As the global population rapidly urbanizes, we need to move our agricultural production to within urban and peri-urban areas. The environmental and social costs of large-scale, industrial farming are huge, and include the fallout from widespread pesticide and chemical use, the depletion of land resources, and the progressive depopulation of rural areas.
In regions where land is at a premium or climatic conditions are not favorable for outdoor farming, the only alternative is the controlled environment agriculture (CEA) ‘plant factory’ – whether an indoor, vertical, or greenhouse-based facility.
The advantage of CEA is clear: safer, standardized, pesticide-free produce with short delivery ‘circuits’ that are less polluting. The flipside is that the jury is still out as to whether indoor or vertically farmed produce can be considered especially sustainable given lighting energy costs in particular. If these energy input costs could be reduced, then the door opens to using vertical farming as a production system for food staples such as wheat, corn, and soy.
The current energy use reduction effort in CEA is largely focused on improving lighting technology with the goal of greater energy efficiency and ‘tuning’ light frequencies to the photosynthetic needs of plants. But perhaps there are other approaches to support the transition of indoor and vertical farming into an incontrovertible part of the urban food chain?
Read more at AgFunder News (L. Lerer)