TEDxWindyCity -- Dickson Despommier -- The Vertical Farm

[Alexfantastico26]

This gives me hope, and that's something we all need right now

[jcng5]

would this be cost effective?



[MrGamestop101]

Nature has worked for 14 billion years and we We're stupid enough to believe that are system developed in 10000 years is better. Tsk tsk.

[bakkenkegan]

the talk starts at 00:47

[VtBudgies]

TAXES that's the ONLY issue in the way let's all get together and go meet with the mayor of new York, Chicago, or las Vegas and ask for a law that simply says that any vertical farms in the future could opereate without property taxes there would probably be issues with regular farmers being ticked off but they get huge tax breaks anyway this is a way to make investors say o well this could grow and build more and more on my investment this is just like any other company and could be very profi

[PaulCarnage]

Get rid of the monetary system (money) and this will be extremely possible.

[SeanTalksTooMuch]

@PaulCarnage Very true, i often hear people bring up the "loss of farming jobs" as a monetary concern. They don't realize that a monetary system actually creates most of the necessity to sell labor. A farmer may lose his job, but would gain a world without food and water scarcity

[Sharangir]

@PaulCarnage Damn dirty communists and their hippy ideas! How dare they want to make the world a better place!

[aclinard]

no science! nothing to back it up... poor columbia university being associated with this guy! and his plans will never feed the poor: the poor and the hungry will be fed through small scale sustainable agriculture in which they are the owners of their production. hunger is created through enclosure, and the dependence/poverty which follows.

[NewerJorg]

@aclinard Neither in the talk nor in his book he claims it's proven science and ready to go: He wants to raise interrest in the topic so some vertical farm prototypes get built and research is done.

He speaks of some school project "vertical farm" and also about "the genomes" of coming generations that he wishes to look into this idea - because 1 thing is clear (for this you'll find a broad scientific consensus): the way agriculture works today won't feed the people of tomorrow in a sust. way!

[koolagoo]

Here is a great example how people get excited and work on ideas that will improve everyones lifes without any money incentive. Check out the Zeitgeist movement, and lets finally make this reality - feed the whole wide world!

[MokomaSusi]

@koolagoo

Zeitgeists idea = build robots to do work humans do now.

Not going to happen.

[koolagoo]

@MokomaSusi That's not the idea. :) The idea is to do not stop the tecnical progress only because "everyone has to make money for a living". It's gonna happen anyway, only painful way. Just look at what's going on today: soon there will be tremendous numbers of unemployed people. Here's one hillarious article on the subject. Hillarious, but it's no joke...

cracked.com/article_18817_5-re­asons-future-will-be-ruled-by-­b.s..html

[MokomaSusi]

@koolagoo

"soon there will be tremendous numbers of unemployed people. "

Yeah, but that robot revolution wont start anytime soon. Then there is that most important factor: "Idle Hands Are The Devil's Tools" like the saying goes.

Judge Dredd comics give good impression what "Zeitgeist future" would look like.

[curingaging00]

@MokomaSusi Yea, I would leave many of the robots out of the equation, but the other ideas in the Venus Project are good.

[efortune357]

@curingaging00 automation moves forward whether we like it or not. This has been happening for decades in our current system. Difference is in this system people become unemployed. In a resource based economy using automation means more freedom. Google " Foxconn to replace workers with 1 million robots in 3 years " stories like this one will continue to happen in order for companies to compete. It seems unemployment will continue to rise. It's already happening in this system.

[IAmJasonThomas]

I'd like except I'd say simplify it, make it cheaper and scale it down to start. What if we could build smaller versions in our backyards, vacant houses, and apartments. There are some really good videos on Youtube that show how almost anyone can grow food indoor and outdoors using hydroponics and aeroponics: watch?v=dz6m5370RB0 watch?v=3xUK6A9Bwvk&feature=re­lated and especially watch?v=HMrjQScAQFY

[sukosuko1]

@IAmJasonThomas yes, i agree these small scale hydroponics are much more realistic than vertical farming. I think I might try it out. They do use a lot of electric power however. After fukushima, with growing resistance to nuclear power and increasingly expensive fossil fuels, I'm starting to wonder what the effect of extremely expensive energy will be on the world 100 years from now. maybe we will all move back to the farm.

[SeanTalksTooMuch]

@sukosuko1

Have you heard of EGS? it can domestically supply the US with 140,000 times more power than it consumes. /watch?v=O6r_3AgI49Y

Nuclear on the other hand is relatively weak, only providing 20% of the US power supply. Plus, lots of fuel is used in uranium mining.

Photovoltaic Inks are also on the rise /watch?v=P5ltETpyBK0

Cost effective Wind Turbines are already on the market, such as the Honnewell WT 6500 /watch?v=hMV4NHimFvY&feature=r­elated

in 100 years energy will be as free as air

[sukosuko1]

I highly recommend listening to Dickson Despommier on the 'this week in parasitism' podcast, his original research area. Its really good.

The vertical farm idea is a nice idea but not economically feasible.

[falci01]

information we don`t produce anything, I mean we do produce but just a small bit of what we need. I do believe that the success of this kind of project there going to find a lot of people ready to learn and apply some sustainable methods of farming. And this I think is a pretty difficult thing to do.

[falci01]

The small scale farming is a good idea and I think I what we should start doing. But my point of view is that more people should be involved in growing the food and of course they need to know what they are doing (I mean to be passionate about their job). USA have now only 3-4% of people engaged in food production, and for a sustainable farming to occur I think you need at least 20% of well informed farmers. Here in Romania we have 50% of people living in country side, but without the proper