farmscrapers
Traditionally , to grow food , you needed land — lots of land .
Sadly , available land for farming is fast disappearing all over the world as the Earth ’ s population continues to grow . Consider that , at present , there are twice as many people on the planet today as there were in 1970 . With a global population expected to reach nine billion by the year 2050 , the ability to grow enough food to sustain such an increase using conventional farming methods is in serious jeopardy . Advancements in plant knowledge , improved techniques ( such as crop rotation ), modern tools , and equipment coupled with better farming practices as a whole have led to increased production with greater yields than at any time in human history . Nevertheless , it ’ s not enough .
CHANGE IS INEVITABLE
Common sense tells us we can ’ t stay on this path and should begin to shift from energy-intensive industrial agriculture to a more eco-friendly and sustainable system lest our carbon footprint become that of a work boot . As the world ’ s population grows , less and less land is available for farming and agriculture . The challenge , then , is how to grow and harvest crops when there isn ’ t land enough on which to grow them . Enter farmscrapers : skyscrapers with veggies on the inside and even some with trees on the outside . This revolutionary approach takes its inspiration from vertical farming , a method of growing indoors that is the front-runner in the race to feed the world . Fast gaining in popularity for being an effective , innovative , and productive complement to the standard sprawling land cultivation , vertical farming is taking agriculture in a new direction — up .
“
THIS REVOLUTIONARY approach takes its inspiration from vertical farming , a method of growing indoors that is the front-runner in the race to feed the world .”
MEET THE MASTER
Widely regarded as “ the father of vertical gardening ,” Dickson Despommier , microbiology and public health professor at Columbia University , first conceived the idea of vertical farming over a decade ago when he challenged his students to come up with a way to theoretically feed an entire city of two million people using only 13 acres of rooftop gardens . When the endeavor proved somewhat fruitless , they eventually reworked the concept to include the vertical space inside the buildings and the idea of vertical farming emerged . Much of this exercise centered on Despommier ’ s early recognition of the importance of growing food in an urban environment , in closer proximity to where people lived . Ahead of his time , even in the late 1990s , he saw the tremendous potential of vertical gardening for sustained food production . Though scoffed at in the beginning , agriculturalists and botanists have now taken this high-flying concept to heart and are both creating and implementing new vertical growing methods with impressive results .
52 feature