In 2011 a Tsunami hit the northeast coast of Japan and devastated the country. It caused a massive nationwide food shortage among many other tragedies.

Planet Earth is running out of farmland. By 2050, there will be an additional 3 billion people on Earth, and we'll need land that is 20% larger than Brazil in order to grow enough food to feed everyone. 80% of the farmland that is actually capable of producing crops is already in use. Is there a solution?

One possibility is vertical farming. Vertical farming is the practice of growing food in urban centers in stacked columns. Scientists believe there are many benefits to this type of indoor farming that could potentially solve the world's imminent food crisis. It could supply enough food to feed the rapidly growing human population for thousands of years to come, it could allow current farmland to revert back to its natural state which would preserve ecosystems, and it could allow crops to be produced year-round without the detrimental effects of climate change, extreme weather, or insects.

Many countries are already putting vertical farming into practice. The U.S., Singapore, and Germany are all currently producing crops in doors. Japan was first to launch an indoor farming operation, headed by Shigeharu Shimamura, who is featured in today's episode. Shimamura had the idea for vertical farming from a young age, but was really inspired to launch his plan after the Tsunami hit Japan in 2011 and caused a massive food shortage. The disaster wiped out one of Sony's Semiconductor plants, and Shimamura actually built his vertical farm inside the old 25,000 square foot Sony building.

His method is already proving very successful. His indoor crops produce results that are 100 times greater per square foot than traditional methods, all while using 99% less water. This is a very exciting advancement in agricultural technology. If it continues, it will help feed the 10 billion people expected to live on this earth in the next few decades.