Peter Barber is used to deadlines after decades working in video editing and production. But last year, the 52-year-old Australian was up against it with systems of a very different sort. In Singapore, he and his team are pioneering a hybrid rooftop farm. When the build finished on June 30, they had until the end of October to prove to the Singapore government they could grow 200 tonnes of leafy greens and herbs a year.

“We had only four months to operationalise the site, solve problems and grow at full capacity. It takes six to eight weeks to go from seed to harvest, so we had only two cycles to get it right. Internally, we called the target Project Moonshot because it felt like we had to build the rocket and get it to the moon on the first attempt.