Interested in ecology, the environment, and global warming? Then you need to know about Vertical Farming! V-farming is the evolution of every earlier hi-tech farming system. You need less land, little or no pesticides, and just a trickle of water. It COULD be the magic bullet environmentalist have been praying for. But is it too good to be true? Can vertical Farming really repair two centuries of environmental abuse… and save the world? Let’s dive right in and see possible!
Humans started out as hunter-gatherers, finding food in the forests and woods. 12,000 years ago humans settled down and grew what we needed. Or tried to. In order to increase productivity, we needed to change the environment. First, we invented irrigation and boosted crop productivity. Then we grew whole fields with just one type of crop, making wheat, rice, barley, and other grains our staple foods.
As the human population continued to expand, we began to “tweak” the natural world. Like learning the best time to plant, and how to control pests that ate our crops. Productivity rose! With more food, our population rose again, and again, and again. Specialized seeds that worked the best in every area. Next, we altered the seeds themselves. We started by choosing the best seeds for every climate, then we created hybrid seeds, and eventually manipulated their genetics to grow more food.
All of this specialization made us vulnerable to droughts and crop-specific pests. New pesticides killed these invaders, and productivity soared again. Now we are running short of water and the land is often exhausted through continuous use.
Heavier use of farm equipment forced more food from the land, but it also tore up the structure of the soil, allowing valuable soil to be washed away by rain and artificial irrigation. Does soil erosion matter? Indeed it does! It takes 50 gallons of water to grow a single almond. Not only do farmers need to pay for water, but as the soil becomes more eroded, farms cannot remain financially profitable.
In the mid-west, some land has lost 100 feet of soil. When you have less than a foot of topsoil, productivity drops. Plus groundwater adds salts to the land, which also degrade the soil, and eventually kills all plants.
https://www.agweb.com/world-running-out-of-farmland/
Soil degradation and erosion destroy 38,000 square miles of farmland around the world every year. As bad as that sounds, for every foot of land that becomes “dead”, several feet of farmland become degraded. Much of the world’s farmland has fallen from peak production and is on its way to zero production.
Today’s 7.6 billion population will 11 billion, by 2100. Every piece of productive land is already a farm. Yet, unborn billions will need more food, and land for homes, schools, factories, power plants, roads, airports, etc. American farmland is being converted into commercial and industrial land at the rate of 3 acres per minute… over a million acres a year! That is the very grim picture of farming today.
Vertical farming could provide some relief. V-farms are the evolution of hydroponics, growing crops without soil. V-farms just take the idea of a “flat” single-layer hydroponic farm and stack them on top of each other. Each layer has a stream of water (or a mist of water) that hydrates the roots and provides the nutrients the crops need to grow.
This method of stacking multiplies productivity. If you use an abandoned factory building with 20 foot high ceilings, you can stack 4, 5, or more vertical farms on top of each other making the farm more cost-effective. Pretty simple really.
But, as they say on the infomercials, THERE’S MORE! Depending on your climate and your choice of crops, you may only be able to harvests crops once or twice a year. Indoors, the temperature, rain, and other factors for your V-farm are whatever you want, allowing 10 to 20 harvests a year. V-farms even use dramatically less water… an increasingly precious commodity!
Pests, mold, diseases, and storms cease to be an issue. V-farms don’t need pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals. Fewer chemicals mean higher profits and less chemical runoff into local water supplies.
Place the V-farm next to (or on top of) a supermarket and the carbon footprint for transporting food is dramatically reduced. Most of the fruits and vegetables consumed on the East coast come from the West coast… 3,000 miles away. Or it comes from other countries. V-farms could eliminate millions of tons of carbon emissions.
Are V-farms the perfect way to grow food? Alas… no. Where it works (and doesn’t) depends on specific circumstances. You need to create artificial sunlight. While today’s LED lights are amazingly efficient, they still burn power, and electricity will be a primary cost.
If you live near coal-fired power plants, there are more tradeoffs. If you are surrounded by cheap hydro, wind, or solar power, AND there are abandoned factories nearby, you can have a very successful V-farm that delivers huge environmental benefits. Of course, if you build a V-farm in a low-income urban environment, where fresh fruits and vegetables are hard to find, you get extra points!
Vertical farms may not be perfect, but they are going to be a part of So it may not be perfect, but vertical farms are going to be a part of the future of farming. What about you? Want to use your roof as a farm? How about making your high school grow its own produce? Hey, why not? The world’s not going to save itself!