Vertical farming
Vertical farming is the practice of growing crops in vertically and horizontally stacked layers. It often incorporates controlled-environment agriculture, which aims to optimize plant growth, and soilless farming techniques such as hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics. Some common choices of structures to house vertical farming systems include buildings, shipping containers, underground tunnels, and abandoned mine shafts.
The modern concept of vertical farming was proposed in 1999 by Dickson Despommier, professor of Public and Environmental Health at Columbia University. Despommier and his students came up with a design of a skyscraper farm that could feed 50,000 people. Although the design has not yet been built, it successfully popularized the idea of vertical farming. Current applications of vertical farming coupled with other state-of-the-art technologies, such as specialized LED lights, have resulted in over 10 times the crop yield as would be received through traditional farming methods. There have been several different means of implementing vertical farming systems into communities such as: Canada,UK, Israel, Singapore,USA,Germany, UK, Japan, and UK.
The main advantage of utilizing vertical farming technologies is the increased crop yield that comes with a smaller unit area of land requirement. The increased ability to cultivate a larger variety of crops at once because crops do not share the same plots of land while growing is another sought-after advantage. Additionally, crops are resistant to weather disruptions because of their placement indoors, meaning fewer crops lost to extreme or unexpected weather occurrences. Lastly, because of its limited land usage, vertical farming is less disruptive to the native plants and animals, leading to further conservation of the local flora and fauna.
Vertical farming technologies face economic challenges with large start-up costs compared to traditional farms. They cannot grow all types of crops but can be cost-effective for high value products such as salad vegetables. Vertical farms also face large energy demands due to the use of supplementary light like LEDs. The buildings also need excellent control of temperature, humidity and water supplies. Moreover, if non-renewable energy is used to meet these energy demands, vertical farms could produce more pollution than traditional farms or greenhouses. An approach to ensure better energy-related environmental performance is to use agrivoltaic-powered vertical farming in an agrotunnel or similar CEA. In this way crops can be grown beneath outdoor agrivoltaics and the solar electricity they provide can be used to power the vertical farming.
Types
The term "vertical farming" was coined by Gilbert Ellis Bailey in 1915 in his book Vertical Farming. His use of the term differs from the current meaning—he wrote about farming with a special interest in soil origin, its nutrient content and the view of plant life as "vertical" life forms, specifically relating to their underground root structures. Modern usage of the term "vertical farming" usually refers to growing plants in layers, whether in a multistorey skyscraper, used warehouse, or shipping container.Mixed-use skyscrapers
Mixed-use skyscrapers were proposed and built by architect Ken Yeang. Yeang proposes that instead of hermetically sealed mass-produced agriculture, plant life should be cultivated within open air, mixed-use skyscrapers for climate control and consumption. This version of vertical farming is based upon personal or community use rather than the wholesale production and distribution that aspires to feed an entire city.Despommier's skyscrapers
Ecologist Dickson Despommier argues that vertical farming is legitimate for environmental reasons. He claims that the cultivation of plant life within skyscrapers will require less embodied energy and produce less pollution than some methods of producing plant life on natural landscapes. By shifting to vertical farms, Despommier believes that farmland will return to its natural state, which would help reverse the effects of climate change. He moreover claims that natural landscapes are too toxic for natural agricultural production. Vertical farming would remove some of the parasitic risks associated with farming.Despommier's concept of the vertical farm emerged in 1999 at Columbia University. It promotes the mass cultivation of plant life for commercial purposes in skyscrapers.
Stackable shipping containers
Several companies have developed stacking recycled shipping containers in urban settings. The shipping containers serve as standardized, modular environmental chambers for growing. By stacking the shipping containers, higher density in terms of produce yield/square foot is possible. But, the stacked containers pose the challenge of how to effectively and affordably access the stacked levels.Freight Farms produced the "Greenery" that is a complete system outfitted with vertical hydroponics, LED lighting and climate controls built within a 12 m × 2.4 m shipping container. Podponics built a vertical farm in Atlanta consisting of over 100 stacked "growpods", but reportedly went bankrupt in May 2016.
In 2017, TerraFarms offered a system of 40-foot shipping containers, which included computer vision integrated with an artificial neural network to monitor the plants; and were remotely monitored. It was claimed that the TerraFarm system "has achieved cost parity with traditional, outdoor farming" with each unit producing the equivalent of " of farmland", using 97% less water through water recapture and harvesting the evaporated water through the air conditioning.
In abandoned mine shafts
Vertical farming in abandoned mine shafts is termed "deep farming", and is proposed to take advantage of consistent underground temperatures and locations near or in urban areas. It would also be able to use nearby groundwater, thereby reducing the cost of providing water to the farm.Technology
Lighting can be natural or via LEDs. As of 2018 commercial LEDs were about 28% efficient, which keeps the cost of produce high and prevents vertical farms from competing in regions where cheap vegetables are abundant. Energy costs can be reduced because full-spectrum white light is not required. Instead, red and blue or purple light can be generated with less electricity.History
One of the earliest drawings of a tall building that cultivates food was published in Life Magazine in 2009. The reproduced drawings feature vertically stacked homesteads set amidst a farming landscape. This proposal can be seen in Rem Koolhaas's Delirious New York. Koolhaas wrote that this theorem is 'The Skyscraper as Utopian device for the production of unlimited numbers of virgin sites on a metropolitan location'.Hydroponicum
Early architectural proposals that contribute to VF include Le Corbusier's Immeubles-Villas and SITE's Highrise of Homes. SITE's Highrise of Homes is a near revival of the 1909 Life Magazine Theorem. Built examples of tower hydroponicums are documented in The Glass House by John Hix. Images of the vertical farms at the School of Gardeners in Langenlois, Austria, and the glass tower at the Vienna International Horticulture Exhibition show that vertical farms existed. The technological precedents that make vertical farming possible can be traced back to horticultural history through the development of greenhouse and hydroponic technology. Early hydroponicums integrated hydroponic technology into building systems. These horticultural building systems evolved from greenhouse technology. The British Interplanetary Society developed a hydroponicum for lunar conditions, while other building prototypes were developed during the early days of space exploration.The Armenian tower hydroponicums are the first built examples of a vertical farm, and are documented in Sholto Douglas' Hydroponics: The Bengal System, first published in 1951 with data from the then-East Pakistan, today's Bangladesh, and the Indian state of West Bengal.
Later precursors that have been published, or built, are Ken Yeang's Bioclimatic Skyscraper ; MVRDV's PigCity, 2000; MVRDV's Meta City/ Datatown ; Pich-Aguilera's Garden Towers.
Ken Yeang is perhaps the most widely known architect who has promoted the idea of the 'mixed-use' Bioclimatic Skyscraper which combines living units and food production.
Vertical farm
is a professor of environmental health sciences and microbiology. He reopened the topic of VF in 1999 with graduate students in a medical ecology class. He speculated that a 30-floor farm on one city block could provide food for 50,000 people including vegetables, fruit, eggs and meat, explaining that hydroponic crops could be grown on upper floors; while the lower floors would be suited for chickens and fish that eat plant waste.Although many of Despommier's suggestions have been challenged from an environmental science and engineering point of view, Despommier successfully popularized his assertion that food production can be transformed. Critics claimed that the additional energy needed for artificial lighting, heating and other operations would outweigh the benefit of the building's close proximity to the areas of consumption.
Despommier originally challenged his class to feed the entire population of Manhattan using only of rooftop gardens. The class calculated that rooftop gardening methods could feed only 2% of the population. Unsatisfied with the results, Despommier made an off-the-cuff suggestion of growing plants indoors, vertically. By 2001 the first outline of a vertical farm was introduced. In an interview Despommier described how vertical farms would function:
Architectural designs were independently produced by designers Chris Jacobs, Andrew Kranis and Gordon Graff.
Mass media attention began with an article written in New York magazine, followed by others, as well as radio and television features.
In 2011, the Plant in Chicago was building an anaerobic digester into the building. This will allow the farm to operate off the energy grid. Moreover, the anaerobic digester will be recycling waste from nearby businesses that would otherwise go into landfills.
In 2013, the Association for Vertical Farming was founded in Munich, Germany.
As of 2014, Vertical Fresh Farms was operating in Buffalo, New York, specializing in salad greens, herbs and sprouts. In March the world's then largest vertical farm opened in Scranton, Pennsylvania, built by Green Spirit Farms. The firm is housed in a single-storey building covering 3.25 hectares, with racks stacked six high to house 17 million plants. The farm was to grow 14 lettuce crops per year, as well as spinach, kale, tomatoes, peppers, basil and strawberries. Water is scavenged from the farm's atmosphere with a dehumidifier.
Kyoto-based Nuvege operates a windowless farm. Its LED lighting is tuned to service two types of chlorophyll, one preferring red light and the other blue. Nuvege produces 6 million lettuce heads a year.
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency operates an 18-storey project that produces genetically modified plants that make proteins useful in vaccines.
Plenty has designed a new AI-controlled modular grow system for multiple crops; they are opening a farm in Chesterfield, Virginia that will grow more than of strawberries each year. The farm uses 97% less land and 97% less water than traditional farming.
In August 2025, United States-based vertical farm company '80 Acres Farms' merged with Soil Organics. The company operates seven vertical farms in the United States with an estimated hydroponic produce production up to 20 million pounds per year.