Vertical Farming
Using Agricultural Skyscrapers to Counter Food Shortages
The last place you would expect to encounter groups of round-bellied pigs and rows of sun-sweetened corn is amongst the giant, steely buildings of Manhattan.
However, these and other farm staples may soon be an important part of New York City's tallest borough. For the last couple of years, the idea of constructing city skyscrapers to house vast agricultural centers has been gaining momentum. While mass-producing farm products in the heart of a metropolis may seem strange, proponents of so-called vertical farming are quick to point out the activity's far-reaching benefits.
Why Farm Vertically
The main advantage of vertical farming has to do with space. Within 40 years, the number of people living on the planet will swell to around 9 billion. As Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier points out on the Web site, www.verticalfarm.org, a rise in the world's population means an increased need for food. Yet most of our arable soil is already in use. This is why Despommier and other environmental scientists are looking up from the ground and setting their eyes on the skies. They believe that stacking vegetable patches, rice fields, and chicken pens, one on top of the other in a multi-storied building, may be the best solution we have to our problem of dwindling farmable land.
The Global Warming Factor
Global warming adds even more urgency to this agricultural endeavor. As Earth's temperature rises, climatologists predict an increased number of hurricanes, floods, and draughts. Vertical farming would allow for year-round farming minus the threat of nature's destructive elements. Furthermore, creating agricultural skyscrapers (or farmscrapers) could possibly even help in the fight against climate change: farming in an urban setting would decrease deforestation and help us humans reduce our need for fossil fuels, which power farm equipment like tractors.
Critics of Vertical Farming
While many are excited by the idea of moving farming practices into city high-rises, vertical farming does have its critics. Bruce Bugbee, a crop physiology professor at Utah State University in Logan argues that vertical farming would require too much energy. For example, during the winter when days are shorter, farmscrapers would likely run up a nightmare of an electric bill keeping plants well lighted.
The Future of Farmscrapers
Supporters of vertical farming are aware of the problem of high-energy costs and other kinks that may decrease this activity's effectiveness. Yet they feel confident that they can work out these issues, turn their vision into a reality and, in the process, make the world a less hungry place. And, perhaps, if and when they succeed with their plans, wheat and chicken coops will become just as commonplace in Manhattan as cosmos and designer shoes.
