Farming Vertically For Food Security

The farm of the future is not a farm. It's a building. Thirty stories of hydroponics and chicken coops, running on wind power and recycled city wastewater. Nothing else would guarantee a steady food supply in these times of climate change, drought,

deforestation, topsoil depletion and pesticide-polluted runoff. Dr. Dickson Despommier at Columbia University believes his Vertical Farm Project is the solution to these problems, and will be profitable to boot.

According to NASA 80 percent of the world's arable land is already in use. The population is forecast to increase by over nine billion people in the next 40 years. Farming vertically would not only increase food production, it would reduce the energy required to ship food long distances to urban centers.

Investors and researchers are starting to take notice, and many designs have already been conceptualized.

[The Vertical Farm Project]