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80 Acres Farms Head of Operations Noah Zelkind speaks at United Nations headquarters in New York City on Friday, July 10, 2026. His presentation at a High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development side event, \u201cHumanity at the Center,\u201d focused on how vertical farming has moved from concept to large-scale reality. CONTRIBUTED<\/p>\n
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Hamilton\u2019s 80 Acres Farms took its vertical farming message to United Nations headquarters this month, presenting how technology can reshape food systems at a global forum on sustainable development.<\/p>\n
The company presented at High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development side event, \u201cHumanity at the Center,\u201d on July 10 about how vertical farming can advance sustainable food production.<\/p>\n
80 Acres Farms Head of Operations Noah Zelkind detailed how vertical farming has moved from concept to large-scale reality, starting out by noting the achievements and shortcomings of modern food systems.<\/p>\n
Zelkind said that public health challenges have shifted, with hunger declining but nutrition problems remaining widespread. He said that technology must play a bigger role in driving progress toward healthier outcomes.<\/p>\n
To test vertical farming\u2019s potential, 80 Acres Farms planted identical seeds in outdoor farms, greenhouses and vertical farms, Zelkind said. A subsequent nutritional analysis by the University of Auburn showed the vertical farm produce was not only similar, but \u201cactually healthier,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was actually higher nutritional content in the vertical farm produce, and that was when we realized that we didn\u2019t just have an opportunity to do something, but really had a responsibility to try and help create this technology so that it can be delivered all around the world,\u201d Zelkind said.<\/p>\n
He said the company began with proof-of-concept trials, scaling rapidly through multiple small farms to refine its systems. After trial and error, it developed efficient, sustainable methods and built in Ohio what Zelkind described as \u201cthe world\u2019s first profitable vertical farm at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, the Hamilton-based company expanded nationwide, producing millions of pounds of food annually, he said.<\/p>\n
What the company set about to build, Zelkind said, is something it calls \u201cPlantopia\u201d: farms that use 95% less water, no pesticides or GMOs and deliver food three times faster with yields 100 times larger on a smaller footprint.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve now built the infrastructure that is generating plant data at a quality that has never before existed, and so now we\u2019re able to start to use AI to understand what plants want, so we can continue to grow them more and more efficiently, and the impact is already becoming real,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said 80 Acres Farms has saved \u201cliterally over 100 million gallons of water\u201d and prevented \u201chundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds of food waste.\u201d<\/p>\n