Dickson Despommier envisions a future
in which urban farming feeds the masses.
Image: Charlie Neibergall
Atypical farm burns vast quantities of fossil fuels to plow fields, sow seeds, reap harvests and truck products many miles to population centers. It spreads heaps of petroleum-based fertilizers, which then run off into streams and watersheds. It also consumes rivers of freshwater and casts pesticides across the countryside. Raising chickens and pigs further insults the earth with unhygienic filth.
Why not grow grains, vegetables and fruits right where the expanding crowds of consumers are: in the middle of a city, inside a tall glass building? Poultry and pork could be reared there, too. A vertical farm would drastically reduce the fossil-fuel use and emissions associated with farm machinery and trucking, as well as the spread of fertilizer and its runoff. Crops could grow and be harvested year-round instead of at the end of one season, multiplying annual yield by at least four times. Urban agriculture could also convert municipal wastewater into irrigation water, reducing a city’s refuse problem. And consumers would get the freshest food possible, without pesticides.
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16 Comments
Add CommentThe place they should bring this technology are the financially rich but organically resource poor or geographically limited countries. Places like Quatar, Dubai and Saudi Arabia for the former and Japan and Taiwan for the latter come to mind.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoes this mean that Urban growers of weed (indoor, hydroponics) are on the leading edge of this centuries much needed technology and processes?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEveryone should have a garden. Even a three foot planter with some tomatoes in it. If everyone would grow *some* food, it would radically change society for the better, from industry, land use, all the way down to the individuals health and well being.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEspecially city people.
Glad someone's figuring it out.
Every piece of place have its own destiny . The places in the city , which environment and culture is suitable for us to work or do our daily job , should seperated to do daily office work but grow crops . The places in the suburban district ,which air water is clean and sufficient , is right to grow vegetable or such things . But we can not jugde it in one side , every thing just like a two edged sward . According to our development of sociaty . A small amount of planting in the city is alright , sometimes it may change our environment in the city . On the contrary , a lot of them maybe break the balance of the sociaty and the way of the development of the city construction . (Thats just my opinion )
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe skyscraper can not only used to farm but can used in traffic fields in the future someday . In the contemparay , the space becomes more and more precious for us . Today ,we just only know how to use the space in the two demensions , but if we look up . The third demesion have more space for us . Its not only a begining of a subject but a new field ,that i call it as "skyscrape lives".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAssuming that the urban density is high enough and that the value of land prices dictate building up (rather than the current US trend of sprawling out) this might make sense. I am a fan of waste water reutilization; living machines are a brilliant way to recapture and do primary and secondary waste water treatment. The nitrates and other minerals can easily be recaptured and reprocessed by plants into a useable medium. I think that this may be an opportunity for future consideration in the resource impoverished areas of our globe!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPoliticians in cities undergoing renewal might consider tax cuts for developers who provide public access to urban gardens in renewal projects. One obstacle to living in the city is often access to fresh produce. Gardening clubs might attract upwardly mobile professionals who would rather spend their commute time growing their meals.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisgrow stuff on roofs. get that to work, then you can talk about dedicating entire buildings to farming.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf the people have to commute in so they can produce things with others, it makes no sense to have vegetables living there full time when they only have to commute in once
Its a great idea and a way of the future. You don't necessarily need a glass building though, although it would be ideal but artificial lighting could work too. I work for a hydroponics company and we actually run www.hydroponics.com and we constantly promote rooftop or balcaony gardening regularly. This would just be the next step but its a feasible option if someone had the investment ready for a complete building to farm hydroponically. If your interested more check out the site and contact me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow about using the front lawns and backyards before asking the condo owners to grow chickens in the bathroom. The suburb people mow their oversized poisoned lawns with noisy gas powered machines to bag the grass that will be picked up by the garbage truck, and we are talking about growing corn dangling form the ceiling in the offices in downtown. It is a nice idea but there are a few other things that can be done before.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRobert
i think this is a great idea and it'll surely help reduce pollution in cities. now that they've thought of using skyscrapers for farming, can they not use the rooftops to harness the wind and install windmills of some sort to complement the farming idea?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYard farming is already happening and taking root in Boulder, Co. Check out the articles and website below.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/mar/19/no-headline---19froo/
http://www.communityrootsboulder.com
While this approach to farming may be feasible it completely ignores the underlying threat of overpopulation. Just as politicians continue to promise endless growth for the economy few seem to question endless growth for humanity. We have already seen massive degradation of the natural environment due to overpopulation - when will it be acknowledged as the root cause of most of our problems, e.g., climate change, poverty, overfishing of the oceans, etc.?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisActually, yes. Most of the technologies discussed in Vertical Farming are 100% found in the growing of marijuana. www.chrisjacobs.com
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSeveral facts stand in the way of this fantastic idea. Crops need light to grow, lots of it. Even then most crops turn much less than 10% of that light energy into biomass. Even our most efficient artificial light sources turn less than 50% of the electricity they need into light. When you do the sums, it requires 800 times more energy to grow vegetables under artificial lighting than to transport these vegetables 500 kilometers. There are few countries in the world that cannot find land for vegetable growing in an area of over 200,000 square kilometers near their large cities. Nor does the concept rule out the need for some pesticides. Unless extreme biosecurity measures are maintained from the outset, fungicides will be required, as the spores are airborn and can travel many miles and still be viable. Consumers are rightly cautious of crops which are irrigated with sewage water, and in UK supermarket buyers will not buy from farms where sewage waste has been recently applied.Environmentally controlled growth houses are starting to become popular for fresh vegetables and fruit to extend the seasons at both ends and give more total yield. This is as it should be, but trying to grow large quantities on expensive urban land makes no sense either economically or environmentally.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow add to this going vertical on each floor and you'll have the right numbers for profitability. Valcent Products (www.valcent.net ) has been doing this with their VertiCrop system at a proof-of-concept at a zoo in London and are now ready to pump out half a dozen systems by end of January. Valcent just announced Robert F. Kennedy Jr. joining their advisory board and were voted Time Magazine Top 50 Innovations of 2009. Going vertical on each floor will make all the difference!
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