Skyscraper Farm Future?

By Mark Steer

A professor from the Columbia University is calling for farms to up sticks and move to the big cities. Yes, that's farms not just farmers. Dickson Despommier claims that agriculture can be carried out much more efficiently, quickly and well controlled than out in countryside. All we need to do is build skyscraper farms.

There are some answers that are so obvious that it takes a real visionary to see them. The human race is running out of space, we're already using virtually all the productive land on Earth, and global warming is threatening to turn some of the major farming areas into dust bowls.

So why don't we just move everything indoors? In skyscraper farms, where crops are grown using hydroponic systems in controlled conditions, the growing process would be more efficient and the food would already be within the city so transport costs would be slashed.

What a vertical farm might look like. Click the image for more information.

Despommier has gone as far as getting the architects in to draw up plans for his cloud busters and you've got to admit they look pretty impressive. His theory, that 'skyscraper farms' could provide plentiful food organically, without herbicides, pesticides or fertilisers, has attracted venture capitalists and scientists from around the world, intent on making the theory into reality within fifteen years.

The theory that indoor farming can be much more efficient has already been proved. When a Florida strawberry farm was destroyed by Hurricane Andrew the owners took their business under their own roof. They now produce the same number of strawberries in one acre under wraps than they could produce from thirty acres in the great outdoors.

Very big termites

The idea that we should take our food production indoors actually mirrors what the planet's most successful animals do. Termites are one of the most numerous animals on Earth; it is estimated that in terms of biomass they outweigh humans by ten to one. It's interesting then to think that many termite species farm fungi deep within their colonies where the conditions can be carefully controlled and pests kept at bay.

So, to a certain extent, if we start building these skyscraper farms then we'll just be copying a winning formula.

Death of the rural community?

However, if, as a society we do follow the path of urban farming we need to make sure that rural areas are protected and not simply opened up to industrial and commercial development. If we could apportion large areas of land back to being, say, wilderness and forest areas we would be doing yet more to combat global warming.

The prospect of vertical farming could offer a great opportunity to humankind to revolutionise the ways in which we use natural resources and reduce our impact on the world around us. Vertical farms could be built in areas where normal agriculture isn't very viable - Dubai, for instance, is being touted as a potential location for the first farm, which could be built in as little as fifteen years.

If the plans are viable and vertical farms do start to appear the world over, let's just make sure we plan what's going to happen to our existing farmland.

You can get more information about the plans for vertical farms in this article. However, you're probably now in need of something completely different. Try these:

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Title image: N
Building: Architectural Design by Rolf Mohr; Modeling and Rendering by Machine Films

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