So if you live on planet Earth and you're one of seven billion people that eats food every day,
如果你生活在地球上，并且是每天需要食物的70亿人中的一员，
I need you to pay attention, because over the next three decades,
我需要你注意，因为在接下来30年，
we will need to address one of the most critical global challenges of our generation.
我们将必须应对我们这个时代最重要的全球挑战。
And I'm not talking about climate change. I'm talking about food and agriculture.
我不是在说气候变暖，我在讨论食物和农业。
In 2050, our global population is projected to reach 9.8 billion, with 68 percent of us living in urban city centers.
2050年，全球人口预计将达到98亿人，68%的人将生活在城市里面。
In order to feed this massive population,
为了养活这么大规模的人口，
we will need to increase our agricultural output by 70 percent over current levels.
我们需要把现有的农业产出规模增加70%。
Just to put this number into perspective,
为了让你们对这个数字有个概念，
we will need to grow more food in the next 35 to 40 years than the previous 10,000 years combined.
这相当于在未来35-40年，需要增加的食物将会超过过去1万年的总和。
Put simply, not only is our global population becoming bigger, but it's also getting denser,
简单来讲，我们的全球人口不仅变得更多，也变得更密集，
and we will need to grow significantly more food using significantly less land and resources.
并且我们必须用更有限的土地和资源去种植更多的粮食。
Complicating our current efforts to address these major demographic shifts are the challenges facing the agricultural industry today.
当前农业面临的挑战使我们当前应对这些重大人口变化的努力复杂化了。
Globally, one third of all the food that we produce is wasted,
从全球来看，我们生产的食物有1/3被浪费了，
acquitting to 1.6 billion tons of food that spoiled on the way to the market or expired in our refrigerators
相当于16亿吨的食物在运往市场的途中烂掉，或者躺在我们的冰箱里过期，
or were simply thrown out by supermarkets and restaurants at the end of the day.
又或者被超市和餐饮在每天打烊时丢弃掉。
Every single year, up to 600 million people will get sick eating contaminated food,
每年，多达6亿的人因为吃被污染的食物而患病，
highlighting the challenge that we have of maintaining global food safety.
凸显了我们维持全球食品安全的挑战。
And, maybe unsurprisingly, the agricultural industry is the single largest consumer of fresh water, accounting for 70 percent of global usage.
此外，大家不难想象，农业产业是最大的单一淡水消费领域，占全球使用量的70%。
Now, you'll be relieved to know that the agricultural industry and that the global movement by universities, companies and NGOs
听到下面的消息你可能会感到轻松一些：农业产业以及由大学、公司和非营利组织发起的全球运动
is putting together comprehensive research and developing novel technology to address all of these issues.
正在推动全面的研究和开发新的技术来解决这些问题。
And many have been doing it for decades.
很多机构已经致力于这个领域长达几十年。
But one of the more recent innovations in food production being deployed in industrial parks in North America,
但最近有一个食物生产方面的创新被部署在了北美的工业园区，
in the urban city centers of Asia, and even in the arid deserts of the Middle East is controlled environment agriculture.
在亚洲的城市中心，甚至是中东干旱的沙漠中，那就是可控环境农业。
Controlled environment agriculture is actually just a fancy way of saying weather- or climate-proof farming,
可控环境农业是对不受天气或者环境影响的农业的花俏叫法，
and many of these farms grow food three-dimensionally in vertical racks, as opposed to the two dimensions of conventional farms.
与传统的二维农场不同，许多这样的农场在垂直的架子上立体地种植粮食作物。
And so this type of food production is also referred to as indoor vertical farming.
所以这种类型的食物生产模式也叫做室内垂直农场。
I've been involved in the indoor vertical farming space for the past five and a half years,
在过去5年半的时间里，我一直涉足室内垂直农场领域，
developing technology to make this type of food production more efficient and affordable.
开发能让这种类型的食物生产更加高效和低成本的技术。
This picture was taken outside of a decommissioned shipping container
这张照片是在一个废弃的集装箱外面拍的，
that we converted into an indoor farm and then launched into the heart and the heat of Dubai.
我们把它改造成了一个室内农场，然后把它运到迪拜的中心和高温地区。
Indoor vertical farming is a relatively recent phenomena, commercially speaking,
从商业角度讲，室内垂直农场是最近才出现的现象，
and the reason for this is that consumers care more about food safety and where their food comes from,
原因在于消费者越来越关注食物安全和他们食物的产地，
and also, the necessary technology to make this possible is more readily available and lower cost,
并且让这一切成为可能的必要技术也已经变得更容易获取，更廉价；
and the overall cost of food production globally is actually increasing, making this type of food production more competitive.
另外，全球食物生产的成本其实在增加，使得这类食物生产更具竞争力。
So if you want to build an indoor vertical farm,
所以如果你想要建造室内垂直农场，
you will need to replace some of the conventional elements of farming with artificial substitutes, starting with sunlight.
你将需要用人工替代品取代传统的农场元素，从阳光开始。
In indoor vertical farms, natural sunlight is replaced with artificial lighting like LEDs.
在室内垂直农场，自然光源由LED这样的人工光源代替。
While there are many different types of LEDs being used,
虽然有许多不同类型的LED被使用，
the one that we decided to install here is called "full spectrum LEDs,"
我们决定安装在这里的叫做“全光谱LED”，
which was optimized for the type of vegetables that we were growing.
专门针对我们种植的蔬菜进行了优化。
Also, in order to maximize production for a given space,
同时，为了在给定空间中最大化产出，
indoor vertical farms also utilize and install racking systems to grow vegetables vertically,
室内垂直农场也会利用和安装货架系统来立体种植蔬菜，
and some of the biggest facilities stack their production 14 to 16 floors high.
有些最大的设施把它们的产品排布到14-16层楼高。
Now most of these farms are hydroponic or aeroponic systems, which means that instead of using soil,
这些农场大多是水培或气培系统，这意味着使用的不是土壤，
they use a substitute material like polyurethane sponges, biodegradable peat moss
而是聚氨酯海绵，可生物降解的泥煤苔之类的替代材料，
and even use inorganic materials like perlite and clay pellets.
甚至是无机材料，如珍珠岩和粘土球团。
Another unique aspects about these farms is that
这些农场的另一个独特之处是，
they use a precise nutrient formula that is circulated and recycled throughout the facility,
它们使用的精准养分配方在整个设施内不断被循环和回收，
and this is pumped directly to the vegetables' root zone to promote plant growth.
并直接输送到蔬菜的根部来促进植物的生长。
And lastly, these farms use a sophisticated monitoring and automation system
最后，这些农场使用复杂的监控和自动化系统，
to significantly increase productivity, efficiency and consistency,
显著提高了产量、效率和一致性，
and these tools also provide the added benefit of producing food that is more traceable and safe.
这些工具也会给生产的食物带来更容易追踪和更安全的额外好处。

Some of the obvious benefits of growing food in this way is that
这种方式培育粮食作物的一些明显的好处是，
you have year-round vegetable production, you have consistent quality and you have predictable output.
你全年都可以生产蔬菜，且品质一致，你还可以预测产出。
Some of the other major benefits include significant resource use efficiencies, particularly water.
其他一些主要好处包括显著的资源利用效率，尤其是水。
For every kilogram of vegetables grown in this way,
以这种方式种植的每公斤蔬菜，
hundreds of liters of water is conserved compared to conventional farming methods.
与传统的耕作方法相比，可以节省数百公升的水。
And with the water savings come similar savings in the use of fertilizer.
在省水的同时，化肥的使用也有所下降。
One of the highest-yielding farms grows over 350 times more food per square meter than a conventional farm.
一个产量最高的农场每平方米种植的粮食比传统农场高350多倍。
And weatherproofing means complete control of incoming contaminants and pests,
耐候性意味着完全控制外来的污染和害虫，
completely eliminating the need for the use of chemical pesticides.
完全不需要使用化学杀虫剂。
And not to be mistaken, these farms can produce enormous amounts of food,
需要澄清的是，这些农场可以生产大量的食物，
with one of the biggest facilities producing 30,000 heads of vegetables a day.
最大的一个工厂每天可生产3万颗蔬菜。
However, as with any new technology or innovation, there are some drawbacks.
然而，跟任何新的技术或创新一样，这项技术也存在一些不足。
As you would imagine, growing food in this way can be incredibly energy-intensive.
你应该可以想象，以这种方式种植食物会消耗大量的能量。
Also, these farms can only produce a small variety of vegetables commercially
此外，这些农场只能商业化生产少量品种的蔬菜，
and the overall cost of the production still is quite high. And in order to address these issues,
且整体的生产成本仍然相当高。为了解决这些问题，
some of the biggest and most sophisticated farms are making significant investments, starting with energy efficiency.
一些最大、最先进的农场做了大规模的投资，从能源效率开始。
In order to reduce the high energy usage,
为了降低过高的能源消耗，
there are efforts to develop higher-efficiency LEDs, to develop lasers optimized for plant growth
人们尝试着开发更高效的LED，开发适合植物生长的激光器，
and using even fiber-optic cables like these to channel sunlight directly into an indoor vertical farm during the day
并且使用像这样的光纤电缆在白天将阳光直接导入室内垂直农场
to reduce the need for artificial lighting.
以减少对人工照明的需求。
Also, to reduce the labor costs associated with hiring a more sophisticated, more urban and also more high-skilled labor force,
同样，为了降低因雇佣更加熟练、更城市化和拥有更高技能的劳动力所带来的高成本，
robotics in automation is used extensively in large-scale facilities.
机器自动化在大型设施中得到了广泛应用。
And you can never really be too resource-efficient.
你永远不可能实现资源的真正高效利用。
Building indoor vertical farms in and around urban city centers can help to shorten the agricultural supply chain
将室内垂直农场建在都市或都市周边可以帮助缩短农业供应链，
and also help to maintain the nutritional content in vegetables.
并有助于维持蔬菜的营养含量。
Also, there are food deserts in many countries that have little to no access to nutritious vegetables,
此外，在很多国家都存在食物沙漠地区，那里的人没法得到有营养的蔬菜，
and as this industry matures, it will become possible to provide more equitable access to high-quality, highly nutritious vegetables
随着这个行业的成熟，高质量、高营养的蔬菜供应的提供变得可能，
in even the most underprivileged of communities.
即便是最贫穷的社区也可以。
And finally, and this is really exciting for me personally,
最后，也是我个人尤为兴奋的一点，
indoor vertical farming can actually be integrated seamlessly into the cityscape
室内垂直农场可以与城市景观进行无缝融合，
to help repurpose idle, underutilized and unused urban infrastructure.
来帮助重新利用闲置、未充分利用和未使用的城市基础设施。
In fact, this is already happening today.
事实上，目前这样的事已经在发生了。
Ride-sharing services have taken hundreds of thousands of cars off the road
共享汽车服务减少了数百万辆汽车的出行，
and they have significantly reduced the need for parking.
并且显著减少了对停车空间的需求。
This is a farm that we installed in central Beijing
这个我们在北京市中心安装的农场
in an underutilized underground parking structure to grow vegetables for the nearby hotels.
位于一个未被充分利用的地下停车场，用于为附近的酒店种植蔬菜。
Underutilized infrastructure is not simply limited to large-scale civil engineering projects,
未充分利用的基础设施不仅限于大型土木工程项目，
and they can also include smaller spaces like idle restaurant corners.
它们也可以包括较小的空间，如空闲的餐厅角落。
This is an example of a farm that we installed directly into the partition of a hotel entrance
这是一个我们直接安装在酒店入口隔墙的农场，
in order to grow fresh herbs and microgreens on-site for the chefs.
用来给厨师们现场提供新鲜的香料和蔬菜。
Honestly, if you look around, you will find underutilized space everywhere,
老实说，如果你环顾四周，你会发现到处都是未被充分利用的空间
under, around and inside of urban developments.
城区的地下、周围和内部。
This is a farm that we installed into an empty office corner to grow fresh vegetables for the employees in nearby cafes.
这是我们安装在空置的办公室角落来为附近咖啡馆的员工种植新鲜蔬菜的农场。
I get to be a part of all these cool projects and working in the agricultural industry
我有幸成为了农业产业中这些超酷项目的一员，
to improve access and affordability to fresh and nutritious produce, hopefully soon by anyone anywhere,
协助提高新鲜营养农产品的普及度和可负担性，希望很快能惠及任何地方的任何人，
has been the greatest joy and also the most humbling and intellectually challenging thing I've ever done.
这是我所做过的最快乐，也是最谦卑和最具挑战的事情。
And now that I've convinced you that agriculture can be quite sexy,
现在我已经证明了农业也可以非常性感，
you'll be surprised and shocked to know that
但你们也会很惊讶，甚至很震惊的发现，
I still have trouble fully articulating how and why I decided to work, and continue to work, in the agricultural industry.
我仍然很难去充分阐明我是如何，以及为什么决定在农业产业工作，并将持续工作下去。
But a couple of years ago, I found a rather unique answer hiding in plain sight.
但在几年前，我无意间找到了一个相当独特的答案。
You see, I read an article about how your name, particularly your last name,
我阅读过一篇文章，是关于你的名字，尤其是你的姓氏，
can have a strong influence on everything from your personality to your professional career.
如何对你的性格，你的专业领域等一切事情产生强大的影响。
This is my Japanese last name: Oda.
这是我的日语姓氏：Oda。
And the characters translate literally into "small farm." Thank you.
这个词在字面上的翻译是“小农场”。谢谢。