Vertical farming tower

[Hanlansboy]

Just thinking out loud, but I do remember a while ago, seeing designs for vertical farming, essentially a skyscraper using hydroponics to produce as much food as is necessary. Ever since COVID-19 struck, it’s become all too apparent that we rely far to heavily on imported fruits and vegetables, and are not self-sufficient, especially during the winter months. Frankly, I’m just curious if anyone out there has heard of any plans to design such a structure. Given the rate at which our city is growing, the Greenbelt is not going to be enough, and with a very uncertain political future not just in the United States, but in many other countries we import our food from, perhaps it’s time we consider building such structures, so during times like this, we have ample amounts of food to sustain our population without having to rely upon anyone else. I would imagine the biggest issue at hand would be cost-effectiveness, could we build such a structure and maintain it while still turning over a profit for whom ever owns it? Just a thought, feedback?

 

[Northern Light]

See this thread.

U of T Scarborough - Centennial College Vertical Farm

U of T Scarborough - Centennial College partnering to develop Canada’s first net-zero vertical farm U of T Scarborough and Centennial College are teaming up to establish the EaRTH District – an initiative aimed at advancing the clean tech sector through research, academic programming and...

urbantoronto.ca

The idea is percolating.

 

[lenaitch]

Vertical farming has the potential to add to the mix, but it's not going to replace field crops. A couple of articles:

No, Vertical Farms Won’t Feed the World

While they are well-intentioned, new indoor “farms” won’t help feed the world or reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture. We would…

globalecoguy.org

Vertical farming sector struggles with costs - Future Farming

While the vertical farming sector has raised over $?1 billion in funding since 2015, the sector faces huge challenges.

www.futurefarming.com

The problem with pollination is something I hadn't thought of. I read an article not that long ago (which, of course, I now can't find) described a report from Israel which has a couple of large scale projects, and they found that they were really only suitable for producing simple leafy plants.

 

[44 North]

Feel like the idea could be good in theory. But part of me believes it may become a necessity. Reading this quirks-and-quarks episode on magnetic pole reversal scares the heck out of me. For decades I assumed the poles flipping was no problem other than for navigation. Was I wrong. We'd likely have time to prepare, but things like vertical farming and lead-lined everything could be the norm. Hate sounding like a "prepper", but this is real deal stuff that can't be controlled by geo-politics, is defo not a one off 1/100,000,000MY event, and is an inevitability.

 

[lenaitch]

Don't sweat it. It will likely crash the electrical grid and completely mess up pollinators anyway.

 

[afransen]

Vertical farming will never be done at scale in skyscrapers. Just never. What vertical farming will look like is 40ft (ok, maybe up to 80 ft) tall x 1million sqft warehouses in the suburbs, much like you see lining highways in Peel, or just outside of town. Skyscrapers are just way too significant an investment in materials, and for next to no benefit over being located <50km away on land that is at least an order of magnitude cheaper.

 

[44 North]

Don't sweat it. It will likely crash the electrical grid and completely mess up pollinators anyway.

-honey, is it normal for our 10W solar panel to be producing 1.21 gigawatts?
-iono, and can you close the blinds