Vertical farms, building a viable indoor farming model for cities
The number of vertical farms has grown to several hundred farms across Asia, Europe, and North America since the first appeared back in 2010. Using different types of technologies, vertical farms are a new type of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) that could be described as a stack of greenho...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Institut Veolia Environnement
2019-09-01
|
Series: | Field Actions Science Reports |
Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/5737 |
_version_ | 1819074927307784192 |
---|---|
author | Dickson Despommier |
author_facet | Dickson Despommier |
author_sort | Dickson Despommier |
collection | DOAJ |
description | The number of vertical farms has grown to several hundred farms across Asia, Europe, and North America since the first appeared back in 2010. Using different types of technologies, vertical farms are a new type of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) that could be described as a stack of greenhouses on top of each other, multiplying the plant yield by the number of floors comprising the vertical farm. It has now become a solution to most of the issues deriving from traditional outdoor farming: by occupying less land, it can contribute to the restoration of forests and by operating within a circular economy framework, it uses fewer resources and reuses organic waste. Impacts on health could also be significant as outdoor farming contributes to the spread of global infectious diseases. While vertical farms require a high-tech environment, which can mostly be acquired in wealthy countries, the model could rise in the coming years as a viable solution to increase food sufficiency of cities across the world with the support of local authorities and international organizations, as well as with the multiplication of large commercial growers. |
first_indexed | 2024-12-21T18:17:17Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-4b49a2669d0048acbb4072c73929f248 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 1867-139X |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-12-21T18:17:17Z |
publishDate | 2019-09-01 |
publisher | Institut Veolia Environnement |
record_format | Article |
series | Field Actions Science Reports |
spelling | doaj.art-4b49a2669d0048acbb4072c73929f2482022-12-21T18:54:37ZengInstitut Veolia EnvironnementField Actions Science Reports1867-139X2019-09-01206873Vertical farms, building a viable indoor farming model for citiesDickson DespommierThe number of vertical farms has grown to several hundred farms across Asia, Europe, and North America since the first appeared back in 2010. Using different types of technologies, vertical farms are a new type of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) that could be described as a stack of greenhouses on top of each other, multiplying the plant yield by the number of floors comprising the vertical farm. It has now become a solution to most of the issues deriving from traditional outdoor farming: by occupying less land, it can contribute to the restoration of forests and by operating within a circular economy framework, it uses fewer resources and reuses organic waste. Impacts on health could also be significant as outdoor farming contributes to the spread of global infectious diseases. While vertical farms require a high-tech environment, which can mostly be acquired in wealthy countries, the model could rise in the coming years as a viable solution to increase food sufficiency of cities across the world with the support of local authorities and international organizations, as well as with the multiplication of large commercial growers.http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/5737 |
spellingShingle | Dickson Despommier Vertical farms, building a viable indoor farming model for cities Field Actions Science Reports |
title | Vertical farms, building a viable indoor farming model for cities |
title_full | Vertical farms, building a viable indoor farming model for cities |
title_fullStr | Vertical farms, building a viable indoor farming model for cities |
title_full_unstemmed | Vertical farms, building a viable indoor farming model for cities |
title_short | Vertical farms, building a viable indoor farming model for cities |
title_sort | vertical farms building a viable indoor farming model for cities |
url | http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/5737 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT dicksondespommier verticalfarmsbuildingaviableindoorfarmingmodelforcities |