[audio:http://wamcradio.org/EarthWise/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/EW-02-03-12-Vertical-Farming.mp3|titles=EW 02-03-12 Vertical Farming]
To feed the 8 million people living in New York City, it takes farmland equivalent to the size of Virginia to produce enough food. There is a growing push to build farms right inside major cities. Farms built inside of buildings were first conceptualized more than a decade ago.
These “vertical farms” not only save land mass, but cut down on the costs of transporting food. This, in turn, reduces carbon emissions. Dr. Dickson Despommier at Columbia University champions vertical farms. He says they are the most efficient way of feeding city-dwellers.
“They employ closed-loop agricultural technologies. That means all the water is recycled; all the nutrients are recycled. And the only thing that leaves the building is the produce.”
To envision what a vertical farm would look like, imagine several greenhouses stacked on top of one another. These tall glass buildings would have produce growing on several floors. And irrigation systems would collect water at the bottom of the towers and recycle it.
Ideally, the closed environment of vertical farms would reduce the need for pesticides, allowing year-round production of organic produce and making fruits and vegetables available and affordable to urban consumers. Recycling techniques would make the farms water and nutrient conserving, with none of the runoff associated with traditional farms.
“The biggest social benefit is that everybody gets fed healthy, clean food and we can use it to remediate water so you can have safe water and safe food wherever you live.”
Despommier says the farms could create jobs in urban area and sprout other business – like processing plants, right next store. There are now six farms around the world that can be classified as vertical. Besides the U.S. they’re in countries like Japan, Holland and England.
Vertical farming is a provocative idea. If these farms are able to run effectively with minimal electricity demands and water conserving technology, they would seem worth promoting to the world’s growing population of urban dwellers.
Photo, taken on May 29, 2006 using a Kodak V570 DUAL LENS, courtesy of Simon Law via Flickr.