As the climate continues to be disrupted, populations continue to multiply, and cities continue to expand — all of which are unlikely to slow down — food production and consumption are forced to assume new and more sustainable patterns, in which vertical farming plays a central role.
Thus, vertical farming is expected to continue expanding and scaling across the world. You often depict traditional outdoor farming as an unsustainable model of agriculture. To what extent and how can vertical farming contribute to the sustainability of food systems? Its first and foremost contribution is on the environment. There is a broad consensus among academia, policymakers, international organization staff, and society in general that the contemporary system of outdoor soil-based farming is unsustainable and largely responsible for climate change.
As it is well known, trees are a core element that sequesters carbon dioxide and produces oxygen, so that the destruction of forests for agricultural land use has a considerable role to play in climate change. Indoor farming, notably vertical farming, would allow us to reduce the amount of land that is necessary to feed the ever-increasing world population, which is particularly important considering that the latter is expected to grow up to 9.
Admittedly, indoor farming cannot be expected to fully replace all of the 1. For instance, rice is highly costly to grow indoors, while beef is almost impossible to raise indoors. However, it can become a considerable source of food which would decrease the need for excessive farmland usage. Indeed, other animals such as crustaceans, fish, and poultry can be produced in vertical farms, as well as cattle food — growing soy indoors could have a great impact on deforestation.
Even if indoor farming does not fully replace outdoor farming, it may well complement the food system facing the increasing pressures of demographic growth coupled with land scarcity. Not only can urban farms contribute to land use, but also to the reduction of other natural resources such as water and energy, and to the reutilization of organic waste.
Further, growing food indoor could have a significant impact on global health. Outdoor farming is one of the main causes of global diseases since half the world gets sick from vegetables contaminated with human feces. Growing food in a controlled environment would allow everyone to grow safe-to-eat, healthy food and thus decrease the number of diseases throughout the world.
Vertical farms decentralize the food system, as well as democratize the food supply, since it increases supply, lowers prices, and therefore contributes to food access to all sections of the population, including the poorest. It is also interesting to compare the advantages of vertical farms with those of other types of urban agriculture. For instance, open lots are a common way of growing food in an urban environment, as seen in La Paz Bolivia.
However, open lots are in close contact with car exhaustion, which penetrates the soil, is absorbed by plants, and consumed by people. Another example is that of building gardens on rooftops, which can only be done in regions of the world where winter temperatures are mild. While greenhouses deal with this issue, they cannot yield sufficient food to feed the increasing number of urban dwellers.
Vertical farms can be perceived as an ideal method of urban farming, as it optimizes land use and increases food density per square foot of farming space. The Sunqiao Urban Agricultural District integrates vertical farming systems in conjunction with research and public outreach in Shanghai, China. What needs to be done for vertical farming to expand?
First, the question of training and indoor farming skills is very important. Commercial vertical farms operate like any other business, and there are numerous reasons why businesses fail.
They require constant oversight of all aspects of the growing environment, as well as employing skilled and experienced staff, who can identify and correct problems in the growing system. I would suggest that schools of agriculture should offer specialized degrees in urban farming, which could not only train city dwellers to work in urban farms, but also stimulate them to work in them, further driving growth in the sector.
Commercial viability is definitely a challenge for vertical farms. There is however great hope that it can become sustainable at a large scale. Some have suggested that the energy cost of running a vertical farm makes it difficult to realize a profit.
However, as the price of electricity and LED lights become cheaper, the profitability of vertical farms will undoubtedly increase.
Diversifying the crop selection could further contribute to the success of vertical farms, since most today focus on highly productive leafy green vegetables. Next, opposition from city dwellers and politicians to urban agriculture remains common. Many assume that due to the dense, crowded, contaminated environment of cities, these are not appropriate spaces for vegetable growth.
Nevertheless, as the industry matures, indoor farming gains visibility, and the advantages of vertical farming become obvious, it will get easier to get approval for their construction from city planners and other stakeholders, so that vertical farms will gain a lasting place in urban centers. Last, vertical farms remain relatively expensive to build, maintain, and endure. These are abundant in places such as Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and the US, where people have high purchasing power.
However, the challenge now resides in spreading vertical farming to poorer populations. But vertical farming, as it requires more expensive technology, has been lagging. Expanding it to larger shares of the population, large commercial growers must step in, as well as international organizations in order to encourage it and make it more accessible. It is only a matter of time for poorer people to demand what the middle class already has access to, at the right market price, and at that point, vertical farming will emerge in cheaper forms.
According to you, how will cities look like in 50 years? I believe buildings will acquire entirely new functions in 50 years. Buildings today are functionless columns of steel, glass, and concrete which endlessly consume resources such as electricity for air conditioning and heating.
Similarly to Japan, the average age of farmers in China is a huge issue, so it needs a new approach to agriculture. There are plenty of vertical farms in China already. In , when vertical farming was on a slow rise, they already had over 80 of these farms. Companies like SananBio and Noonty have farms in China and also provide worldwide farms with LEDs, infrastructure, and other high-end technologies. In the province of Fujian, a 5, square meters large facility produces 8 to 10 tonnes of lettuce, kale, and other leafy vegetables under the sea of LED lights.
Taiwanese YesHealth iFarm is one of the most successful and one of the oldest vertical farms in the world. Their facility in Taoyuan City is the largest indoor vertical farm in Asia. It produces more than kg of green-leafed vegetables and plans on doubling its production in the near future.
Vertical farming is at an increase in Korea. There are several major companies, and the most popular ones are NextOn and Farm 8. NextOn created a vertical farm in an abandoned highway tunnel and has been dubbed as a farm under the mountain.
This tunnel, km south of Seoul, uses LEDs and semi-automatic technologies to successfully grow leafy greens, predominantly salads. Farm 8 cultivates 40 tonnes of baby-leaf vegetables, paprika, and other western miniaturized green vegetables per day. The majority of this food is produced on more than 16, m2 of land and facilities in Pyeongtaek.
Since vertical farming relies a lot on innovations in technology, you can expect a lot of news coming from South Korea regarding major progress in this field.
The estimated market size of smart agriculture in Korea is more than 5. Sky Greens is the most famous vertical farming company in Singapore, if not in the entire world. Over kg of various vegetables are produced there daily. Most plants are traditional Asian greens, like nai bai, cai xin, chinese cabbage, etc. Singapore today has over 25 indoor vertical farms.
Thailand is still a country new to the vertical farming game. NoBitter and Wangree Fresh are their most famous farming companies. NoBitter excels in kale production, while Wangree monthly produces 50 tonnes of various green vegetables. They all produce all kinds of green vegetables, such as kale, pak choi, arugula, lettuce, and various salad mixes. All kinds of colored LEDs are commonly used in the American indoor farm industry. Vertical farming has a lot of promise and sounds like the farm of the future.
However, there are a few stumbling blocks to consider before rushing full-speed ahead into vertical farming. Having greater output from a small cultivation area is not the only advantage of vertical farming. Following are some of the major benefits of vertical farming:.
Vertical farming has both pros and cons. Sometimes the pros of vertical farming are highlighted and not the cons. Following are the major limitations of vertical farming:.
The vertical farming sector is growing rapidly in the U. The industry remains highly leveraged, however, sparking concerns for its viability, when survival depends on expansion, and expansion is so capital intensive. According to the same source, "While industry leaders say scaling offers the best hope for profitability in this business, many vertical farms have encountered problems when they began planning to add additional production facilities.
Vertical farming technologies are still relatively new. Companies are yet to successfully produce crops at scale and make it economically feasible to meet the growing food demand. The performance of farms like AeroFarms will determine how important a role vertical farming will play in the future to face the challenge of growing food demand. It is worth noting, however, that technologies developed for vertical farms are also being adopted by other segments of the indoor farming sector, such as greenhouses, which can utilize natural sunlight, albeit requiring much more real estate and longer routes to market.
United Nations. Accessed Dec. Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures. Vertical Farm Institute. Columbia University Earth Institute. Kheir Al-Kodmany. Download PDF. Students Try to Answer the Question. Research and Markets.
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