The world’s agricultural land is rapidly eroding. About 40 per cent of it is already degraded, and a substantial portion of the rest will be gone by 2050. So in 40 years, the earth may not have enough land to feed its large population.
Agriculture, as it is practised today, is known to destroy the soil quality rapidly. Any kind of monoculture does so, as it reduces biodiversity. Modern intensive farming rapidly destroys the soil because of excessive use of irrigation and fertiliser, not to speak of creating pollution through fertiliser run off.
If the earth is to survive as a habitat for human beings and other animals, farming practices need to change considerably. If agriculture does not use soil at all, we could restore a large portion of the earth to its former state. It would reduce carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere and thus help combat climate change (see ‘Decoding The Earth’s Future’).
Scientists have shown that plants actually do not need the soil to flourish, as long as they have an anchor and a source of water and nutrients. In fact, it turns out that plants anchored in the air — as in aeroponics — need only 10 per cent of the water used by those in farms.
AeroFarms use aeroponics in their equipment. They live just as well in water, and this method is called hydroponics. Vertical farms can use both hydroponics and aeroponics, but some researchers question the technical viability of aeroponics at the moment.
There are considerable variations in the methods being practiced and promoted by various companies and organisations. For example, AeroFarms, which has been funded by angel investors and is now looking for its first venture capital funding, takes the idea of soil-less agriculture to its extreme form: it uses artificial lighting.
Says Ed Harwood, chief executive officer and founder of AeroFarms: “Natural lighting inside a building has its costs. With artificial lighting we can produce anything anywhere in the world.” AeroFarms uses LED lighting, and has collaborations with Cornell University and the Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York State.
Freeing Up Farmlands Despommier, on the other hand, favours the use of parabolic mirrors and optic fibres to get sunlight into the building. A mixed approach could also work. “We use a mixture of natural and artificial light,” says Tom Bentley, director of business development of Valcent. Among other things, the company sells systems for high-density hydroponics that can purportedly produce 20 times more yield than conventional methods of farming. Neither hydroponics nor aeroponics systems would need to use pesticides in large measure.
Despommier and vertical farming enthusiasts have now got several designers and architects interested in the concept. For example, architects such as SOA in Paris, Weber Thompson Design in Seattle and Vincent Callebaut in Brussels have come up with preliminary designs for vertical farms, many of which are aesthetically pleasing structures that blend into cityscapes. Despommier himself is advocating a completely self-contained system that uses municipal waste to produce energy for the farm. Energy is the most critical input for the vertical farm, and its cost can ultimately determine the economic viability of the farm.
Modern agriculture is practised away from the cities. Transport of food uses up a considerable portion of the world’s energy production. By situating farms inside cities, we may reduce the need to transport food long distances. This trade-off may contribute to the economic viability of vertical farms. In Singapore, for example, aeroponics is commercially viable now for temperate climate salad greens, but not for tropical plants (Singapore imports most of its salad greens). By 2050, 80 per cent of the world’s population might be living in cities. Vertical farms could produce food all year around, day and night. However, the cost of production using this method is not known yet as it is still in infancy. But they give hope for freeing up the world’s farm lands for nature to work its magic again.
p dot hari at abp dot in
(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 03-05-2010)
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The world’s agricultural land is rapidly eroding. About 40 per cent of it is already degraded, and a substantial portion of the rest will be gone by 2050. So in 40 years, the earth may not have enough land to feed its large population.
Agriculture, as it is practised today, is known to destroy the soil quality rapidly. Any kind of monoculture does so, as it reduces biodiversity. Modern intensive farming rapidly destroys the soil because of excessive use of irrigation and fertiliser, not to speak of creating pollution through fertiliser run off.
If the earth is to survive as a habitat for human beings and other animals, farming practices need to change considerably. If agriculture does not use soil at all, we could restore a large portion of the earth to its former state. It would reduce carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere and thus help combat climate change (see ‘Decoding The Earth’s Future’).
Scientists have shown that plants actually do not need the soil to flourish, as long as they have an anchor and a source of water and nutrients. In fact, it turns out that plants anchored in the air — as in aeroponics — need only 10 per cent of the water used by those in farms.
AeroFarms use aeroponics in their equipment. They live just as well in water, and this method is called hydroponics. Vertical farms can use both hydroponics and aeroponics, but some researchers question the technical viability of aeroponics at the moment.
There are considerable variations in the methods being practiced and promoted by various companies and organisations. For example, AeroFarms, which has been funded by angel investors and is now looking for its first venture capital funding, takes the idea of soil-less agriculture to its extreme form: it uses artificial lighting.
Freeing Up Farmlands
Despommier, on the other hand, favours the use of parabolic mirrors and optic fibres to get sunlight into the building. A mixed approach could also work. “We use a mixture of natural and artificial light,” says Tom Bentley, director of business development of Valcent. Among other things, the company sells systems for high-density hydroponics that can purportedly produce 20 times more yield than conventional methods of farming. Neither hydroponics nor aeroponics systems would need to use pesticides in large measure.
Despommier and vertical farming enthusiasts have now got several designers and architects interested in the concept. For example, architects such as SOA in Paris, Weber Thompson Design in Seattle and Vincent Callebaut in Brussels have come up with preliminary designs for vertical farms, many of which are aesthetically pleasing structures that blend into cityscapes. Despommier himself is advocating a completely self-contained system that uses municipal waste to produce energy for the farm. Energy is the most critical input for the vertical farm, and its cost can ultimately determine the economic viability of the farm.
Modern agriculture is practised away from the cities. Transport of food uses up a considerable portion of the world’s energy production. By situating farms inside cities, we may reduce the need to transport food long distances. This trade-off may contribute to the economic viability of vertical farms. In Singapore, for example, aeroponics is commercially viable now for temperate climate salad greens, but not for tropical plants (Singapore imports most of its salad greens). By 2050, 80 per cent of the world’s population might be living in cities. Vertical farms could produce food all year around, day and night. However, the cost of production using this method is not known yet as it is still in infancy. But they give hope for freeing up the world’s farm lands for nature to work its magic again.
p dot hari at abp dot in
(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 03-05-2010)