The Nutrition Mavericks

If you want true change, there’s no use sticking to the same old recipe. MH meets the disrupters revolutionising the way we eat and drink – while piling more nutrients onto our plates in the process

- Jamie Millar

01 The Man Growing Underground

Want to reap more goodness from your greens? Then dig deeper. Richard Ballard is transforming London’s disused tunnels into thriving urban farms

In an air-raid shelter 35 metres below Clapham High Street in south London, a man in protective clothing is cutting fresh micro-greens off a piece of carpet with a kebab knife. It’s The Good Life meets Breaking Bad. “Controlled-environment agriculture partly came about from people growing weed,” admits Richard Ballard, whose herbs are all legal – though certainly A class.

The idea for Growing Underground came in a pub conversation. Ballard was a film student with a passion for sustainability; Steven Dring worked in logistics. Ballard had come across the concept of “vertical farming”: stacking plants in layers to use less space, with LED lighting and, in some cases, carpet off cuts instead of sun and soil. Here was a potential solution for an existential problem – farmers need to produce 70% more food by 2050 to feed the global population, but only 11% of land is arable. Would stacked farming work? Ballard and Dring decided to give it a go.

There was a catch: London’s property prices. But while making a film about urban explorers, Ballard discovered the disused tunnels, available to rent for £1 per square foot. Since 2014, Growing Underground has filled a fifth of the 70,000 available in Clapham. Analysis by Cambridge University ensures maximal yield (now two tonnes a month), while King’s College is conducting studies to show that these micro-greens contain more nutrients than mature crop – not least because they can be on your plate within four hours of picking.