Vertical Farming

Originally posted by sardion2000

Even Organic Farming) is very wasteful.

I don't necessarily agree with this statement. Conventional farming definitely creates a ton of waste, but organically grown food waste can be used as compost for next year's crops.

Basically NOTHING is wasted.

I can say this as I'm studying agroecology right now and plan on being a farmer...Plus its in my blood. My family have been farmers for hundreds if not thousands of years on pretty much the same plot in Ireland.

When the majority of people on this planet live in or near cities it just makes sense to grow the food where the people are.

This makes a lot of sense to me (I stated it earlier and its been regurgitated a few times already).

We will be saving a lot of time and energy by producing crops in-city rather than out.

However, I don't necessarily think living in a city is the best way to preserve anything.

We might be better off living in small rural, self-sufficient communities.

This way of farming though (vertical) would be a great step towards making people more self-sufficient in a city. I'm not sure if thats the best direction to be heading...


Its an interesting subject. I don't know if its the right thing to do or not.

I just know people are trying to come up with solutions to complex problems and this doesn't seem like a bad thing to try out.

Its worth a shot!

I don't necessarily agree with this statement. Conventional farming definitely creates a ton of waste, but organically grown food waste can be used as compost for next year's crops.

Yeah I was kind of comparing it to the Vertical farm concept which also has facilities that captures methane from compost. I should have been more specific.

We might be better off living in small rural, self-sufficient communities.

High density is actually more efficient. The more people living in a small space just means that there is just that much more open space for ecosystems to recover their balance.

[edit on 21-6-2007 by sardion2000]

This concept is awesome. If you built it in a smaller city like in the dowtown area, the local residential area could just go for a walk to the VF and thats their fresh market.

If cost is a factor, perhaps the farm can be managed like any other piece of real estate, and the floors or even sections of each floor can be leased, sold to help offset the infrastructure costs. Plaster any part of the outside building that isnt a window with paid advertisement, and whamo money maker.

Originally posted by sardion2000
It takes more energy to import fruits and vegetables then it would take to grow the stuff locally with vertical farms using growlamps. The higher fuel prices become the more economical this concept is.

only as long as you're using renewable power or nuclear.

it's imho pretty obvious that fuel will be derived from the most cost effective sources. once oil becomes too expensive, f-ex. liquefied coal or or methane will take its place, increasing demand and driving energy prices even higher overall.

artificial lighting is unnecessary if the building is designed as a vertical farm, perhaps with mirror systems or by means of simple geometry or both and it should be obvious that electricity generation is not quite efficient and the same applies to lighting, of course.

[edit on 22.6.2007 by Long Lance]

artificial lighting is unnecessary if the building is designed as a vertical farm

It depends. In Toronto for instance you'd have to use supplemental lighting during the Winter months to keep the same yield and you can reduce the power requirements by using LED Growlamps. NASA was/is working on some technology that seeks to replicate the Suns wavelengths in LEDS as closely as possible. I do agree with you though in that natural light as well as renewable energy should be used as much as possible, though I think you'd have to be very creative in how you design the building.



I would love to have this added to my hometowns skyline.

[edit on 22-6-2007 by sardion2000]

Here in the UK the Retail Giants are now starting to make their local stores buy locally - say from a radius of 30miles they can only get their basic staples like bread, milk, eggs etc from local producers.

Now this promotes local producers and keeps them in farming and getting new farming techniques, it also cuts the time of deliveries in half and makes for less road use with the trucks not travelling across country.

I am actually starting to look into hydroponic farming when I move back to South Africa. I feel that this will be a great source of income and also getting local producers to cut down on pesticides and so on...

Val

I cannot re-find the site that would blow you away on the
'living, breathing, architecture' concept, accepted by the 'LEED' certified
planners/architects/engineers....
but here's a close 2nd runner up ->

Organic Farming in . . . Skyscrapers ?
gliving.tv...

..the future of farming might rely on giant skyscrapers,
using hydroponics or other systms to feed our growing cities.
NewYork Magazine has decided to do a feature on this as well, and has named it Skyfarming...

interesting stuff on the page, including the clicks on the 'categories' column on right side
and the full essay at the end of the article.


>>>


I really wanted to link the really futuristic concept in planning right now,
its a 'verticle Park space' with integrated 'living tower spirals' in a 1000
acre ecosystem....(again under the 'LEED' certification banner)

the integrated but seperate 50 storey towers resemble a stacking of 3 hour-glasses and other towers have the apprearance of a winding spring.
The exteriors of a clear, carbon-plastic material acts as a surface for the growing mosses, & the building monitors watering-feeding etc.


the futures not all gloom & doom, huh?