EarthTalk^®
From the Editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: What is “vertical farming” and how is it better for the environment?

– Jonathan Salzman, New York, NY

“Vertical farming” is a term coined by Columbia University professor of environmental health and microbiology Dickson Despommier to describe the concept of growing large amounts of food in urban high-rise buildings—or so-called “farmscrapers.”

According to the vision first developed in 1999 by Despommier and his students, a 30-story building built on one city block and engineered to maximize year-round agricultural yield—thanks largely to artificial lighting and advanced hydroponic and aeroponic growing techniques—could feed tens of thousands of people. Ideally the recipients of the bounty would live in the surrounding area, so as to avoid the transport costs and carbon emissions associated with moving food hundreds if not thousands of miles to consumers.

“Each floor will have its own watering and nutrient monitoring systems,” Despommier elaborated to online magazine Miller-McCune.com, adding that every single plant’s health status and nutrient consumption would be tracked by sensors that would help managers ward off diseases and increase yield without the need for the chemical fertilizers and pesticides so common in traditional outdoor agriculture.

“Moreover, a gas chromatograph will tell us when to pick the plant by analyzing which flavenoids the produce contains,” Despommier said. “It’s very easy to do…These are all right-off-the-shelf technologies. The ability to construct a vertical farm exists now. We don't have to make anything new.”

With world population set to top nine billion by 2050 when 80 percent of us will live in cities, Despommier says vertical farming will be key to feeding an increasingly urbanized human race. His Vertical Farm Project claims that a vertical farm on one acre of land can grow as much food as an outdoor farm on four to six acres. Also, vertical farms, being indoors, wouldn’t be subject to the vagaries of weather and pests.

“The reason we need vertical farming is that horizontal farming is failing,” Despommier told MSNBC, adding that if current practices don’t change soon, humanity will have to devote to agriculture an area bigger than Brazil to keep pace with global food demand. Another benefit of vertical farming is that former farmland could be returned to a natural state and even help fight global warming. As agricultural land becomes forest and other green space, plants and trees there can store carbon dioxide while also serving as habitat for wildlife otherwise displaced by development.

Vertical farming is not without critics, who argue that the practice would use huge amounts of electricity for the artificial lights and machinery that would facilitate year-round harvests. Bruce Bugbee, a Utah State University crop physiologist, believes that the power demands of vertical farming—growing crops requires about 100 times the amount of light as people working in office buildings—would make the practice too expensive compared to traditional farming where the primary input, sunlight, is free and abundant. Proponents argue that vertical farms could produce their own power by tapping into local renewable sources (solar, wind, tidal or geothermal) as well as by burning biomass from crop waste.

CONTACT: The Vertical Farm Project, www.verticalfarm.com.

SEND YOUR ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONS TO: EarthTalk^®, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php. EarthTalk^® is now a book! Details and order information at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalkbook.

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written by Fran Tracy, November 30, 2009

I don't think vertical farming is reasonable. The electricity used would negate the savings in transportation and other things. You just can't beet natural farming and you can get so much more with intensive planting and successive plantings of compatable crops.
Fran

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Vertical farming
written by Ralph Sabean, November 30, 2009

In my opinion I believe this would work if done properly because with all the newer technology like "solar, wind, tidal or geothermal) as well as by burning biomass from crop waste." you named in your article the most important being Solar and Geothermal which are needed by plants to survive anyway. Wouldn't that be wonderful to be able to create garden on top of garden until we stopped because of poor upper air quality and city pollution. That being said I wonder if the quality of air would be sufficient to keep plants alive or perhaps they would thrive with all the carbon monoxide mixed air.

We know that most insects cannot survive urban life because of its polluting effects on the air and water within cities. This is good to a degree but how about the insects needed to pollinate the plants. Are there any types of bees that can stand the polluted air? Could the bees have clean air pumped into them like many citizens may do using air filters and air cleaners.

There many questions that need answers before going ahead in a wonderful project like this. I do hope this comes about because with the vertical greenhouses we would clean up some of the air within the walls of urban development. Then the cities would have an insect population to control but they would be able to build more green houses vertically and if enough were made then the air quality would be almost bearable. Drive an Electric Vehicle with Hydrogen back up and clean the rest of the air in cities and fix the ozone layers that protect our planet.

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