Tall buildings in Swindon could be used for growing food a business expert has suggested.
Speaking to members of Swindon Borough Council’s growing economy overview and scrutiny committee, Paddy Bradley, the chairman of the Swindon and Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership was asked how the town could develop a new economic base for the future.
And he came up with the startling vision of “vertical farming”- using tall buildings to grow food.
Mr Bradley said: ”This town has always reinvented itself. It had the railway industry then it flipped to financial services and It.
“It’s next thing could be life sciences and low carbon industries.
“One thing rarely mentioned is agriculture. There are swathes of land surrounding the town being used to grow food. But what about vertical farming, using tall buildings to grow food. You’d get a good quality of produce cheaply and it’s not harming the environment.
“There are also opportunities in developing hydrogen technologies but that’s decades away.”
The largest vertical farm in Europe opened in Bedford in June Last year with a promise it would one day produce 20 million plants annually.
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