High-Rise Farming for a Healthier Lifestyle
What will civilization do for food when thereis predicted to bea human population of nine billion by 2050 with morethan 75 percent of the earth’s population residing in urban centers?
At present, throughout theworld, morethan 80 percent of theland that issuitablefor raising cropsisalready in use.
Many expertsarealready creating detailsfor high-rise farming projectsto besituated in theheart of theworld’s urban centers.
Thisvertical farming would cultivateplant or animal life within a skyscraper greenhouseor on vertical surfaces using techniques similar to glasshouses.
This would reducetheneed for new farmland, keep from destroying land and forests, and save natural resources.
Thecontrolled growing environment would produce practical organiccropsand reducetheneed for pesticides.
Additionally, thevertical industry would provideemployment for farm laborers when sometraditional farmsaredismantled; those unemployed could moveto thecitiesand find work for which they arequalified.
Theconcept of indoor farming is far from new. Hothouse production of tomatoes, other produceand a widevariety of herbshasbeen popular for sometime.
What isnew is theneed to increasethis technology to accommodateanother three billion peopleand usecutting edgetechnology, beinexpensiveto construct, besafeto operate, and sustain production of year-round crops.
Our food-bearing plantsare subjected to therigorsof the great outdoors with thehope for a good weather year.
However, becauseof rapidly changing climates, therehavebeen massivefloods, protracted droughts, fires, hurricanes, tornadoesand other natural disastersthat havedestroyed millionsof tons of valuablecrops each year.
Thetimehas cometo learn how to growour harvestablefood inside environmentally controlled buildingsand givethat food protection from theelementsand encouragegrowth year-round.
Abandoned urban propertiescould also beconverted into food production centers.
Gardens housed in glass edifices could heat and cool themselves, capturerain water, and recirculate domesticwasteasplant food.
Energy would beharvested from thewind and sun, trapping it between thebuilding “wings� for heating.
Thenatural sunlight could beaugmented with artificial lighting. Cooling would beachieved through natural ventilation and transpiration from theabundant plants.
Another major factor isthat such farming would substantially reducetheamount of fossil fuelscurrently used to refrigerateand transport farm produce. It would also eliminatetheconventional planting and harvesting by fossil-fueled farm machinery, reducing air pollution and carbon dioxide emissionsthat causeclimatechange.
Dr. Dickson Despommier, a Columbia University professor of PublicHealth in Environmental Health Sciences, is theleader behind the“Vertical Farming� initiativeasa solution for the upcoming food crisis.
Putting hisideasto use, the Brooklyn design group Aprilli recently won a FuturisticDesign award fromA’Design for their Urban Skyfarm concept.
High-risefarming would thus help to solvethefuturefood problem and would createa healthier environment for humans aswell asanimals.
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