BIG IDEAS: Dickson Despommier's Vertical Farming

If there weren't any pesky practical limitations, what world-changing device would you invent? In the second installment of Babelgum and GOOD's new Big Ideas competition, Columbia professor Dickson Despommier imagines filling New Yorks skyscrapers with farms.

• Category

  Comedy

[123rcjm]

Too be frank I think we need food management more than we need cruise missiles

[rbaleksandar]

This is cool although nothing new. Such farming facilities should be created but the more important matter right now is the food management. The amount of produced food that is just thrown in the garbage container is insanely huge. And still there are hundreds of millions of people around the world who are dying from starvation. So properly managing the resources should be THE GOAL for all nations including their much more balanced distribution in each and every corner of our planet.

[auroraglacialis]

"Think of typical crops like..." wheat, corn, rice - oops. The main source for calories is not tomatoes or cabbage, it is wheat and corn and that takes much more space to grow than vegetables. Also: you cannot stack these on top without loosing light. I tried at home - the plants just a foot on the inside will not grow properly. Plus if you use light you do not have sunlight behind the building, so you cannot put in another behind and the people in the buildings there have to use electric light!

[tomcat6680]

you also have the side of the building painted dull black

[edmundgeswein]

Theoretically, it sounds like a good idea. It would also open the door for more jobs.

[Bestoun Haidari]

the harvesting and sorting can be done with automation, so no people needed

[hikura]

Nice idea, However you didn't talk about the things that are important when considering such a prospect.

[fukc hoe]

i also think we need to manage our population and philosophical ideas

[joriswelles]

I think this is a very good idea, but I still have a questions about it:

If these buildings are standing near each other, wouldn't they block the sun for each other? The same goes for the floors on top of each other.

what is the density of the crops on these little farms? I saw some plants in pots, but that isn't very useful.

If there are answers for these questions, I'm glad to hear.

[Alex Tam]

The problem is the government never want to do it

[Chookatoo]

explain how you will deal with drainage, nutrient sources, UV requirements. How much will one "farm" cost to run? How will this fair in the long term? Or, are we better off looking at population control and long term plans for sustainability, living within our means WITHIN the world we live... and not outside of it... completely out of touch with other species so that they mean even less than they do to us now.

[jardinatura EDWARD HANDLEY]

We want to be pioneers in Spain and in the U.K. and then conquer the world with them green towers!