On my never ending search for weird science stories, I came across a slide show titled “Towers of Food” in the online version of the NYT science section. The slide show features sketches and renderings of futuristic urban farms occupying 30-story towers.
The concept of vertical farming has been developed by researchers and students at Columbia University. Check out the website for what they call “The Vertical Farm Project.” The basic idea is that in the next 40 years, the human population will grow about around 3 billion people. In order to feed everyone, we’ll more land to grow crops–land that simply doesn’t exist. The vertical farming solution is to reinvent farming as an urban enterprise. Instead of raising crops on horizontal tracts of land, farms would be housed indoors, occupying specially designed skyscrapers. Here’s an excerpt from an article on vertical farming written by Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier:
“If we could engineer this approach to food production, then no crops would ever fail due to severe weather events (floods, droughts, hurricanes, etc.). Produce would be available to city dwellers without the need to transport it thousands of miles from rural farms to city markets. Spoilage would be greatly reduced, since crops would be sold and consumed within moments after harvesting. If vertical farming in urban centers becomes the norm, then one anticipated long-term benefit would be the gradual repair of many of the world¡¯s damaged ecosystems through the systematic abandonment of farmland. In temperate and tropical zones, the re-growth of hardwood forests could play a significant role in carbon sequestration and may help reverse current trends in global climate change. Other benefits of vertical farming include the creation of a sustainable urban environment that encourages good health for all who choose to live there; new employment opportunities, fewer abandoned lots and buildings, cleaner air, safe use of municipal liquid waste, and an abundant supply of safe drinking water.”
Cool idea, no? I have no idea how feasible this is, though … How many vertical farms would it take to feed a major American city? Are there existing models of vertical farms that actually work? At the very least, I think we can agree that a rapidly growing human population will require more food, and that if there’s not enough land for conventional farming to produce that food, then we’ll need to come up with something else. Maybe vertical farming is that “something.”
Wow, I sure hope someone at Earth & Sky interviews Dickson Despommier. I saw him on the Colbert Report. Colbert pointed out that the planned structures were somewhat phallic.
Interesting. The buildings will be expensive indeed and we have millions of acres of farmland here in the US that are fallow. If we keep moving toward subsidized biofuels, the cost of food crops will continue to increase. Can the prices get high enough to warrant vertical agriculture? Who knows?
It would definitely cut transportation costs. Construction, electricity, maintenance operation costs will be significant. Lost tax revenue for cities could also factor in. But, foretelling the future hasn’t been one of my strong suits.
Good piece.