Quote:
Originally Posted by The Fonz
Holy Christ... Explain the above, please.
Monsanto sells seed. Why would they want to prevent more growers/acres from entering the market?
Viterra buys seed from producers. Why would they want to prevent more producers/acres from entering the market?
Another thing, Viterra buys cereals + pulse grains. These indoor farms are not growing $.10/lb wheat, $.13/lb durum, $.07/lb barley, $.25/canary, $.13/lb yellow peas, $.27/lb red lentils, etc. Growing any of these in a warehouse would be a colossal waste of time and money. These indoor farmers are growing high return, specialty crops, such as leafy green vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, etc, which can return more than $10/lb (100 times as much as wheat, Viterra's primary commodity).
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Relative to a completely environment controlled/pest free environment/year round. The current system low yield and high waste, with lots of additives to the process preventing crop loss. For the suppliers of the raw materials for farming, improving all of these things would take a massive toll on revenue.
Also currently farming is pretty much a series of small to medium business that have absolutely no negotiating power. moving into urban, controlled environments could likely steer the industry towards larger conglomerates that could that a bite out of their suppliers margins.
New technology is always bad for the guy selling the old system.
All of that said I really don't see this being the future, there is too much free power and growing space outside. But it does highlight that there are opportunities for improvement for crop density with veggies in particular.