Feb 13, 2012
Urban Agriculture: The Vertical Farm
More than half of the global population—about 3.3 billion people—will live in urban areas by the end of 2008, according to estimates from the United Nations. By 2050, nearly 80 percent of the global population, or roughly 7 billion people, will live in urban areas. These momentous demographic shifts occurring throughout the world will put incredible stress on infrastructure, environmental resources, and food supply networks.
More than half of the global population—about 3.3 billion people—will live in urban areas by the end of 2008, according to Enter Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health at Columbia University, who estimates that to feed rapidly-expanding populations, “the world will need 1 billion more hectares of arable land by 2050—roughly the area of Brazil and far more land than will be available”. As a solution to this future crisis, Despommier envisions the Vertical Farm, which would help feed the planet’s increasingly urbanized billions.
These agrarian skyscrapers could each feed 50,000 people by applying cutting-edge innovations, including NASA’s research on hydroponic vegetable cultivation, and utilizing energy from solar, wind, and wastewater sources. Despommier claims that one Vertical Farm could grow hundreds of acres worth of crops in a few city blocks. “If successfully implemented, [Vertical Farms] 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.”
Reminiscent of Paolo Soleri’s arcology (Hat Tip: hogblog), Despommier’s vision has attracted enthusiastic supporters and incredulous skeptics alike. Meanwhile, global concern continues to grow about interrelated crises of food, agriculture, and energy. Racing against population growth, urbanization, and environmental degradation, Despommier aspires to translate the Vertical Farm concept into a functional prototype—then, to make these verdant skyscrapers a common feature of cityscapes around the world.
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I really want to see further
I really want to see further progress on this concept because I think this is could be a solution to are rising food shortage…I am involved in a campaign to build the first functioning tower: http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/vertical-farm-in-new-york-city
oh...at
oh...at http://www.chrisjacobs.com
Check out the original
Check out the original Vertical Farm published by Plenty Magazine on my Blog.... this is what brought all this into the world conversation!
The confluence of a rapidly
The confluence of a rapidly increasing global population, stagnant food production technology, and civil unrest in countless countries has led to a number of interesting consequences. For example, the Egyptian government is addressing record-setting food prices with family planning programs to decrease the country's fertility rate. For more, see this New Security Beat blog post: http://newsecuritybeat.blogspot.com/2008/06/in-egypt-record-food-prices-...
A complimentary strategy to
A complimentary strategy to vertical farming is sub-acre farming. A sub-acre farming method now being practiced throughout the U.S. and Canada is called SPIN-Farming. SPIN stands for S-mall P-lot IN-tensive, and it makes it possible to earn significant income from growing vegetables on land bases under an acre in size. SPIN farmers utilize relay cropping to increase yield and achieve good economic returns by growing only the most profitable food crops tailored to local markets. SPIN's growing techniques are not, in themselves, breakthrough. What is novel is the way a SPIN farm business is run. SPIN provides everything you'd expect from a good franchise: a business plan, marketing advice, and a detailed day-to-day workflow. In standardizing the system and creating a reproducible process it really isn't any different from McDonalds. So by offering a non-technical, easy-to-understand and inexpensive-to-implement farming system, it allows many more people to farm, wherever they live, as long as there are nearby markets to support them, and it removes the two big barriers to entry – sizeable acreage and significant start-up capital.
So while vertical farming will still take some time to get off the ground, sub-are farming is already showing how agriculture can be integrated into the built environment in an economically viable manner. By recasting farming as a small business in cities and towns, SPIN is helping to "right size" agriculture for an urbanized century and making local food production a viable business proposition once again.
The pressing need for more
The pressing need for more urban agriculture was address the recent Growing Food for London conference - see London, Feed Yourself! - but without mention of this radical and vertical proposal. I'll be reading more before accepting it as a realistic proposal but it's nice to dream in the meantime.