Gordon Tam, co-founder and CEO of vertical farming company Farm66, wants to show that agriculture—combined with technology—has a promising future in cities, deserts, and even in outer space.
In early February, residents of Hong Kong faced a shortage of fresh food. Shelves stocking vegetables and the like were empty across supermarkets in the city as strict Covid-19 controls across the border in mainland China badly disrupted fresh food supplies.
Hong Kong, a densely populated city where agricultural space is limited, is almost totally dependent on the outside world for its food supply. More than 90% of the skyscraper-studded city’s food, especially fresh produce like vegetables, is imported, mostly from mainland China. “During the pandemic, we all noticed that the productivity of locally grown vegetables is very low,” says Gordon Tam, co-founder, and CEO of vertical farming company Farm66 in Hong Kong. “The social impact was huge.”
Tam says he started Farm66 in 2013 with his co-founder Billy Lam, COO of the company, as a high-tech vertical farming pioneer in Hong Kong. “Our company was the first to use energy-saving LED lighting and wavelength technologies in a farm,” he says. “We found out that different colors on the light spectrum help plants grow in different ways. This was our technological breakthrough.” For example, red LED light will make the stems grow faster, while blue LED light encourages plants to grow larger leaves.
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