A. The future farms may be built right in the middle of your neighborhood. Suburban sprawl, combined with huge economies of scale in agricultural operations, has driven food production away from centers of population, with an increase in travel cost and risk of spoilage en route. However, the days of market gardens in cities supplying fresh food items may soon be over; mass urban farming may soon replace them.
A visionary microbiologist, David Michael from U of T, sees our future cities filled with a new kind of market garden. The creator of this radical ‘vertical farming’ thought describes the evolution of the concept from the older idea of ‘rooftop gardening’ in Manhattan. While this was amazing, it couldn’t be made sustainable on a mass scale. But it planted the seed of another great idea. Looking at greenhouse development projects in New York, the resulting concept was mass-scale, indoor, urban farming in skyscrapers.
B. Following this, David set up lab projects aimed at different design challenges and attracted a huge range of enthusiastic collaborators and contributors. He believes this vertical farming method possesses solutions to some of the world’s critical issues. The world population is expected to grow by 3.5 billion to 8.6 billion over the next half-century. By then, some 80% will live in the cities, and they will need something to eat.
At the same time, conventional agriculture and grazing land take up an enormous amount of space, with over 1/3rd of the world’s surface currently used for farming. David figures that in the next 5 decades, an area of new arable land of roughly the size equivalent to Brazil will be required to feed the world’s growing population – land that is simply non-existent.
C. David’s concept relies on using green architecture methods and materials to build skyscrapers that grow and produce agricultural crops. New technologies like cheaper reflectors, which reflect sunlight where it’s required, more efficient energy solar panels, and system-wide recycling are central to the plan. One usual feature is the use of a type of shellfish for the filtration of water. These can clean urban waste to a state more suitable for irrigation.
D. ‘Outside, one acre of land means a single crop per year,’ says David. ‘Indoors, you can cultivate a single crop every three months. You can get four different crops per year.’ He suggests that 150 such buildings could feed the entire neighborhood of New York for one year. Indoor crops require less pesticides and are less vulnerable to natural problems, such as famine. Some academics say that a single skyscraper farm covering 1.5 hectares could produce enough food to feed 35,000 people for one year – the same as a 450-hectare farm. Each floor would be rigged up with special hydroponic watering systems, solar panels to provide electricity, and artificial lighting.
However, vertical farming is not without difficulties. One is – artificial lighting uses a great amount of electricity and generates a considerable amount of heat as well. Another is cost, with some $95 million per building for construction and another $5 million for operation per year.
E. Among experts, opinions vary on the success of this project. It is a serious challenge to create conditions suitable for growth, and some even think the yield from crops would not be economically viable. ‘My biggest reservation is that the basic premise has flaws. We already know the ways to increase food production from existing land resources, particularly in areas with surplus land areas, for instance, sub-Saharan Africa. It’s just that we do it incredibly wrong at the moment, says Rob Sinha, a rural development researcher at the University of Whales. ‘This is a rich person’s aspiration.’
F. Yet there are strong supporters everywhere. Luc Jarvis, an advocate at Canada’s IDRC, says the vertical farm is not only possible but will happen very soon. ‘It would gather at one site different elements already at work around the world, he says.
David has the backing of his University as well as venture capitalists from China, India, the Middle East, and the Netherlands. If the vertical farming vision becomes a reality, we could expect fresh fruits and veggies sourced from just around the corner, except these might come from the 51st floor.
