UN research predicts that by 2050, the world’s population will have grown by another 2.3 billion and 66% of the world’s population will live in cities. With 80% of the world’s agricultural land already in use, Philips believes the time is now right for the innovation of new farming technologies, and has opened a research facility that could ultimately pave the way to grow carbohydrate-rich crops, like wheat and potatoes, without sunlight and indoors. Known as GrowWise City Farming, and located at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands, the newly-opened 234sq.m. state-of-the-art facility, one of the world’s largest, will initially concentrate on using Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) to optimise growth recipes for leafy vegetables, strawberries and herbs.  “The research we are undertaking will enable local food production on a global scale, reducing waste, limiting food miles and using practically no land or water,” says global director Gus van der Feltz of Philips City Farming.