If you've been a patron at a Grill'd restaurant over the last year, you've likely already enjoyed the Stacked Farm cos lettuce – grown by robots from seed to pack. "The feedback we get on the taste is that the taste is exceptional," shares Stacked Farm COO Sam Canavan. "If it did not taste good, then we'd be dead on arrival."
Stacked Farm started as a hobby farm before evolving into a fully automated 13-meter-high indoor farm in the northwest of the Gold Coast.
The region's agricultural industry has confronted major challenges in recent years. With seasonal changes decreasing farm profitability by up to 25 percent, there's been a growing need for new-wave farming approaches that can combat unpredictable environmental conditions.
"It was the complexity of the problem to solve [that] was enticing," explains Sam. "Farmable land is reducing across the board, and the other [issue] is that farming is tough. We know the sort of mental health issues, and we know by extension that it's becoming a harder and harder sell for younger generations who inherit farms."
Read more at In Queensland.