h/t to Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse.
Cities may sprout vertical farms
Proposed high-rise greenhouses could help solve a looming food crisis, professor says.
...the idea of "vertical farms" seems ripe for humor. When its biggest advocate appeared on the faux news show "The Colbert Report" earlier this year, comedian Stephen Colbert prefaced the interview by guessing it would have something to do with corn that grows sideways
See here.
Well, Mr. Colbert sir, there may be no sideways corn but how about sideways lettuce:
If these plastic panels look familiar to some, they should. They are exactly the same as part of the wild promotion of algae fuel that was rampant just a short time ago:
Unlike the algae fuel, a module is being constructed in El Paso, TX, in an effort to commercialize these vertical farms that would go for about a half million bucks a piece.
From Time (pdf.):
Dickson Despommier became the guru of vertical farming because his students were bummed out. A professor of environmental health at Columbia University in New York City, Despommier teaches about parasitism, environmental disruption and other assorted happy topics. Eventually his students complained; they wanted to work on something optimistic. So the class began studying the idea of rooftop gardening for cities. They quickly discarded that approach--too small-scale--in favor of something more ambitious: a 30-story urban farm with a greenhouse on every floor. "I think vertical farming is an idea that can work in a big way," says Despommier.
Donald Trump, not to mention Ivana Trump, might be horrified at the thought of putting on a pair of overalls and getting in the pickup with the dawgs to go do the chores in his skyscraper but it has some cheery possibilities.
Nothing really new about hydroponics but application of modern technology might well save on land, fertilizer, labor, transportation, energy and costs. That cost thingy is a biggie, as you might guess. No answers yet.
Best, Terry