Why You Should Hope Your Next Tomato's Grown Indoors by Robots

If you were inventing the farm today, why would you put it outside, on a giant plot of land? OK, there's the sunlight thing, but then you get droughts and frosts and plant-munching insects that have to be battled with harmful pesticides. And because outdoor farms need so much acreage, they're usually far from most of their customers -- which means that by the time a tomato gets to you in a city, it tastes like a baseball. But now, upstarts such as Bowery farming, AeroFarms, and Lettuce Networks are doing something different. They're using data and artificial intelligence to operate more efficiently than traditional farms. The new generation of farming promises to feed more people while doing less environmental damage.