Vertical Farming - Could It Really Work?
28 December 2010
Image: "Pyramid Farm" by Eric Ellingsen and
Dickson Despommier
Humanity has always looked to the skies
- skyscrapers, aircraft and space ships are physical manifestations
of that desire. As our planet gets ever more crowded, how are we
going to find the agricultural land to continue feeding people? As
the old joke goes: "They're not making it any more."
One suggestion has been "Vertical
Farms" building artificial farms in tall buildings. It is wild,
whacky, and on the fringes of science. So of course were
skyscrapers, aircraft and space ships.....once.
Image: "VF - Type O" by Oliver Foster
Is it a practicable idea? The
Economist thinks not. Recently it devoted an issue of its Science
and Technology supplement to "Vertical Farming: Does it really
stack up?"
"The world’s population is
expected to increase to 9.1 billion by 2050, according to the UN.
Feeding all those people will mean increasing food production by 70%,
according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation..."
Even if we increased food yields dramatically, they are not likely to
produce nearly three-quarters more food from the same acreage.
The idea of Vertical Farming is that by
concentrating food production in cities, where it is needed, you will
reduce emissions, slash transport and refrigeration costs and reduce
spoilage. The originator of the vertical farms concept is Dr Dickson
Despommier, Professor of Public and Environmental Health of Columbia
University in New York. He believes that growing food in a
controlled environment, in water (hydroponics) rather than soil will
reduce herbicide, fungicide and pesticide use too, as well as
reducing emissions and costs.
The drawback to the idea is that the
plants will need artificial light as they are not going to get the
controlled amount of light necessary for optimal growth inside a
building. However the designers in the video below are aware of this
drawback and are trying to overcome the problems. There seems to be
no theoretical reason why we should not grow food vertically. In
1903 few people thought that a heavier than air vehicle could fly.
Fortunately a couple of brothers were too pig-headed to believe in
the general consensus: Orville and Wilbur Wright.
Video of some Vertical Farm Designs
with commentary by their architects
Necessity may well drive invention in
the matter of vertical farms, because our society will certainly need
to increase food production.
Links:
Economist Article
Commentary on Economist article
Blog by Julian Jackson
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