Urban Farming Grows Up

Discovery-News.com: Discovery's Matt Danzico investigates vertical farming, an agricultural concept aimed at growing food and raising animals in skyscrapers in city centers.

Check out more science news stories at http://www.discovery-news.com

• Category

  Science & Technology

[knowledgehammer]

Thos against it are literally ignorant of how their CURRENT food is grown... they hysterically shy away from anything grown unnaturally, yet 92% of food in cities, including organic farm setups in the street get their seeds and most supplies to farm from companies who reduce the efficiency by intent, to keep control of the industry such as MONSANTO. This would create ludicrous surplus, hence finally granting cities a method of exportation of goods and actual revenue for cities themselves!!!

[slowfinger2]

I wish..... that replies to comments would go under the comment, not half-arsed backward at the top of the list.

We can only dream.

[lynn cam]

awesome idea

[canuckartist]

I don't understand, which stereotype are you referring to?

[map543211]

yea and keep getting your perceptions of america from movies and tv because anyone who has any knowledge about the US would know it's McDonald's not burger king

[Sonyoooo3]

Yes nice propaganda cheap food from verticle farming system but i have heard allot of cheaper this and cheaper that all i see is expensieve after to much demand just like electricity.

[map543211]

just because something is old doesn't mean it is historic but what I was saying is that if you completely change the building it no longer carries it's historical identity it is just a new building with recycled parts. With that being the case does it make any financial sense to do projects like this in a place like the US which has an over abundance of farm land, no, it may make more sense in other areas not so rich in land here Iit would just raise the cost of food for no real benefit

[map543211]

It is plainly a $ issue besides how do you keep the building historic when you have to remove 1/2 the exterior to let in light, assuming the structure could take it. Grow lights could do it but then you use massive amounts of electricity. If you are willing to pay for the large rise in food cost from these buildings good for you I'll just take good old farm raised food and save some cash.

[utahcompost801]

w w w . UTAHCOMPOST. o r g

[map543211]

finding large enough abandoned building in good enough shape to renovate might be difficult add in the cost of restructuring the building assuming you want to use natural sunlight would cost a small fortune in old large masonry buildings since their strength is in the skin of the building and if you use artificial light you get less yields at much higher cost then sunlight which is additional cost to over come probably better suited to more space restricted areas then US

[Ernest Tang]

What about renovating old abandoned buildings? wouldn't that perhaps drive down the cost?

In another interview related to vertical farming they did speak a lot about renovating abandoned buildings.

[canuckartist]

It's an interesting idea, I'm not sure it would be cost effective though. There's no reason it could not grow good food but would'nt it be easier and cheaper to build rooftop greenhouses on existing buildings?