Vertical Farming
Vertical Farming
For thousands of years, human beings have fed themselves by growing a huge variety of vegetables and grains. In more recent years, technology has helped increase harvests, shorten growing time, and make growing crops indoors feasible. Genetic engineering has brought about strains of plants that are resistant to various diseases. These plants also grow more quickly and spoil less easily. Indoor farming helps to lengthen the growing season and decrease the effect of weather on crops. Now, there is another way of growing the food the world needs.
According to Dr. Dickson Despommier, professor of environmental sciences and microbiology at New York’s Columbia University, food production increases, the effects of global warming decrease, the production of clean-burning fuel increases and waste water is made cleaner by creating vertical farms. Despommier is concerned with the fact that the world’s population will increase to nearly 9 billion by 2050. He also is concerned that nearly 80% of the world’s suitable farming land is already in use. How can we cultivate enough food to feed everyone in the future?
With current farming methods it would take an area larger than the country of Brazil to create enough food to feed the population of nearly three billion additional people by the year 2050. Realizing that current farming methods will not be adequate in the future, Dr. Despommier has thought about taking current indoor farming methods several steps further. He has explored the concept of vertical farming—using multi-storied buildings and tiers of planters to grow a variety of crops. He envisions skyscrapers in the middle of large cities providing fresh produce yearround for the cities’ inhabitants. Since population trend estimates predict that by the year 2050, nearly 80% of the world’s people will dwell in cities, having food sources close to where people live will provide a number of important advantages.
First, vertical farming will save enormous
For thousands of years, human beings have fed themselves by growing a huge variety of vegetables and grains. In more recent years, technology has helped increase harvests, shorten growing time, and make growing crops indoors feasible. Genetic engineering has brought about strains of plants that are resistant to various diseases. These plants also grow more quickly and spoil less easily. Indoor farming helps to lengthen the growing season and decrease the effect of weather on crops. Now, there is another way of growing the food the world needs.
According to Dr. Dickson Despommier, professor of environmental sciences and microbiology at New York’s Columbia University, food production increases, the effects of global warming decrease, the production of clean-burning fuel increases and waste water is made cleaner by creating vertical farms. Despommier is concerned with the fact that the world’s population will increase to nearly 9 billion by 2050. He also is concerned that nearly 80% of the world’s suitable farming land is already in use. How can we cultivate enough food to feed everyone in the future?
With current farming methods it would take an area larger than the country of Brazil to create enough food to feed the population of nearly three billion additional people by the year 2050. Realizing that current farming methods will not be adequate in the future, Dr. Despommier has thought about taking current indoor farming methods several steps further. He has explored the concept of vertical farming—using multi-storied buildings and tiers of planters to grow a variety of crops. He envisions skyscrapers in the middle of large cities providing fresh produce yearround for the cities’ inhabitants. Since population trend estimates predict that by the year 2050, nearly 80% of the world’s people will dwell in cities, having food sources close to where people live will provide a number of important advantages.
First, vertical farming will save enormous