Vertical Farming, The Wave of the Future?

As the population increases, living area shrinks. Commons sense right? One way to overcome this is to build up. And that's what we do in cities. High rise offices and apartment complexes rule the day. And with population increase comes the problem of feeding the masses. Won't we run out of farmland some day? By 2050, nearly 80% of the earth's population will reside in urban centers. Using conservative estimates, the population will increase by about 3 billion people during that time. At present, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops in the entire world is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). If we can live vertically, why not farm vertically? Man has been indoor farming for years, so why not take that concept a little further. And if we succeed, "farms" could be in the heart of the cities, decreasing the cost of transportation since food will be close to the source. vertical farming will also remove our dependence on weather. And don't just think plants. Certain species of animals will lend themselves to successful vertical farming, such as pigs and fowl.




This is just one of the many areas we need to be researching and spending money on if there is to be a human population in the future.

Food for Thought: The U.S has 612,000 fast food cooks but only 392,850 full time farmers. I always figured we had a lot more farmers. But I guess this could be because a lot of the little guys have been swallowed up by the giants.

Related Books:
Ecoagriculture -strategies to feed the world and save wild biodiversity

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