What Do You Know About Vertical Farming?

Have you heard about vertical farming? Probably not, because the idea hasn't been spread enough by the media, but it is a concept that is worth mentioning because of its level of innovation, and potential benefits offered to the environmental health. This concept was brought to light by the Professor Dickson Despommier from Columbia University. He proposed the idea of developing farms contained in inner city buildings of various stories in order to produce food and farmland right where the goods would be consumed.

The amount of water and land on Earth is not infinite, and population keeps growing at an alarming rate. This means that eventually we will suffer from shortages in land, food and water. This is one of the main reasons the idea of Professor Despommier is such a breakthrough; it will be a means to solve the problem of more land needed for farming and will reduce transportations costs.

As the population grows we need more land for houses and more land for farms to keep the food supply, but this has a devastating environmental impact because the land we are taking to satisfy the demand is occupied by forests or jungles, and by taking that land the complete eco-system would be prejudiced thus having a negative impact n us too. This situation needed a solution for which Professor Despommier idealized a system in which large buildings of concrete and glass could be built in order to produce not only foods and vegetables, but also fish and animals in some cases all in a controlled environment.

One of the many benefits this system produces besides of saving space is that everything is happening in a controlled environment; therefore everything will be organic because no pesticides or insecticides are used due to the lack of plagues, or insects that might consume the crops. Having a controlled environment produces other benefits such as protection from extreme weather resulting in more crops being produces and a certainty that they won't be destroyed by the next freeze, hail, or hurricane.

Of course not everything is great; there are drawbacks in this concept that have to be considered before it takes off as a reality. The main opposing factor for the development of this project is cost. Right now farmland is much cheaper than land in the city. Also, building a structure with a controlled environment will consume a lot of economical resources at first, so the cost of the food produced in this can be substantially higher.

We need to determine the cost/benefit relationship before putting this into practice, but sure this is an idea worth to give consideration. We might not need it now but why might do so in the near future to minimize our effect in the planet.