Here’s a provocative question: What if we needed far less water to grow food, and what if farmers did it indoors?

Commerical real estate investment trust Realty Income (O.N) will partner with Softbank-backed vertical farming startup Plenty Unlimited Inc to invest up to $1 billion to build farming space leased to the startup, the companies said on Tuesday. As part of the agreement, Realty Income will invest $42 million into Plenty's strawberry farm near Richmond, Virginia, marking the South San Fransciso-based startup's first facility on the East Coast.

Scaling up doesn’t always mean building up and out; sometimes it can involve investing in the capacity to dive deep into research and ask the right questions. Case in point: California-based indoor grower Plenty Unlimited Inc. has spent nearly a decade learning the ropes and evolving its approach to indoor agriculture and recently has jumped on an opportunity to grow by making a big investing in R&D.

Agriculture and food systems are on the edge due to climate change, soil degradation, and the loss of productive farmland. But Plenty’s Chief Science Officer, Nate Storey, has a solution. He talked to Nick Bradley about how he and his team of vertical farmers are planning to grow enough fresh food for everyone, everywhere