What Are Novel Farming Systems?

By Louisa Burwood-Taylor and Emma Cosgrove

Novel farming systems are new methods of farming living ingredients, many of which are traditionally grown outdoors.

Consumers are scrutinizing the agrifood industry more than ever for its widespread use of natural resources such as water and arable land, and for its negative impact on the environment. The agrifood sector is neck and neck with heating and cooling as the global industry producing the most greenhouse gases. Industrial farming can also have a damaging environmental impact with the application of chemicals and fertilizers contributing to soil degradation, drinking water contamination, and run off harming local ecosystems.

As a planet, we are also faced with the challenge of increasing food production despite decreasingly nutrient-dense soil and a warming planet. While some are attempting to lessen the extractive nature of conventional farming in soil, or to create seeds and crops that can thrive in these new conditions, others are working on removing land and soil from the equation altogether.

To alleviate these pressures, startups and innovators are finding new ways to produce food and ingredients with novel farming systems in the hope of doing so more sustainably, using fewer natural resources.

Further, many novel farming systems focus on the farming of fish, insects, and algae which have the potential to alleviate the environmental pressure of increasing global demand for protein, where cattle farming is bearing the majority of the burden.

Novel farming systems have also emerged as a captivating solution in the eyes of the public and investors precisely because they could change the paradigm of traditional agriculture so dramatically. Though, as we will explore in our upcoming agrifood tech investing report, public and media excitement are not always met with equal investment.

Novel farming systems, as a category of agrifood tech, includes:

Indoor farms — growing produce in hi-tech greenhouses and vertical farms

Insect farms — producing protein alternatives for animal and aquaculture feed and for human food

Aquaculture — producing seafood and sea vegetables including algae

New living ingredients such as microbes for use in food, as well as for other industries and applications

Home-based consumer systems using the technology of any of the above

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