DEEP BENEATH THE STREETS OF LONDON, in a complex of bomb shelters left abandoned since the Second World War, something is growing. Thousands of green sprouts burst from their hydroponic trays, stretching towards glowing pink lights that line the arched ceilings. These plants, along with tens of thousands of other salad crops, are being grown from seed without soil or sunlight, in tunnels transformed into a high-tech commercial farm.
The farm is known as Growing Underground (GU), and it’s located 33 m below the main street in Clapham, a south London suburb. Every year, in 560 m2 of old bomb shelter, more than 90 metric tons of pea shoots, garlic chives, coriander, broccoli, wasabi mustard, arugula, fennel, red mustard, pink stem radishes, watercress, sunflower shoots, and salad leaves are sown,…