“Who builds a fully functioning commercial farm 33 metres under the ground in Central London? And more importantly, why?” That’s the question Matt Mayer asked Steven Dring, CEO of Growing Underground. This pioneering company is at the vanguard of precision farming, a movement that is disrupting agriculture to shape the future of food production. Their highly successful fresh produce business supplies retailers and restaurants throughout the UK, and they’ve gone underground to do it.
When you look further into it, Steven Dring’s explanation makes perfect sense. “If you’re going to build a farm, you need to do it on a commercial scale. Somewhere with an environment that’s pretty neutral in terms of consistent temperature, humidity and airflow. That’s how we ended up with a farm underneath the streets of Clapham, in a former World War II air raid shelter that housed 8,000 people, in two disused tube tunnels, underneath the Northern Line.”