An interview with Richard Ballard and Steven Dring, founders of Growing Underground, one of Forward Fooding’s top 500 Food Tech startups.

Richard Ballard and Steven Dring, founders of Growing Underground

It’s time to put a face to the name…

We asked our FoodTech 500 top-runners to give us a bit of insight into how they started out as a company and their thoughts on the role of technology in Food innovation. Meet Richard and Steven, the power-duo behind Growing Underground, producing fresh micro herbs and baby leaf for the local foodservice markets and retailers nationwide. Let’s see what the founders had to say.

So tell us a little bit more about you! Where did the idea for your FoodTech company come from?

Richard and Steven: We are childhood friends from Bristol, where we grew up together. Before we started Growing Underground, Steven worked in PLCs in London while Richard had a high-end garden furniture import business. Following the collapse of Richard’s business, owing to the financial crash of 2008, he subsequently moved to London to start a film degree, which his friends joked was his mid-life crisis.

Reunited in London, regular sessions in the pub between the old friends had us frequently discussing doing something more meaningful in life and we proved particularly interested in the idea of vertical farming. While Richard had become very interested in sustainability and urban space, both of us were alarmed to read a UN publication, which estimated that there are only 30-40 years of good yields left based on current soil degradation trends. And so, with this, an idea was hatched and with no prior experience in growing anything before in our lives, we decided to give Urban Farming a go.

It soon transpired to us that cost for vertical farming in high-rise buildings as was envisaged by Dickson Despommier was not in any way viable, so we looked to the ground beneath us and explored the hidden options London had to offer. Richard had already been investigating this for his own film degree which looked into ‘Hidden London’ and derelict spaces, prompting him to chase up BT, TFL and other companies to gain access to various tunnels all across central London.

Eventually, we got in contact with someone from TFL which did not think our idea sounded too far-fetched. From there, the idea of Growing Underground took shape and once a trial site was found in Clapham North, with the help of an agronomist, Chris Nelson, we began trialing our hydroponic systems. Soon after, the site where the farm currently operates was offered to us by TFL and with the trials proving successful we went for it and managed to build what became the world’s first underground farm. Now the farm supplies major retailers up and down the UK and continues to supply local restaurants, cafes, and hotels. 

How is tech central to your business?

Richard and Steven: Technology is central to two aspects. The first is in regard to the farm’s infrastructure. The farm itself was designed and built with the expertise of Chris Nelson making use of technological advancements to make urban farming a reality. Technology is the cornerstone that has pushed vertical farming into a viable way of growing plants. If it were not for developments in LED technology, water irrigation and ventilation, the costs and ability to grow plants in this way would not be feasible. 

Secondly, technology is central from a data-gathering perspective, which allows us to fine-tune the whole operation. As a Controlled Environment Farm, Growing Underground is able to use technology to monitor, adjust and control all aspects of the Environment. We can analyse and adjust temperature, humidity, airflow, etc… As such we can continually make the necessary adjustments to ensure the optimum growing conditions. 

Why do you think it’s important to see the food industry embrace tech?

Richard and Steven: There are going to be 9 billion people on the planet, most of whom will live in cities. Growing Underground believes that we have to get smart about the way we produce food for the growing population.

Technology is vital for improving all elements of food production, from growing, packaging, safety and shelf life. Yet, more importantly, it can also help to innovate, making smarter use of the tools we already have at our disposal. From our perspective, technology has helped Growing Underground to make use of a forgotten space and turn it into a food-producing site for low-carbon hyper-local consumption. Furthermore, continual advancements in technology are helping various aspects of the business to become more efficient and get ever closer to reaching our goal of producing Zero Carbon Food.

Overall, Growing Underground can be seen to be part of a wider food revolution, which strives towards a better way of producing food. A central aspect to this revolution is technology and across the whole agriculture industry changes are beginning to take shape. 

Want to know more? Check out Growing Underground’s full profile here.

Congratulations again to Growing Underground for ranking 4th in the “Agtech” category of the Foodtech 500 list.

To find out who else made it into the FoodTech 500; the top Food Tech companies in the world, click here.

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