Treehugger - AeroFarms, an urban agricultural company, has big plans to turn a defunct steel mill into a 70,000 square foot vertical farm in Newark, New Jersey. The facility is projected to cost $39 million and will provide greens and other produce to local New York and New Jersey communities. According to the builders, it will be the largest indoor vertical farm in the world.
Vertical farms, like other types of urban farming, aim to provide fresh produce to city dwellers. They cut down on the energy demands of shipping food from the countryside to city markets, while at the same time offering an alternative to clearing ever more wilderness in the name of growing food. Vertical farms also have the potential to produce food year-round and can be more efficient in their use of water and fertilizer.
AeroFarms currently operates a test farm in Newark, where they use efficient LED lights and aeroponic mist to grow greens. "The plants are really getting a white-glove lifestyle experience," CEO David Rosenberg told NPR. "They have people catering to their every need." Trays of plants are stacked like shelves, up to 30 feet high.
2 comments:
Goldman Sachs is backing this project, which causes me great concern. GS would not back anything that isn't likely to be extremely profitable.
I'm deeply concerned that these vertical farms will be the start of a 2 tiered food system. Pricey choice produce for the wealthy, that is unaffordable for the rest of us.
I haven't vertically farmed, but I do know a little bit about greenhouse growing. There are definite advantages, but things like pests can get out of hand quickly because there aren't the natural predators or climatic variability that can help fend off pests. Soilless growing has it's problems too. Chemical nutrients make produce taste like chemicals, organic nutrients are expensive, and both require a lot of tinkering to get and keep the mix right. There is also the issue of do the nutrients have all the things each variety of plant needs to grow, or does the produce lack nutrients because those nutrients aren't in the nutrient solution. Using enough LEDs to light 30 stories of vegetables will take a lot of energy, because most food crops do best under strong bright lighting, like full day sun. Not to mention the pumps, fans, climate control machines, and such sucking up even more energy.
If we don't want to clear more land for farm land, then I'd suggest a different tactic. Get more people to grow urban gardens, and mini farms in the cities and suburbs. This would be the democratic way to increase availability of fresh produce for most people, and it would not be profiting GS.
I could not have said it better. Thank you!
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