By: Billy BeerSlugger
As far back as 2007 I have been captivated by the idea of Vertical Farming. After all, it only makes sense given that no one is making any more land and the population continues to rise exponentially. Just as man has taken urban living and working quarters to the skies so soon will farming. If you take a patch of land using traditional farming methods you can only grow as much product as the land will allow. However, if you take that same land area and farm vertically, you can produce many times that amount. On top of all this you can produce the product all year round instead of just in the weather permitting seasons.
In an ever carbon-footprint, green conscious world, building these structures seems absolutely logical given the amount of fuel it takes to cultivate and transport our current food supply. Instead of lugging produce hundreds of miles by trailer or truck it could be delivered by foot, bike and other more environmentally methods over hundreds of yards instead. Even better you could just purchase the produce from the Vertical Farm itself, cutting out the middle man exchange.
There’s also a wealth of benefits from growing products indoors instead of outdoors. One of the most significant being that it all but eliminates the need for harmful pesticides. Inside you can better control what can come into contact with your produce. Everything produced in the Vertical Farm would be considered “Organic”.
Another significant advantage is the use and reclamation of water. With traditional farming methods, excess water used to hydrate plants either seeps back into the water table below ground or evaporates back into the atmosphere. One of the biggest costs of farming is water and one of the biggest costs of water is water being treated to the point where it is safe enough to drink and use. Using an indoor, vertical farming system, excess water can be reclaimed and reused over and over again.
Some farms have begun using a Hydrophonic method of producing veggies without soil at all. Produce is grown in nutrient rich water cutting down the need for the process of constantly re-enriching soil. Also, without soil and with water being transparent farmers can make sure there is nothing contaminating the soil, just taking regular water readings to ensure it is not contaminated.
There are a number of other benefits including using local food wastes from restaurants and fast food type places and composting them inside the vertical farm, cutting down on waste/trash which doesn’t have to be hauled away to a dump and also eliminates trash for rats, mice and cockroaches to live on in urban areas.
With the world facing an ever increasing population along with the somewhat antiquated and vulnerable methods of traditional farming it will be interesting to see when the first of these major Vertical Farms will be built and where. It is only a matter of time though in my opinion and is a most logical one at that.
Dickson Despommier is a leader in this movement and you can get more information on his website http://verticalfarm.com/ including more illustrations/designs of what Vertical Farming would look like.