Emirates Is Building a Farm to Feed Passengers

Next year, Emirates will break a record for vertical farming when the airline completes its massive indoor farm in Dubai meant to provide the food for all the air lines’s flights; the farm is expected to be the equivalent of 900 acres, producing three tons of leafy greens daily, more sustainably than traditional farming.

Beginning in 2019, passengers on Emirates flights and guests in the air lines’s lounges will be eating farm-fresh food thanks to a new initiative with Crop One Holdings. Emirates Flight Catering and Crop One Holdings are joining forces to invest $40 million into a record-breaking indoor vertical farm in Dubai. And it will be highly sustainable, using less water than traditional farms and skipping the need for soil, sunlight, and chemicals.

The farm is expected to be about the equivalent of 900 acres, growing three tons of leafy greens every day that are herbicide and pesticide free. For the United Arab Emirates, it’s an opportunity to become more self-sustainable as a country. Currently, 85 percent of the country’s food is imported—this will provide an option to grow a large amount within the country itself.

“This investment to build and operate the world’s largest vertical farming facility aligns with the UAE’s drive for more agricultural self-sufficiency, a vision which began with the late His Highness Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE’s founding father,” Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates’ chairman and chief executive said in a release reported by Travel+Leisure. “The introduction of ground-breaking technology at the facility also enhances Dubai’s position as a global innovation hub.”

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