Is Vertical Farming a Good Idea?
No. It’s largely, though not entirely, a terrible idea that claims to solve a land and water use problem by adopting an even bigger energy problem. Let’s explain…
There’s no shortage of futurecasting in sustainable agriculture, and few of these futures is endowed with more good PR and idle rich-guy money looking for a new home than vertical farming: the idea of taking farming indoors, planting in a soil-less medium multiple stories up into the sky, automating the planting and harvesting, and controlling inputs with incredible precision resulting in almost no waste.
It’s tempting to be excited by this technology, considering the knife’s edge that some of our most important vegetable and fruit producing regions are standing on. However, with vertical farming (and other tech-oriented “solutions” to feeding a growing planet), we find ourselves facing a blend of Dr. Ian Malcolm’s warning against hubris in the face of nature, and Thucydides’ characterization of hope as “danger’s comforter.” And in the case of vertical farming and all its discussion of land savings and water use, there’s one particular fellow who would like to have a word.
