At a depth of 1.1 kilometers underground, a British farm succeeds in growing lettuce inside a mine

At a depth of 1.1 kilometers beneath the coast of North Yorkshire in the United Kingdom, where experiments to detect dark matter—one of the great mysteries of modern physics—are typically conducted, scientists have begun cultivating something far simpler: lettuce. The project, located in the Boulby Underground Laboratory, is a university-led experiment by the University of Sheffield and FarmOne, testing whether mines can be converted into vertical farms capable of producing food commercially. The university describes it as the world’s deepest vertical farm. Instead of soil and sunlight, the plants grow in vertical hydroponic systems under artificial lighting. Researchers hope that the stable temperatures deep within the mine and the existing infrastructure will help reduce the heating and ventilation costs that burden traditional vertical farms.