Agriculture | Are Indoor Farms Set To Become All-In-One Biological Factories?

Machine-driven factories, supported by multi-point supply chains, have been the backbone of modern manufacturing since the Industrial Revolution. Between then and now, few significant innovations have taken place—two, in fact: Henry Ford’s moving assembly line, introduced in 1913, and the integration of robotics in the early 1960s. 

But that all may be about to change, and not in the way you were expecting.

Indoor farming technology has been receiving a degree of fanfare as of late, whilst novel applications—specifically, biomanufacturing—have slipped under the radar. This is despite the fact that it may be one of the few solutions for making manufacturing a truly green or possibly carbon-neutral process.

So, What Are Biological Factories?

Biological factories are production facilities that merge living systems with industrial processes to create materials and products in a truly sustainable way. In these settings, scientists engineer and grow living organisms—everything from fungi to bacteria—to serve as active components within the manufacturing process.

The core concept behind this approach is the creation of a closed‐loop system in which raw biological materials are grown, processed, and transformed into a finished product without ever leaving the factory.

The streamlined nature of this process results in minimal energy and chemical inputs, a greatly reduced carbon footprint, and the exclusive use of easily recyclable materials. It's a significant step away from traditional methods that rely on complicated global supply chains to extract and process raw materials, often at substantial environmental cost.

Bio-Factories: What Does The Sector Look Like Today? 

Although biomanufacturing holds considerable promise, it remains in the developmental stages and is likely to require at least half a decade before fully maturing. A fact reflected by current market valuations, which place the sector at $23 billion in 2025, with projections to nearly double to $44 billion by 2035.

Part of the reason for this snail-paced progress (in comparison with the rest of the tech industry) isn't so much the technology itself but rather a lack of investment. Building a fully integrated one-stop-shop production model is not impossible; it is just expensive.

Bolt Threads was, up until a few years ago, the market leader in the sector, boasting partnerships with companies from Adidas to Stella McCartney. However, in 2023, they hit pause, citing economic pressures and a shortfall of funding, despite, in the CEO's own words, being “devastatingly close” to reaching commercial scale.

It's been the same story told by countless start-ups that seem to perpetually rise and fall in the sector. However, the death song of the industry has yet to be sung, and there remain two key companies spearheading the field.

MycoWorks is currently the largest and most advanced player in the production of mycelium‐based textiles, a material type that has the feel and properties of leather.

The biomanufacturing process means that the characteristics of the end product—ranging from colour and thickness to elasticity—can be easily altered by modifying the growing conditions.

Courtesy of MycoWorks

It's this flexibility that makes the material so appealing to a number of industries looking to go green, with a use potential in everything from furniture to apparel.

It's expected that mycelium textile technology will become increasingly prominent as the global community looks to develop a more sustainable approach to meat farming. By the end of the next decade, this could mean a complete transition to lab‐based production, thereby generating a shortfall of leather that will need to be addressed. With the only viable alternatives being plastic or bio‐friendly mushrooms, it is fairly obvious where the cards will fall.

Alongside Mycoworks is Spiber, a company leading in a different market within the same sector: protein fibre—not the kind you eat, but the kind you wear.

The process blends synthetic biology with traditional fermentation techniques by using engineered microorganisms to produce customised protein sequences similar to those found in natural silk. The resulting material can be spun into fibres that are used on their own or blended to make clothes and textiles.

Courtesy of Spiber

This infinitely recyclable, plant-based product could, over time, be produced as cheaply—or even more cheaply—than man-made materials such as polyester and nylon, with the added benefit of easy integration into factory complexes.

Bio-Factories: What Are The Challenges?

While the technology has the potential to address a number of the world's ecological and environmental problems, it is expensive, requiring huge upfront investments in order to achieve viable economies of scale and develop more efficient practices. Which is why it's currently pigeon-holed as a luxury statement piece rather than a mass-use product.

Another hurdle to the technology is the successful implementation of a closed‐loop system—a process that poses significant logistical and financial challenges in the short term. Its introduction would also disrupt existing global supply chains, delivering a body blow to cheap overseas labour markets in countries such as China and India.

This is because bio‐factories require skilled and technical labour. Once transport costs, tariffs, and the relative parity in skilled wages are taken into account, outsourcing production may become economically unviable and negate one of the technology’s key selling points—a low carbon footprint.

The TLDR: Are Indoor Farms Set To Become All-In-One Biological Factories? 

In short, yes. The fact of the matter is that global warming is a pressing issue, and the non-renewable resources upon which the modern world has been built are running out. As such, we will have to do what other species have done for millennia—adapt.

Bio-manufacturing is perhaps the only viable method for replacing our use of plastic and synthetic fibres in a number of textile‐related industries. Whether this technology transitions from being a luxury to a mass‐use product in the next decade, or—more likely—at the eleventh hour, depends on the investments companies are willing to make and on the pressure the public is prepared to put on them.

Exactly what this change might mean for the economy and workforce of developing countries, such as China and India, remains unclear.

Citations:

1. Future Market Insights. (2025, April). Next-generation biomanufacturing market trends 2025 to 2035. Retrieved from https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/next-generation-biomanufacturing-market 

   > The source was used to verify both the current market value of the biomanufacturing sector in 2025 and its projected growth by 2035.

2. Chan, E., & Webb, B. (2023, June 30). Stella McCartney-backed leather alternative Mylo halts production. Vogue Business. https://www.voguebusiness.com/sustainability/stella-mccartney-backed-leather-alternative-mylo-halts-production-bolt-threads-kering-ganni-adidas-lululemon 

   > The source was used to verify details regarding Bolt Thread’s pause in biomaterial manufacture.

3. MycoWorks. (2025). An advanced materials platform. https://www.mycoworks.com/fine-mycelium-an-advanced-materials-platform 

   > The source was used to verify information regarding the production methods of MycoWorks' mycelium products.

4. Spiber Inc. (n.d.). Protein. Retrieved May 21, 2025, from https://spiber.inc/en/protein

   > The source was used to verify information regarding the production methods of Spibers’ protein fibre products.