Assessing Land Use of an Indoor Vertical Farm, Microgreens production through Life Cycle Assessment in a context of Climate Change and Food Insecurity

Hunger is projected to affect more than half a billion people by 2030, while climate change is increasing the issue by pressuring food production systems. The current conventional farming practices can only worsen the already heavy contamination making new sustainable agricultural practices critical to achieving a solution. Land degradation caused by anthropogenic activities is reducing soil’s long-term capacity to supply services, leading to economic, social and nutritional implications. Urban agriculture can offer a potential solution by providing safe and nutritious food all year-round while addressing these consequences. In this context, microgreens, an emerging high-nutrient type of vegetable, ideal to be grown hydroponically, can offer several health benefits using minimal resource demand. A Life Cycle Assessment analysis was conducted to assess the environmental performance of 1 kg of fresh weight (FW) broccoli microgreens grown in an Indoor Vertical Farm (IVF) at NOVA University in Portugal. Two scenarios were studied, one with the only use of the national grid mix as an energy source and the other implementing a photovoltaic system mix. The impact assessment methods used were EF 3.0 and LANCA. Results show that daily production of 7.5 kg causes an impact of 21.30 kg of CO2 eq./ kg FW. The use of photovoltaic electricity returns a reduction of emissions by 20% in the climate change category. Land Use results show a relevant impact of 60% from the coconut fibre process. This relevant difference suggests how renewable energy could be implemented in IVF reducing the environmental impacts and making the system more efficient. Moreover, shortened supply chains represent lower costs of the avoided steps such as transportation, waste, packaging and ensure a constant supply offer at affordable prices. IVFs make it possible to increase the effective cultivable area by taking advantage of a multi-level system, reducing the overall impact on land use.