Consumers are more and more interested in local food. Meanwhile, food manufacturers are struggling to figure out how they can possibly deliver locally grown food to thousands of communities across the US and the globe.

Manufacturers’ problems may soon be solved by a new crop of startups focused on growing food without agricultural acreage. Some are focused on rooftop farming and others on large-scale hydroponic growing. One of the most promising is PodPonics that uses recycled shipping containers outfitted with computers to create highly regulated hydroponic growing environments. They can produce organic crops in 90% less space than required outdoors.

There are huge environmental and financial incentives for growing food locally and “land-free.” The food industry accounts for approximately 10% of America’s energy usage. Roughly 80% of that energy is used after the food is grown---for transportation, refrigeration, and processing. Raising food locally reduces energy consumption and costs. Growing food without land solves the very real problem that the globe will run out of agricultural land before it runs out of people to feed.

Consumers’ love affair with local food is likely to last. Americans believe that local food is fresher, better tasting, safer, and healthier than food from unknown origins. Now there’s a strong possibility that manufacturers can ride that trend using new approaches to farming.

• Are we leveraging the local trend as much as we can?
• Should we explore new approaches to farming that allow us to be “more local” in more places?