Vertical Farming

From CRN's Benefits page:

Cheap greenhouses can save water, land, and food.

Moving agriculture into greenhouses can recover most of the water used, by dehumidifying the exhaust air and treating and re-using runoff. Additionally, greenhouse agriculture requires less labor and far less land area than open-field agriculture, and provides greater independence from weather conditions including seasonal variations and droughts. Greenhouses, with or without thermal insulation, would be extremely cheap to build with nanotechnology. A large-scale move to greenhouse agriculture would reduce water use, land use, and weather-related food shortages.

Now, take this idea to its natural extension, and imagine stacking greenhouses one on top of the other -- then you have vertical farming!

The Problem

By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth's population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. An estimated 109 hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices. What can be done to avoid this impending disaster?

A Potential Solution: Farm Vertically

The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes, a wide variety of herbs, and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another 3 billion people. An entirely new approach to indoor farming must be invented, employing cutting edge technologies. The Vertical Farm must be efficient (cheap to construct and safe to operate). Vertical farms, many stories high, will be situated in the heart of the world's urban centers. If successfully implemented, they offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.

The images and text above are from "The Vertical Farm Project" website. Here are some of the advantages they suggest:

• Year-round crop production; 1 indoor acre is equivalent to 4-6 outdoor acres or more, depending upon the crop (e.g., strawberries: 1 indoor acre = 30 outdoor acres)
• No weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests
• All VF food is grown organically: no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers
• F virtually eliminates agricultural runoff by recycling black water
• VF greatly reduces the incidence of many infectious diseases that are acquired at the agricultural interface
• VF adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible parts of plants and animals
• VF dramatically reduces fossil fuel use; no tractors, plows, or shipping required [No shipping because vertical farms could be located inside cities]
• We cannot go to the moon, Mars, or beyond without first learning to farm indoors on earth
• VF could reduce the incidence of armed conflict over natural resources, such as water and land for agriculture

They don't make any mention of nanotechnology, but if these vertical farms could be constructed with atomic precision using cheap readily available raw materials -- i.e., molecular manufacturing -- then you'd really have an agricultural revolution.

Mike Treder

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics weblog blog

Comments

[Tristan Hambling]

Better add fish to list of things to worry about.

Vertical Fish Farms!

'Only 50 years left for sea fish'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6108414.stm

Makes you ponder the purpose for building the universal nano-factory?
Why grow ingredients shouldn't we just go directly to the meal.
I.e. why grow or build the potato, then make the potato salad,
When what we really want is to just build the potato salad.

Seem to remember a famous star-trek line. Coffee-Black, hot!

I'll stop daydreaming now, back to work..

[Brian Wang]

Fish production is going up because of aquaculture

[Chris Jacobs]

Hey! Those are my designs! Can I get credit? Good to see that this is getting more and more press!