Innovative Indoor Horticultural Systems (iHORT) for the 21st Century

Abstract

With the increasing global population, urbanization, the current unsustainable and expansive agricultural practices would be expected to further elevate the risk of food and nutritional insecurity of the global population, which is recognized as a global threat for the 21st century. This paper reviews the demographic changes, urbanization, sustainability of the conventional agricultural systems, the environmental and resource implications and presents possible sustainable alternatives. While this is still in its infancy, we present a potential integrated, innovative model where the universities, technologists, innovators, investors, municipal councils, provincial and federal governments all can collectively engage, creating iHORT ecosystem to develop an Innovative Horticulture (iHORT) systems that could impact the global society in advancing sustainable horticultural systems for the 21st century and beyond providing food and nutritional security irrespective of any location on this planet, under any dire environmental conditions reducing the carbon footprint. In addition to developing innovative technologies, adopting a cluster business model and flexible, life-long educational approaches would be beneficial for the success of the industry.