sustainable agriculture: vertical farming in London
Goldsmiths
UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
MA Design and Environment Researching Design and Environment Jung hyun, Park
contents agriculture
about agriculture harmful effects usage of fossil energy usage of chemical fertilizer green revolution anxiety about the future
vertical farm
new possibility hydroponic agriculture own edible garden window farm project test case study sustainable systems
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why does london need the vertical farm
population density 29 food mileage 29 change of customers’ perception 31
application
mapping of london farmers & customers which crop and programme relation between vertical farm and existing farmers
references image credits
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agriculture
The origin of agriculture relates in depth with the development of human’s life. It is in such relation due to our necessity, food. During the primitive age, humans were only relying on foods collected from the nature. It was when population started to increase, that humans started farming to produce their own food source.
It is evident from pyramids of ancient Egypt that during the Old Stone Age, people started raising barley. Moreover, in 5000-400 B.C., crops such as wheat, barley, and so on, were grown. Along with the increasing population, agriculture and agricultural implements continued to develop. Before using the steel, the primary implements were made from wood, animal’s bone, and stones. It was the steel implements that made agriculture to develop further. On the other hand, the transition from using human labour to using domestic animals and machines led to a modernization of agriculture.
The modern agriculture has achieved a vast development over the past times. It is now more than getting our necessity, but also, it is to get better quality food through advanced farming technology. As a result, the modern agriculture involves various scientific fields in order to produce high quality products, thus, leading agriculture to a rapid advancement. Through these developments, the agriculture has reached the current agriculture. 3
can you believe that agricultural practices have a harmful effect on the environment? There is abundant evidence about detrimental effect. Agricultural practices greatly influence greenhouse gas emissions about over 20 percent of man-made (Starrs, Elctronic Essay). Furthermore, fossil energy, chemical fertilizer and pesticides are in general use in agricultural activities. These cause the earth to pollute more quickly.
usage of fossil energy Fossil energy is broadly used around various fields in modern days. Unsurprisingly, the use of fossil fuel is substantial in agriculture. First of all, due to the mass production and modernization of agriculture, industries are using agricultural machines. Secondly, the development of greenhouse agriculture is causing the unnecessary energy emission. On the other hand, there is energy consumption when the product is being transported. I discovered amazing facts through Tom Starrs’ essay which is Fossil Food. To quote Tom Starrs, “It takes about 10 fossil fuel calories to produce and transport each food calorie in the average American diet. So if your daily food intake is 2,000 calories, then it took 20,000 calories to grow that food and get it to you. That 20,000 calories of energy is embedded in the food. In more familiar units, this means that growing processing, and delivering the food consumed by a family of four requires the equivalent each year of almost 34,000 kilowatt-hours(kWh) of energy, or more than 930 gallons of gasoline (for comparison, the average U.S household annually consumes about 10,800 kWh of electricity, and about 1,070 gallons of gasoline).� (Starrs, Electronic Essay) The current issue such as food mileages also deals with the fossil energy consumption. The level of dependence on agricultural products that are generated from overseas countries have reached its peak, therefore, it is consumers interest to take on to the safety and freshness of the products. Moreover, their interest on greenhouse gas being consumed while transporting has derived. 5
food miles
The idea of “food mileages� starts from United Kingdom in 1990 (Wikipedia).
It is a calculation of the distance that agricultural products carrying certain amount of weight travelling from its origin to the consumers. The food mileage expands as the weight of the products and the distance increases. During the process of travelling, the products pass through complicated marketing channel, thus, wasting unnecessary distribution cost. In addition, due to this complicacy, the product can be damaged. However, the main concern is its direct impact on global warming. A vast amount of carbon dioxides are produced when travelling, therefore, causes the carbon footprint on earth.
usage of fossil energy In advanced countries, this phenomenon of importing foods from other countries is higher. For example, foods in most of the grocery stores in United States travel 1500 miles average. Especially the Chilean grapes travel 4200 miles by ship and truck before it reaches to California (Starrs, Elctronic Essay). This calculation increases when the grapes are imported through the plane. A large amount of fruits and vegetables are exported by plane for their freshness. This results 177 times more of a green house gas than exporting by ships.
shipping costs In essay by Wendell Berry, he mentioned about importance of vitalizing the local food. This suggests people to know that the locally produced food is safer, fresher and better for the local society. This is because transporting foods demands expansive shipping costs. (Berry, 2001) 7
usage of chemical fertilizer Another issue being brought up is soil pollution caused by the use of chemical fertilizer. The past agriculture considered the richness of nutrition in soil. If the soil lacks its nutrition, farming continued in a different soil, waiting for another soil to become enriched in nutrition. The current agriculture, however, is failing to follow this cycle of farming due to the needs for mass production in short period of time. Alternatively, it is using chemical fertilizer as a substitute for the nutrition of soil, thus, threatening human’s health by polluting the soil and water.
The Green Revolution Agriculture experiences the rapid shift during 1950 to 1960. The period is called “The Green Revolution”. The Green Revolution resulted in the industrialization of agriculture. This change made agriculture more productive, as a result, the world grain production increased up to 250%. The revolution was possible through the use of fertilizer and pesticide. According to “Eating Fossil Fuel” by Dale Allen Pfeiffer, “The Green Revolution increased the energy flow to agriculture by an average of 50 times the energy input of traditional agriculture. In the most extreme cases, energy consumption by agriculture has increased 100 fold or more.” (Pfeiffer, 2006)
Although the use of fertilizer and pesticide were productive, another problem was brought up. The problem was best shown through the agriculture in India. In 1947, after being independent from United Kingdom, India was dependent on Food Aid from United States. It was in 1967, India gained opportunity to separate from the support from United States. They started to import seed of wheat from Mexico. In order to make their agriculture productive, chemical fertilizer was used. As a result, India was self- sufficient of food. However, the extreme use of the chemical fertilizer started to ruin the soil, therefore, the production rate decreased. Although, Indian government are aware of this issue, they cannot stop using the chemical fertilizer in order to be self- sufficient on food.
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Anxiety about the
future
The current world population is over 6.5 billion people. According to UNITED NATIONS, the 2008 Revision, by 2050, this number could rise to more than 9 billion (UN World Population Prospect, 2009). The increase of population is a result of the Industrial Revolution and development of medical treatment. In Dr. Dickson Despommier’s essay, Environmental Health Science of Columbia University, he mentions that this phenomenon of growing population could result a food problem. He states that over the next 50 year, the world population will increase 9
over 9.2 billion, and will need an additional 10 hectares of land to produce enough food. Furthermore, the food problem will become more severe due to the lacking amount of nutritious land (Despommier, Elctronic Essay). An ongoing issue about centralization of population in urban society will continue to be a huge problem. According to the 2009
Revision of UNITED NATIONS, over half of people live in urban areas today, and more and more people are entering into the urban areas. The UN expects nearly 80% of humanity to live in the city by 2030. Moreover, projections show that the people population will reach 6.2 billion by 2050 (UN World Urbanization Prospects, 2009). This is 70% of world population. Most people desire to live in the city because of the concentrated job opportunity, convenience, and so forth. As a result, the rural populations are expected to decrease. The shrink of workforce can make a difference in agriculture. For the mass production, some of the farmers will use machines more often. Moreover, the developing countries will be mainly dependant on agriculture industry, thus, increasing the exchange among nations.
According to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, by 2100, the average global temperature will increase by 1.4 to 5.8ËšC. The increase of temperature is closely connected with the carbon dioxide emissions. The carbon dioxide emissions have risen steadily from 280 to 368 parts per million (ppm) since the 19th century (IPCC 2001b). Nowadays, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is 387ppm (350.org). The 350 organization is warning us that we have to reduce it until 350ppm.
If this continues to happen, it is impossible to reduce down the amount. As of now, there is no solution for concentrated population in the city. Despite of these problems occurring in agriculture, many people do not know
how serious the problems are. 11
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Vertical
Farm
This sketch shows the concept of the urban vertical farm, which was designed by Amin Taha Architects.
Vauxhall sky gardens project
new possibility Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health at Columbia University, created a concept of vertical farm in 1999 with graduate students in his class on medical ecology. Since then, he was fascinated by the farming system and he has been thinking about it. Through his web site, he said that it would supply foods of a high quality to urban people, without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. Furthermore, it would also protect the crops from natural disasters. Every year, the agricultural practices are damaged by irresistible natural disasters such as drought, flood and typhoon. Dr. Despommier also attempted to make the best use of renewable energy, not only solar energy and wind power, but also bio fuel. He said through New York Times’ article, “It would cost 20 million to 30 million U.S dollar to make a prototype of vertical farm, but hundreds of millions to build one of the 30 story tower that it could feed 50,000 people.” (Venkatataman, 2008)
economy
vertical farm
health environment
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adventages of vertical farming 1. It uses less land than traditional agriculture, over 80 percent reduction. 2. As it uses recycle water system, it require 5% of normal water requirements. 3. It avoids further pollution of land and water as s result of agriculture activity. 4. It avoids crop failures caused by weather related disasters. 5. As it stops use of agricultural machines and shipping cost, it reduces fossil fuel use. 6. It helps keep our environment, because of use of renewable energy and bio energy. 7. It produces food without herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers. 8. It provides more fresh and nutritious food to customers. 9. It controls carbon dioxide emission in urban. 10. It creates new employment opportunities.
hydroponic agriculture Actually, the vertical farm is not new technology agriculture system. It just uses water without soil. This kind of farming is called hydroponic agriculture. Hydroponics combine two Greek words hydro, water and ponics, labour. (wikipedia). In 1699, Woodward was one of the first to experiment with water cultivate in England. He grew some crops to use several kinds of water such as rainwater, river water and conduit water (Hoagland, 1950). In 1860, the original technique developed by Sachs and Knop. The method is still frequently used in the field (Hoagland, 1950). After that, lots of scientists continued to evolve and expand the technique. According to Science Tech Entrepreneur, ”the term hydroponics was first used by Dr. W. F. Gericks in the late 1930s to describe a method of growing plants with roots immersed in an aerated, dilute solution of nutrients.”(Thiyagarajan, 2007) Today, the hydroponics agriculture is widely used in commercial greenhouse. Because the system can grow many more plants in small space and more rapidly than traditional agriculture. The space saving and the plant’s rate of growth, of course, are a great boon to agriculture. Especially, cucumbers, tomatoes, and leafy plants such as lettuce and fresh herbs are grown in large quantities by hydroponics system (Logan, 2004). Moreover, the hydroponics system is not only to grow the plants much more efficiently, but also to supply us greater food value than traditional agriculture (valcent web site). For these reasons, Hydroponics system, a method of alternative agriculture, has risen dramatically in recent years. 15
own edible garden
Many people have grown very attentive to their food quality. They try to get organic foods from market or own garden. I found a very interesting article in the Inhabitat magazine. Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the United States, had own edible garden on the South Lawn of the White House (Meinbold, 2009). Over 55 varieties of fruits and vegetables will be growing up in the new edible garden. I think that it would be very exciting to see the First Family’s sustainable activity instead of buying it from market. In this situation, hydroponic system also is becoming more popular than they were. Especially, in area of dense population, people who does not have an own garden or spare space is interested in hydroponics system to grow own food in their house. Because they believe that it could help to provide healthy food every day. hydroponic edible gardens for urban window
window farm project
The Window Farm Project is helping the people to have own garden. It can simply install hydroponics system in our house. The Window Farms concept is that “Window Farms are vertical, hydroponic, modular, low energy, high-yield edible window gardens built using low-impact or recycled local materials.� (window farm web site)
test To understand hydroponics system, I also installed the Window Farms in my room. Through the internet, I bought mesh pots and clay pebbles. Then, I installed Window Farm kit to use 1.5 litter water bottles. After that, I supported just tap water without fertilizer the plants called daffodil and hyacinth. The flowers grew sooner than I thought and grew well not including any an artificial additive.
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vertical farm case study Despite of number of designs for vertical farm by many architects, they have never been built. In large cities such as New York, Las Vegas, and Toronto are pushing ahead building vertical farm. Interest in vertical farm has also been brought up in Korea and Japan, since both countries mostly rely on indoor farming. In Japan, they started rice farming in the basement of Tokyo Pasona O2 building. (Cho, 2009) In In-Cheon Free Economic Zone of Korea is planning to build vertical farm containing 30 floors. The zone will be the base for entertainment, sport, modern floriculture, and international finance. Also, they are planning to have residential block that holds 90000
people. This vertical farm will accommodate agricultural research and development facility, and distribution facility from 1st floor to 4th floor. On the basement, water tank will be situated, which will purify rain water to use for farming. On 5th to 24th floor, the actual vertical farm will be placed throughout these floors. From 25th to 29th floor, there is an education programme on agriculture. On the roof top, there is facility for collecting solar and wind energy which will then produce electricity for the building. (Cha, 2009) I researched lots of vertical farm projects. Some of the projects are creative and unique. Through these case studies, I studied what architectural elements and technical parts need in vertical farm. 19
vertical farm by Chris Jacobs This vertical farm was designed by Chris Jacobs. He has been researching the vertical farm with Dr. Dickson Despommier for 4 years. He realized benefits of vertical farm from Dr. Despommier and then he has been developing his ideas. He designed not only architectural part but also essential elements for vertical farm system, for example generate of energy and cultivation of crops. The New York magazine wrote about his farm, “The vertical farm doesn’t just grow crops indoors; it also generates its own power from waste and cleans up sewage water.” (Chamberlain, 2001) 1. The Evapotranspiration Recovery System : The vertical farm has function to collect moisture, which can be bottled and sold on each floor. 2. The Pipes : Super cool fluid captures the water vapors from plant and are collected again as they rain down. It takes a same procedure as water vapors formed on surface of a bottle filled with cold liquid. Dr. Despommier thinks that approximately 60 million gallons of water could be collected from one vertical farm in a year. 3. Black-Water Treatment System : The water system is not collect rainwater. The system use wastewater which is taken from sewage. After a strict water purification system, they use the gray water to water the plants. 4. The Crop Picker : The growth of fruits and vegetables are observed
by an electronic eye. Moreover, they judge the plants to use colour detection, ripeness or not. After monitoring, gather in crops by the crop picker. 5. The Field : In order to use spaces effectively, the vertical farm use several layers by crops’ size on each floor. They expect that the field can be used up to ten layers. 6. The Pool : Collection of runoff from irrigation occurs at this stage. This is then funnelled to filtration system. 7. The Feeder : The machine has two functions. One is to water the plants and the other is light. As we know, light and water plays an important part in the growth of plants. Moreover, the feeder controls the amount of light and water to depend on plants. 8. The Pellet Power System : Most of vertical farm’s designs try to use renewable energy such as solar energy and wind power. This vertical farm also is equipped with solar panel and wind spire on top of the building. Especially, this solar panel rotates to follow the sun. Moreover, the vertical farm has another source of power, except solar panel and wind spire. They generate power by use non-edible plat matter for example corn husks. 9 to 11. The Pellet : The image shows how the power generates. 21
the living tower by SOA Architects The Living Tower was designed by Paris based SOA Architects. This vertical farm also went off with Dr. Dickson Despommier. The level of the Living Tower is 30 floors. The concept of the building is to associate the agriculture, residence, office and other equipments such as shopping centre, hypermarket, nursery and library. The architecture firm selected specific crop in connection with Paris. They also estimate the crop production. 63,000 kg of tomatoes per year 37,333 feet of salads per year 9,324 kg strawberry per year They expected that the production can be directly related to local consumers and the region. Energy system There are two large windmills on the roof. According to the SOA Architects web site, the windmills will generate about 200-600 KWH per year (SOA Architects web site). Moreover, they attempted to install photovoltaic panels into building’s facade to generate solar energy. Water system Rainwater is gathered into the building to re-use for the facilities of the offices and residences and hydroponic agriculture. The building has water filtration and purified system. The rainwater and black water are purified and then re-used continuously.
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food chain by Elmslie Osler Architect
Food Chain is quite different from other case study of vertical farm. The project has developed out through cooperating with Elmslie Osler Architect, Urban Farming and Green Living Technologies. The purpose of Food Chain is to cultivate edible food on walls of building at four locations which is around downtown Los Angeles, inclusive of the Central City East (Skid Row) area. To borrow Urban Farming’s phrase, “The Food Chain is a gardening system that offers immediate access to fresh produce, greens the environment, creates team-building and skills-training, and provides an opportunity for community service and involvement. In addition, particularly in areas where concrete and steel are plentiful and ground space and greenery are scarce, the Food Chain will help to lower the heat index and the effects of global warming.” (Urban Farming web site) When I researched about vertical farm, lots of people were concerned about expensive cost. Robin Osler, Elmslie Osler Architect; also mentioned in lecture of National Building Museum, we cannot come up with enough money to build and run a vertical tower (Osler, 2009). For this reason, they tried to use existing building walls instead of new tower. The edible walls are about thirty feet long by six feet high and it is made of recycled stainless steel, inclusive of an automated irrigation system. They are expecting that around 4,000 plants are able to live on the edible walls such as bell peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, tomatoes, spinach, parsley and variety of herb which will rotate as the seasons change. The foods will be provided to the residents of the building and to the homeless and underserved of the neighbourhood. (Kaplan-Seem, 2008) 25
sustainable systems
Through case study, I designed water and energy systems.
rain water
black water greywater facilities greywater hydroponics gardens nutrient water potable facilities potable water 1 2 3 4 5 6
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graywater cistems anaerobic reactor anoxic reactor open aerobic reactor clarifier uv filter
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river water
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3
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5
4
river water
sum me r 65 sun -7 5
wind energy
r sun winte 30 20 -
1 2 3
1
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wind energy solar energy ac current dc power storage battery dc/ac convertor
3 27