Vertical farming

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Vertical farming is the practice of growing crops in vertically and horizontally stacked layers.^[1] It often incorporates controlled-environment agriculture, which aims to optimize plant growth, and soilless farming techniques such as hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics.^[1] Some common choices of structures to house vertical farming systems include buildings, shipping containers, underground tunnels, and abandoned mine shafts.

The modern concept of vertical farming was proposed in 1999 by Dickson Despommier, professor of Public and Environmental Health at Columbia University.^[2] Despommier and his students came up with a design of a skyscraper farm that could feed 50,000 people.^[3] Although the design has not yet been built, it successfully popularized the idea of vertical farming.^[3] Current applications of vertical farmings coupled with other state-of-the-art technologies, such as specialized LED lights, have resulted in over 10 times the crop yield than would receive through traditional farming methods.^[4] There have been several different means of implementing vertical farming systems into communities such as: Paignton,^[5] Israel,^[6] Singapore,^[7] Chicago,^[8] Munich,^[9] London,^[10] Japan,^[4] and Lincolnshire.^[11]

The main advantage of utilizing vertical farming technologies is the increased crop yield that comes with a smaller unit area of land requirement.^[12][13] The increased ability to cultivate a larger variety of crops at once because crops do not share the same plots of land while growing is another sought-after advantage. Additionally, crops are resistant to weather disruptions because of their placement indoors, meaning less crops lost to extreme or unexpected weather occurrences. Lastly, because of its limited land usage, vertical farming is less disruptive to the native plants and animals, leading to further conservation of the local flora and fauna.^[14]

Vertical farming technologies face economic challenges with large start-up costs compared to traditional farms. They cannot grow all types of crops but can be cost-effective for high value products such as salad vegetables.^[15] Vertical farms also face large energy demands due to the use of supplementary light like LEDs. The buildings also need excellent control of temperature, humidity and water supplies. Moreover, if non-renewable energy is used to meet these energy demands, vertical farms could produce more pollution than traditional farms or greenhouses.