The term “Vertical Farming” has been getting a lot of attention these days, thanks to Dr. Dick Despommier, who coined the term.  The basic premise of vertical farming is instead of growing out, you grow up.  This principle makes a lot of sense given the world’s increasing demand for food in the face of finite and eroding arable land.  The question now becomes, how do we grow upward?

Despommier has been advocating new construction of elaborate and ambitious skyscrapers.  Below are some renderings of proposed ideas:

While these designs are architecturally-stunning, many have serious reservations over the viability of such a design (see here).  Despommier estimates his first proof of concept project to cost over $30 million— a large price tag, especially in these times.

However, we believe in the fundamental thesis supporting growing vertically and have tried to accomplish this in a realistic and financially viable (profitable!) way.  Our systems are designed to be located inside existing buildings.  We do not require expensive skyscraper space or newly renovated buildings.  We are looking to locate inside old or vacant warehouse type buildings.  In fact, our current R&D facility is located in a 1950s warehouse basement— talk about proof of concept!

This has enormous potential for certain areas that suffer from significant urban blight, such as Hunts Point in NYC or Detroit.  You have the opportunity to rehabilitate these buildings into useful and productive sites, while providing unskilled jobs to the local community.

So in summary, yes we believe that vertical farming is realistic—but an evolved and more viable version.

3 Responses to “IS VERTICAL FARMING REALISTIC?”

1. Charlie Goodman says:

   February 10, 2010 at 10:05 pm

   Those futuristic artist renditions would make one think twice about the reality of such an idea, but check these links out and you will see that vertical farmign is real, is here today, and is going to spread really fast throughout cities worldwide…

   “I can’t think of any technology that addresses more urgent issues than Valcent’s vertical farming system”, says RFK Jr http://bit.ly/cPb00g

   Time Magazine says Valcent’s Vertical Farming Technology one of the Top 50 Best Innovations of 2009: http://bit.ly/5zDIqh

   Valcent’s VertiCrop vertical farming system was featured on BBC TV today. Watch the video here: http://bit.ly/aP1XIU
2. busy do Holandii z Elblaga says:

   April 13, 2010 at 9:40 am

   Thanks for sharing, please keep us posting about this info. I’d like to read it more.
3. E.B. says:

   June 22, 2010 at 5:52 pm

   I’m really glad to see that someone is putting this theory into practice. Perhaps someday we will be able to grow enough of our crop varieties in this manner that we can begin to restore American farm lands to their original forested state.