Long before controlled environment agriculture had a name, Paris was feeding itself. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Parisian market gardeners cultivated intensive kitchen gardens just outside the city walls.
Using hotbeds beneath glass cloches, they extended the growing season through winter. Through continuous planting and dense intercropping, a small plot could produce extraordinary yields year-round for millions of people nearby.
They were solving the same problem we are working on. The answer then was intelligence, craft, and adaptation. The answer now is the same — with better sensors, better lighting, better data. We are not inventing a new approach to food. We are finishing one that never should have stopped.