Vertical Farms

Other Unique Engineering Ideas

A Columbia professor believes that converting skyscrapers into crop farms could help reduce global warming and make New York cleaner. It’s a vision straight out of Futurama. “Even if it's not quite natural...you're going to get back the rest of the earth” -Professor Dickson Despommier. 

1. Description

2. Why

3. How

4. Future Trends

5. Related Links

Description 

Exploding population growth. By 2050, demographers estimate there will be an additional 3 billion people (a global total of 9.2 billion). If current farming practices are maintained, extra landmass as large as Brazil would have to be cultivated to feed them. Yet nearly all the land that can produce food is already being farmed—even without accounting for the possibility of losing more to rising sea levels and climate change (which could turn arable land into dust bowls).Vertical Farming, which has been discussed for years, would involve building high rise multi level “Farmscrapers” where farmers would employ sustainable farming practices in a controlled environment.  Dickson Despommier, professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia, and one of the true pioneers of this idea, thinks this could ultimately ease the world’s food, water, and energy crises.  Despommier argues that the technology to build vertical farms currently exists and that it could be an economical and sustainable solution to a number of problems.  

Why

The most obvious benefit is the space economy.  By building up, we would not need to clear cut forests to make way for sprawling farms to increase food production.  By “Growing Up” we could have farms in urban centers providing a local source of food for cities, greatly reducing food miles and the related pollution & energy consumption. 

  • No weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests
  • All VF food is grown organically: no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers
  • VF virtually eliminates agricultural runoff by recycling black water
  • VF returns farmland to nature, restoring ecosystem functions and services
  • VF greatly reduces the incidence of many infectious diseases that are acquired at the agricultural interface
  • VF converts black and gray water into potable water by collecting the water of
    evapotranspiration
  • 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, shipping.)
  • VF converts abandoned urban properties into food production centers
  • VF creates sustainable environments for urban centers
  • VF creates new employment opportunities
  • We cannot go to the moon, Mars, or beyond without first learning to farm indoors on
    earth
  • VF may prove to be useful for integrating into refugee camps

How 

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.Vision of the future is one in which the skyline of New York and other cities include a new kind of skyscaper: the "vertical farm".The idea is simple enough.

  • Imagine a 30-storey building with glass walls, topped off with a huge solar panel.
  • On each floor there would be giant planting beds, indoor fields in effect.
  • There would be a sophisticated irrigation system.
  • And so crops of all kinds and small livestock could all be grown in a controlled environment in the most urban of settings.
  • That means there would be no shipping costs, and no pollution caused by moving produce around the country.
  • It's all the brainchild of Columbia University Professor Dickson Despommier. 

He and his students took existing greenhouse technology as a starting point and are now convinced that vertical farms are a practical suggestion.Professor Despommier lists many advantages of this revolutionary kind of agriculture. They include:

  • Year round crop production in a controlled environment
  • All produce would be organic as there would be no exposure to wild parasites and bugs
  • Elimination of environmentally damaging agricultural runoff
  • Food being produced locally to where it is consumed 

And, says the professor, vertical farming would allow some existing traditional farms to be returned to natural forests. Good news in a time of global warming.Energy would come from a giant solar panel but there would also be incinerators which use the farm's waste products for fuel. All of the water in the entire complex would be recycled

Future Trends

Growing crops in a controlled environment has benefits: no animals to transfer disease through untreated waste; no massive crop failures as a result of weather-related disasters; less likelihood of genetically modified “rogue” strains entering the “natural” plant world. All food could be grown organically, without herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers, eliminating agricultural runoff. And 80 percent of the world’s population will be living in urban areas by 2050.Inspired by the Capitol Records building in Hollywood. Circular design uses space most efficiently and allows maximum light into the center. Modular floors stack like poker chips for flexibility."Even if it's not quite natural.... a little bit factory-like in terms of its production, here's what you're going to get back: you're going to get back the rest of the earth. And I'll take that any time."   

Keywords 

Skyfarming,Vertical Farm, skyscrapers turn into farms, Professor Dickson Despommier.  

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