today without national investment in research and development, infrastructure, workforce training, and manufacturing — and adequate fiscal incentives.
Agriculture is poised to become the next great success story of sustainable innovation – as foreign governments are increasingly recognizing. For example, the Netherlands – the world’s second largest agricultural exporter – has invested in new cultivation technologies and cell-based meat production. Small, land-poor states like Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, and huge countries like Russia and China are working to build food systems that can withstand changing climates and reduce their dependence on turbulent trade relations.
The US must do the same. The global challenges of climate change and food insecurity will accelerate the development of new agricultural technologies wherever people live and eat. America has an opportunity to lead this revolution and spread the benefits around the world. The new Congress must act in terms of foreign and economic policy.
In 2023, Congress will again approve the farm bill, as it does every five years. No law says more about the importance we place on agriculture. This time, the bill aims to help accelerate ongoing technological advances, increase domestic food production and strengthen the supply chain. The Farm Bill should also prioritize human resource development, prepare the next generation for careers in high-tech agriculture, and position our research institutions, land grant universities, and historically black colleges and universities as centers of agricultural innovation.
To bolster domestic manufacturing, a bipartisan majority in Congress last year doubled the research and development tax credit for qualifying firms and created an investment tax credit for the semiconductor industry. Congress needs to take the same approach to agriculture.
Recently, all 50 members of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture — both Republicans and Democrats — unanimously endorsed investment tax credits as a way to expand indoor farming given its high upfront investments. Such a policy should also apply to outdoor specialty crop growers who face similar capital costs when upgrading their approach with robotics and automation.
From the steel plow to gas-powered tractors to new breeding technologies, American innovation has led to advances in agriculture that have benefited the world.
Both our potential and the imperative to fulfill it have never been stronger. Congress needs to do more than improve the current system — it needs to invest in the future of nutrition.
Irving Fain is the founder and CEO of Bowery.
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