Everyone knows that the population of the world is the largest ever. As more and more people are born and grow to an older average age than previous generations, everyone on the earth has a responsibility to feed this ever-growing population.

One possible solution to this is vertical farming, While humans have farmed and worked the land as long as history has recorded events, how much humans' farming has changed! From hands to ancient tools to animals to advanced machinery, the agricultural scenes have changed greatly over the centuries.

Now new and improved farming methods have been considered and studied to keep up with demand. With vertical farming, food is grown vertically by using existing buildings or shipping containers.

Unlike traditional farming that relies on Mother Nature, vertical farming often relies on CEA technology, also known as Controlled Environment Agriculture. With this approach, humans affect light, temperature, gases and more, thus controlling the environment in which plants grow.

The technology used in vertical farming is just expanding into greenhouses, where light and temperature are man-controlled. The final goal of vertical farming is to produce the most possible crops with the least possible space.

Vertical farming has many advantages. There are some other benefits as well.

With more and more humans living in heavily populated areas, vertical farming allows humans to be prepared for the future with continued population growth and increased movements to cities.

In vertical farming, since the environment in which plants grow is controlled by humans, farming can happen all the year round and is not dependent on seasons and weather. It can possibly use 95% less water than traditional farming. Besides, it is easier to produce organic crops in such a controlled environment, and farm chemicals will not be needed to protect the plants. This means less pollution in the environment.

Dozens of food tech companies in Israel reattempting to pioneer innovative methods to produce meat without killing animals. To achieve this goal, scientists adopt cutting-edge bioprinting 3D technology.

According to Arik Kaufman, CEO of Israelii company Steakholder Foods Ltd, the shape and thickness of the 3D-printed meat can be programmed to meet personal preferences. In other words, food printing could allow consumers to print food with customized nutritional content, like vitamins. So instead of eating a piece of yesterday’s bread, you could eat something baked at your request. Future 3D food printers could make processed food healthier.

The process works by first selecting the animals to extract the stem cells. The cells are selected from animals that will provide the best meat. The next step is proliferation (增殖), in which the cells are placed into a nutrient rich reactor to multiply. When the cells reach suitable numbers, the stem cells differentiate (区分) into muscle cells and fat cells. In the final step, the muscle cells and fat cells are turned to meat. And the meat is ready to be processed into the final product, be it a burger, a steak, or even a meat loaf.

According to the United Nations Food and Organization (FAO), emissions from global farm animals represent 14. 5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Cattle are the animal species responsible for the most emissions, representing about 65 of the percent emissions. Researchers suggest that lab-made beef is bound to reduce the environmental impact from conventional meat production methods. A 2019 report from the University of Oxford suggests “cultured meat” grown using tissue engineering techniques produces up to 96% less greenhouse gas emissions, 45% less energy, 99% lower land use, and 96% lower water use than the conventional process.

For many start-ups in this field, the high cost of 3D-printed meat and its taste are quite different from ordinary beef. Hence, mass production still faces certain challenges.

Huang Hua, 36, has been working at the Yangshan Deep Water Port for 13 years. But for the first twelve years, he worked as a driver, operating machines in sky-high cranes (吊车). Now, his work location has moved to a control center, monitoring the cranes from afar.

“At a traditional port, I would work with a handle all day, repeating the same motion 12 hours a day, four days a week. I used to have lots of neck problems. Now the task is less physically challenging, but much more complex,” says Huang, who is now a crane teleoperator.

Now, Huang’s daily work is to closely monitor a dozen computer screens, collect data on the operation status of each cargo crane, and deal with emergencies and malfunctions (故障).

Manual workers like Huang are no longer needed at the terminal. Bridge cranes, auto-guided vehicles and rail-mounted gantry cranes (轨行龙门吊) are now taking over the job. While the labor cost is down 70 percent, the handling efficiency has increased by 50 percent.

The Vice General Manager of the Shangdong Container Terminal Branch, Luo Yunjie told CGTN that all the automated handling equipment is designed and manufactured in China. Once the fourth phase (期) enters full operation, it will be able to handle 6.3 million TEUs. This will further strengthen Shanghai Port’s status as the busiest in the world.

Shanghai has the ambition of becoming a global shipping center by 2020. Phase IV of the Yangshan Port marks an important step in reaching that goal. In the near future, the Shanghai Port not only aims to gather more value-added shipping resources and offer more various services, but also to play an even bigger role in the country’s Belt and Road initiative.