Upwards, not Outwards: The Potential of Vertical Farming
The world population is estimated to rise to 9.7 billion by the year 2050. To avoid major hunger crises, food supply will need to follow. As urbanisation and soil degeneration negatively impacts farmland, natural resources are becoming scarce, and lack of rainfall is leading farmers to dry up natural water sources such as lakes and rivers. Continuing in this current direction is unsustainable; it’s time to invest in alternative, resource-efficient farming methods.
Growing in popularity, one such alternative involves growing upwards instead of outwards. This agricultural method is more commonly known as vertical farming, widely regarded as the most viable solution to increasing resource scarcity.
Contrary to popular belief, the concept of farming vertically has existed for millennia. Over 2500 years ago, the hanging gardens of Babylon grew different types of trees, shrubs and flowers on a series of stacked terrasses and ingeniously used a system of buckets and pulleys for water irrigation. This wonder of the ancient world is considered as one of the first vertical farms known to man.
Only recently has vertical farming re-emerged as a method that could revolutionise traditional agriculture. In 1999, Columbia Professor Dickson Despommier came up with the concept for a multi-story building dedicated to growing crops. Ten years later, the first modern vertical farm was built in Singapore, involving hundreds of 9-metre-tall towers that harnessed natural sunlight and rainwater to grow produce on a massive scale.
Today over 2000 US firms compete in the vertical farming sphere, and thousands more across the world are scrambling to develop a dominant design. Most of these companies remain relatively small, and their approach to vertical farming varies in terms of growth mechanism, structure and crop type.
Founded in 2015, CubicFarms is a prime example of the innovative mindset of the vertical farming industry. The company’s farm system hinges on repurposed shipping containers, which are fitted with a conveyer belt that brings produce to the front of the machine for harvesting and planting. In constant movement, every plant is consistently exposed to sunlight and water, as crops are grown in optimal conditions to maximise their nutritional value. Another up-and-coming player in vertical farming is Jones Food Company, whose own cultivation system is modelled on a car factory. And on the commercial front, a company called Infarm sells small-scale vertical farming systems to supermarkets, schools, and offices, where plants are grown locally on an “agriculture-as-a-service” model. These three firms demonstrate the innovative and creative capacity of the vertical farming sphere, where disruptive technology is constantly emerging. Although the ‘perfect’ model is still far from developed, the benefits of vertical farming show great promise for the future.
As a result of such intense competition within the industry, technological efficiency is improving rapidly, driving costs down. To produce a comparable volume of crops, vertical farms use up to 95% less water and fifty times less land than conventional farms. Furthermore, crops can be grown regardless of weather conditions or season and do not require pesticides or herbicides. Essentially, vertical farming can be done anywhere and at any time, which is why the technology has so much potential. This geographical convenience benefits principal actors of the agricultural supply chain.
The ability to grow crops locally — and vertically — could greatly reduce transportation costs for distributors. A truck delivering lettuce from Salinas Valley in California to New York City markets emits 9033 lbs of CO2, roughly equivalent to the monthly emission of an average Canadian household. Additionally, the more time crops spend in transit, the less nutritional value they have in the hands of the customer. This could have a huge impact in regions of the world where agriculture is made difficult by geographic conditions. For instance, more than half of people affected by food crises in 2019 were in Africa, a continent plagued by its lack of farmland, with over 600 million hectares of uncultivatable arable areas. Furthermore, natural disasters such as droughts, fires, floods, and storms cost farmers billions of dollars each year. Indoor vertical farms could provide much-needed protection for these crops and increase accessibility to fresh produce in remote areas.
Vulnerable regions are those where vertical farming is the most needed, yet the least present. The modern technology behind vertical farming is mostly found in more developed countries, where food is already abundant. Despite the constant technological progress in the industry that drives costs down, vertical farming still lacks economic viability, discouraging its use in regions that can’t afford the technology; currently, the cost of growing a pound of lettuce on a vertical farm is around five times more than by conventional methods.
Although efficient in its use of water and land, the beneficial impacts of vertical farming on the environment are limited by the quantity of energy required to control indoor climate and power artificial lighting. These high energy costs surpass those of conventional farms, even when taking into account differences in the transportation of crops and water irrigation. Additional limitations of vertical farming include the absence of wind or natural pollination and its heavy reliance on new technology, meaning power cuts could potentially drive huge production losses.
Vertical farming remains an industry for the future. In the upcoming decades, competing firms must greatly reduce costs, maximise efficiency and develop a dominant design for vertical farming to become part of mainstream agricultural methods. Current technology already shows great promise, and if developed, will become the most viable solution to one of tomorrow’s greatest problems. In line with the alarming pace of global warming, traditional agricultural methods will become more vulnerable to the changing climate — growing plants in protected and artificial spaces may soon become inevitable.