Sustainably feeding the planet is becoming increasingly difficult. 800 million people go hungry everyday. 1/4 of the world lacks proper nutrients to live a healthy life, and the world's population is expected to reach 9 billion people by the year 2050. With these inevitable stresses on the agriculture industry, farming practices are becoming extremely inefficient, degrading precious lands and soil, creating wastes far greater than its production, and using 70 percent of the world's water consumption. At this rate, we will need twice as much water to meet food demands by 2050.

A sustainable food solution must be developed to insure affordable access to food for everyone; Agreco is that solution. Agreco [Aah-grih-co] is a sustainable ecosystem for food growth that can be valuable at the home, city and industrial scales. Marketed for home use, Agreco can make home scaled agriculture an attractive commodity. Home scaled agriculture allows the user freedom to grow more than one type of crop, which makes it healthier, cheaper, and more organic than current industrial agriculture practices; Agreco insures an easier and less time consuming experience than traditional gardening. Agreco is different from any greenhouse or home gardening setup, because it is carefully designed to recapture the water it evaporates (--why use machines and chemicals to do what nature already does). Similar to a pot top, the top of Agreco uses gravity to collect condensation and feeds it back into the ecosystem, keeping soil fertile while saving time and resources. Agreco is lined with cellophane and recycled glass, and made from shrilk: a strong, lightweight, clear, cheap and biodegradable material developed from shrimp shells. Materials and thermoform manufacturing easily cuts more costs and is ecologically more efficient than any competitor.

Although this product can be paired with modern technology to monitor crop growth, maintain heat in cool environments, and automate tasks, technology is not necessary for it to function. This idea of an enclosed mimicked water cycle efficiently solves the problems of monoculture: unsustainable water usage, soil degredation, the increasing need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, runoff, and erosion. It also creates a cheap durable product for a variety of users ranging from financially stable households to developing countries that have accumulating problems of hunger and malnutrition. It's a large task, but imagine Agreco as popular as recycling bins in the United States. Since it does not necessarily require technology, it can be scaled easily for mass markets.

Thinking on the industrial scale, this product could eliminate the need for large machines and fossil fuels to harvest crops; it would create jobs, and with 9 billion people, and a diminishing career field, this is something that the economy and environment needs to sustain food demands in an eco-friendly way. Agreco is a simple product that can bring together local and cross-national farmers, government and civil society to solve the challenging problems of the agriculture industry. With simplicity, the world can be exposed to a beautifully functional society.