feature vertical farming by Amy M . Storey
With a glut of information and experiences about vertical farming crowding farmers on all sides , it can be hard to separate the wheat from the chaff . Amy M . Storey from Bright Agrotech is here to help .
Vertical farming can be a confusing space . There are hundreds of farms having a go at farming , dozens of methods being used , and endless voices discussing , questioning , and criticizing . With such a variety of vertical farms being started , it is difficult to sort out the best practices . It ’ s nearly impossible to wade through the forums , YouTube videos , and case studies to figure out what works and what doesn ’ t . This leaves many aspiring farmers left wondering what they can actually do to ensure their farm ’ s success . Although many have discovered good practices , many farmers overlook one enormous factor of a successful vertical farm : economics . This leads to mistakes like starting a farm without market research , choosing crops with no demand , or creating a system with crippling labor costs . Over the years , we ’ ve had the privilege of walking many farmers through the start-up and scaling phases of their businesses . We broke down the intimidating goal of economic viability into four sections — the four factors of vertical farm success :
FACTOR # 1 : SPACE-USE EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY
Since starting in the industry nearly a decade ago , we have discovered that categorizing farms by the orientation of the growing plane ( horizontal or vertical ) completely transforms the approach for each factor . Some farmers stick to the horizontal growing plane and create vertical farms by stacking one plane on top of the other . Others break the mold and rotate the plane vertically to grow their crops . The most obvious advantage of vertical plane production is that it maximizes space use . Vertical farming not only uses one layer of the growing space , but utilizes the entire volume of space , from the floor up . Both types of vertical farm aim to increase space-use efficiency by using a volume of space . However , the first iterations of vertical farms — stacked farms — forgot to pair space-use efficiency with usability . As a result , many a stacked farm has failed , weighed down by usability and air movement issues . To remedy the problems experienced by stacked vertical farms , equipment designers began considering vertical planes . The first thing brought into consideration was the amount of usable surface area in a volume of space .
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