Vertical Farming

For thousands of years, farming has relied on the perfect blend of weather, water, and pests in order to grow healthy crops for the community. Recently, however, vertical farming has appeared as a viable alternative. Vertical farming utilizes abandoned buildings and other vertical spaces to grow plants and crops with hydroponic techniques, taking advantage of the controlled environment to grow crops in their ideal temperature, humidity, and light.

This is a guest post by Tate Handy. He created a visual guide to vertical farming to show people what benefits vertical farms can give to urban areas and where they are popping up across the world. We hope that you find it enjoyable and informative.

The United Nations projects that by 2050, over 7 billion people (or 80% of the world’s population) will live in urban areas. Vertical farming, then, would make food much more accessible to these people. Traditional farming can only feed one person per acre, and as a result, these farms take nearly half of the United States’ arable land. Just one vertical farm, meanwhile, can feed up to 50,000 people a 2,000 calorie per day diet for a whole year.

Vertical farming also increases the success rate of crop growth. Traditional farms encounter crop failure about 50% of the time, thanks to unpredictable events such as poor weather, plant diseases, and insect infestations. Vertical farming enjoys a high success rate thanks to its controlled environment; by using LED lighting, farmers can grow crops organically and cut the plants’ growth time from 12 weeks to six.

Even better? Vertical farming benefits the environment, thanks to water recycling techniques and decreased greenhouse gas emissions. Traditional farming uses 80% of U.S. fresh water, and the vast majority (50-80%) ends up being wasted through evaporation or runoff. Vertical farms fix this problem by using aeroponic and aquaponic methods.

Outdoor farming also causes 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from farm machinery and transportation between farms and cities. Vertical farming cuts out the need for farm machinery, and because they can be placed in urban areas, vertical farming also cuts down on the distance from farm to table.

The appeals of vertical farming are clear; however, vertical farming has a very high start-up cost, since real estate can be expensive. Vertical farming also requires a reliable energy infrastructure so that farmers can control the indoor environments remotely. Once these issues are addressed, vertical farming can become a prominent food source for Americans, no matter where they live.