http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6752795.stm
This is a fascinating article advocating what are, in effect, 30 story urban greenhouses. If this concept takes off, it would completely revolutionize agriculture. Here is a snippet from the article:
The idea is simple enough. Imagine a 30-story 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.
Additional benefits would be:
* 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
According to their website ( http://verticalfarm.com/ ) Each vertical farm could feed 50,000 people with a variety of crops and animals, like fish and chicken. They could be located anywhere, you wouldn't need thousands of square miles of arable land. You could even build vertical farms on ships and sail your farms to areas with food shortages. In fact, much of the land that is currently invested in agriculture could be put to other use.
This could be the greatest thing since the invention of agriculture itself.
Originally posted by rwingettThis is a terrible idea. How the hell are they going to get a combine on an elevator? If you eliminate farmland, you will have subdivisions, strip malls, regular malls, etc.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6752795.stm
This is a fascinating article advocating what are, in effect, 30 story urban greenhouses. If this concept takes off, it would completely revolutionize agriculture. Here is a snippet from the article:
[i]The idea is simple enough. Imagine a 30-story building with glass walls, topped off with a huge solar ...[text shortened]... t to other use.
This could be the greatest thing since the invention of agriculture itself.
Originally posted by rwingettThere is really nothing new about growing crops in a green house. A lot of the benefits mentioned in the article are already utilized an green houses all over the world. The only real difference is the idea of going vertical in order to save land, thus allowing crops to be grown in cities (or at least keeping the land costs down.).
This could be the greatest thing since the invention of agriculture itself.
There are a number of problems with the whole idea:
1. If green house growing is really better then why don't all farmers do it?
2. Space. Even at 30 stories if you take all the farming land in the US and divide by 30 it will still not fit in the cities.
3. Cost. Take your average farm divide its area by 30 and then build up 30 stories. Its going to cost you!
4. Reduced transport? A significant amount of current food transport is unnecessary and there are better ways to cut down on it. Why not simply move the people closer to the farms?
5. The solar panel on the roof can not possibly provide enough power to light 30 floors with all the equivalent of one floors worth of sunlight so you will either burn fuel or have >30 solar panels worth out in the farmland.
6. Land cost. The cost of space even in 30 story sky scrappers will always be higher in the city than on farm land and it is cheaper to grow crops and transport them than rent/own the equivalent space in the city. Think about it, take a typical apartment in New York, can you possibly grow enough in that space to cover the rent even without taking into account all your other costs?
So much of farming is letting nature do the work. Sometimes this works well sometimes it doesn't. Hence battery chickens, irrigation etc. Battery chickens are already farmed in multi stories but on cheaper farm land.
Originally posted by twhiteheadI have to agree with you. Only in a country like Japan where thiere is a dire shortage of agriculltural land will such an idea be worthwhile.
There is really nothing new about growing crops in a green house. A lot of the benefits mentioned in the article are already utilized an green houses all over the world. The only real difference is the idea of going vertical in order to save land, thus allowing crops to be grown in cities (or at least keeping the land costs down.).
There are a number of ...[text shortened]... irrigation etc. Battery chickens are already farmed in multi stories but on cheaper farm land.
Originally posted by rwingettThis sounds like science faction. Most of the post earth colonies of our intergalactic future will have its agriculture contained and controlled in a like manner(if one accepts the wisdom of Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke et al..
This could be the greatest thing since the invention of agriculture itself.
From an engineering standpoint, it seems to make the most sense in that everything about your vegetative environment can then be stringently controlled. You only have to grow a crop of tomatoes hydroponically in expanded clay, to understand how efficient the cultivation process can become, when you normalize the uncertainties of the weather and provide consistent heat/light/nutrients to create an optimal growth environment that makes the traditional farming methods seem obsolete.
In terms of energy savings by centralizing the production of food into the urban landscape it also seems a win win for reduction of carbon footprint and other climate change issues. Like anything else, if it can be costed into the present urban landscape and actually prove to provide a more economical/profitable way to cultivate food, then I'm sure the concept will sell itself.
It seems a great way to create a people space where as a proportion of farming production becomes centralized into the urban space, city planners can go about widening the no car zone area around the CBD of our major cities, and deliver to the people a people friendly environment with your primary produce just a block or two away. It would be a grand way of bringing life back into the city!
Originally posted by rwingettI think it would be great... all that land could be used for hunting, hiking and 4 wheeling then....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6752795.stm
This is a fascinating article advocating what are, in effect, 30 story urban greenhouses. If this concept takes off, it would completely revolutionize agriculture. Here is a snippet from the article:
[i]The idea is simple enough. Imagine a 30-story building with glass walls, topped off with a huge solar ...[text shortened]... t to other use.
This could be the greatest thing since the invention of agriculture itself.