Vertical Farming

[Dr.Traveler]

I realize this is an old article, but it was brought to my attention recently....

Spiraling Skyscraper Farms

As the world’s population continues to skyrocket and cities strain under the increased demand for resources, skyscraper farms offer an inspired approach towards creating sustainable vertical density. One of three finalists in this year’s Evolo Skyscraper Competition Eric Vergne’s Dystopian Farm project envisions a future New York City interspersed with elegantly spiraling biomorphic structures that will harness cutting-edge technology to provide the city with its own self-sustaining food source.
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Some of the things I've heard about these projects are mindblowing and game changing. Imagine a self sustaining mega city. With vertical farming, the city could feed itself with little need for actual farming land.

This could be a game changer in a lot of ways.

 

[KittenKoder]

Why don't people just stop fucking like rabbits? Such a simple solution really.

 

[Mr. H.]

Those things would suck in co2 and crank out oxygen. Not a bad idea.

 

[uscitizen]

And most big cities already have water supply issues,

 

[HUGGY]

I realize this is an old article, but it was brought to my attention recently....

Spiraling Skyscraper Farms

As the world’s population continues to skyrocket and cities strain under the increased demand for resources, skyscraper farms offer an inspired approach towards creating sustainable vertical density. One of three finalists in this year’s Evolo Skyscraper Competition Eric Vergne’s Dystopian Farm project envisions a future New York City interspersed with elegantly spiraling biomorphic structures that will harness cutting-edge technology to provide the city with its own self-sustaining food source.
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Some of the things I've heard about these projects are mindblowing and game changing. Imagine a self sustaining mega city. With vertical farming, the city could feed itself with little need for actual farming land.

This could be a game changer in a lot of ways.

I'm all for the innovation and everything but this idea is impractical on so many levels(No pun intended). Obviously thought up by someone with little or no knowledge in farming. We are not now nor will we ever be close to short on land to farm. The most important thing to consider in growing produce is cost. You can grow pot in your attic if you are selling ounces of bud for $2000. To feed masses of people a head of lettuce needs to cost less than a dollar. If you spend 10-20 million bucks just to build your fantasy vertical garden and have to pay city prices for water your head of lettuce will cost about $20. There are so many problems inherant with this idea beyond the forementioned economic reality check. For one and it is hardly a minor problem...cities are filthy.. germs and parasites that would attck your produce would be overwelming. You couldn't spray toxins to combat them so most of what you tried to grow would be lost. It is one thing to grow a few tomatoes in a hanging basket off your deck... It is a whole nother proposition to try to grow 100 tons of em with all that time and investment relying on your performance. Crops need an environment that you can control for the most part. A huge part of that control is eliminating airborne risks which you could not do in a city.

Oh did I mention sunlight? What do you think the cost of light would add to the price of this produce? You will end up eating your cannibis to save money.

 

[manifold]

I think it's a great idea worth exploring.

But what about vertical ranches?

Me likes meat!

 

[HUGGY]

I think it's a great idea worth exploring.

But what about vertical ranches?

Me likes meat!

The smell would make it not tolerable in a city. Again..we have input from someone who has never set foot on a ranch or a farm.

 

[manifold]

Wrong and wrong... again.

 

[asaratis]

Why don't people just stop fucking like rabbits? Such a simple solution really.

Because animals were born to fuck. They eat just to stay alive so they can fuck some more.

And most big cities already have water supply issues,

Bermuda doesn't...and it's bigger than some cities.

There's enough runoff from one rainy day to irrigate plant foods for more than a day. Capture the water and you've got it made.

With the skyscrapers, there's no shortage of sunlight either. We could grow some wicked gardens just by planting on the roofs. Add to the acreage by planting out the windows.

Seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

[Charles Stucker]

Cure idea for a sci fi novel, but not really practical at his time. As already noted the price would be excessive. Just maintaining that structure would cost more resources than might be reasonably saved on transport from outlying farming communities.

 

[manifold]

Pretty much every technological innovation of the last century was not economically practical in it's infancy.

You nay-sayers are narrow-minded nitwits. No offense.

 

[Anguille]

You can grow pot in your attic if you are selling ounces of bud for $2000.

Oh did I mention sunlight? What do you think the cost of light would add to the price of this produce? You will end up eating your cannibis to save money.

Now we know what Huggy does for a living.

 

[HUGGY]

You can grow pot in your attic if you are selling ounces of bud for $2000.

Oh did I mention sunlight? What do you think the cost of light would add to the price of this produce? You will end up eating your cannibis to save money.

Now we know what Huggy does for a living.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWu05SLrS8g[/ame]

 

[Charles Stucker]

Pretty much every technological innovation of the last century was not economically practical in it's infancy.

No doubt. The difference between a Verne vision and one of Wells is that most of Verne's were moderately accurate and all of Wells were wildly inaccurate.
This is a Wells sort of vision.

No offense, but you are a nitwit.

 

[manifold]

I only hope you live long enough to eat some vertically grown crow.

 

[Ravi]

I think it's a great idea worth exploring.

But what about vertical ranches?

Me likes meat!

It won't be long before meat is grown vertically.

Mad science? Growing meat without animals - Innovation- msnbc.com

 

[Charles Stucker]

It won't be long before meat is grown vertically.

Mad science? Growing meat without animals - Innovation- msnbc.com

This actually sounds workable, as opposed to trying to fit farms into cities when there is no demonstrable benefit.

 

[Old Rocks]

I see several advantages to the concept. First, the food base is not subject to the dangers of a rapidly changing climate. There is far less waste, because the food is produced where it is consumed. No need of pesticides, because of control of the environment.

Growing Skyscrapers: The Rise of Vertical Farms: Scientific American

Concepts
Farming is ruining the environment, and not enough arable land remains to feed a projected 9.5 billion people by 2050. Growing food in glass high-rises could drastically reduce fossil-fuel emissions and recycle city wastewater that now pollutes waterways. A one-square-block farm 30 stories high could yield as much food as 2,400 outdoor acres, with less subsequent spoilage. Existing hydroponic greenhouses provide a basis for prototype vertical farms now being considered by urban planners in cities worldwide. More to Explore


Together the world’s 6.8 billion people use land equal in size to South America to grow food and raise livestock—an astounding agricultural footprint. And demographers predict the planet will host 9.5 billion people by 2050. Because each of us requires a minimum of 1,500 calories a day, civilization will have to cultivate another Brazil’s worth of land—2.1 billion acres—if farming continues to be practiced as it is today. That much new, arable earth simply does not exist. To quote the great American humorist Mark Twain: “Buy land. They’re not making it any more.”

Agriculture also uses 70 percent of the world’s available freshwater for irrigation, rendering it unusable for drinking as a result of contamination with fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and silt. If current trends continue, safe drinking water will be impossible to come by in certain densely populated regions. Farming involves huge quantities of fossil fuels, too—20 percent of all the gasoline and diesel fuel consumed in the U.S. The resulting greenhouse gas emissions are of course a major concern, but so is the price of food as it becomes linked to the price of fuel, a mechanism that roughly doubled the cost of eating in most places worldwide between 2005 and 2008.

 

[Anguille]

I think it's a great idea worth exploring.

But what about vertical ranches?

Me likes meat!

It won't be long before meat is grown vertically.

Mad science? Growing meat without animals - Innovation- msnbc.com

Whoa!!!

 

[Charles Stucker]

I see several advantages to the concept..

YOu should change the prescription on your reading glasses

If current trends continue, safe drinking water will be impossible to come by in certain densely populated regions. .

Leading to less densely populated regions and helping keep the population down.
Didn't Malthus say something about that?
Funny thing is - these vertical farms will still need water and fertilizer and some damned expensive building maintenance. So building them would only lead to greater water shortages.