This Pita Bread May Herald the End of Farming as We Know It - Israel News - Haaretz.com

A European startup founded by Israelis is growing wheat in closed, urban spaces, without soil or sunlight. There’s a long way to go, and the energy crisis is a formidable obstacle, but the end of agriculture as we know it may be on the horizon, and with it enhanced food security for the planet and maybe even the return of primal, natural landscapes

At midday on January 20, 2023, in Berlin, I ate a warm pita that had just emerged from the oven. Eating pita, it need hardly be said, is not an exceptional act that merits a public announcement – either in Israel, Germany or in other places around the world where this Middle Eastern flatbread has become popular. But I had witnessed the entire process of producing this pita – from the stage of harvesting the wheat, via separation of the chaff from the seeds to the grinding of the flour, the kneading of the dough and the baking – from a variety of wheat cultivated for NASA researchers in space. And it grew not under the open sky but in a habitat that was impervious to sunlight, in a controlled, artificial environment.