THE FUTURE OF FARMING IS INSIDE THIS BOMB SHELTER

DEEP BENEATH THE STREETS OF LONDON, in a complex of bomb shelters left abandoned since the Second World War, something is growing.

- ROB KEMP

Thousands of green sprouts burst from their hydroponic trays, stretching towards glowing pink lights that line the arched ceilings. These plants, along with tens of thousands of other salad crops, are being grown from seed without soil or sunlight, in tunnels transformed into a high-tech commercial farm.

The farm is known as Growing Underground (GU), and it’s located 33 m below the main street in Clapham, a south London suburb. Every year, in 560 m2 of an old bomb shelter, more than 90 metric tons of pea shoots, garlic chives, coriander, broccoli, wasabi mustard, arugula, fennel, red mustard, pink stem radishes, watercress, sunflower shoots, and salad leaves are sown, grown, and prepared for despatch.

London’s unique move towards re-localizing agriculture – feeding its growing population while cutting the environmental impact of producing and transporting crops – is the brainchild of entrepreneur Richard Ballard and his business partner Steve Dring.

‘The United Nations predicts that we need 70 per cent more food by 2050,’ says Ballard. ‘But how are we going to achieve this when only 10 per cent of the Earth’s surface is suitable for agriculture and we use a third of that to grow livestock feed?’

Ballard’s journey to becoming a pioneering subterranean farmer is an unusual one. After his ethical garden furniture business went bust in 2008, he moved closer to his old friend Dring and the pair would regularly sit in the pub and discuss ideas for start-ups. Both men were intrigued by the idea of vertical farming as an efficient way to feed people, especially in urban areas.