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What do you guys think of vertical farming? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 1 year ago by Doctor_olo to c/solarpunk

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Vertical farming, the best solution to support an ever growing population or just a scam?

IMHO it has a lot of potential but not being able to grow grains really is something that should be tackled sooner rather than later. But I could see this being used by self sustaining communities to provide lots of food while using very little space. And it's technically more environmentally friendly than just using vast stretches of land to produce the same amount of food.

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[–] hotelbravo722 24 points 1 year ago (4 children)

So I am currently switching careers into vertical farming and have done a lot of work and research on this subject and here is just a bit of my 2 cents.

Vertical farming can be less water intensive then traditional farming. Combined with an aquaculture system it can have negligible to no water loss which is great for arid climates.
Hydroponic/Aquaponic systems have a huge upfront cost yet a comparably negligible year over year cost.
This method has proven perfect for growing certain fruits, vegitables and leafy greens however has shown so far that its not the best for growing things like fruiting trees or staple crops like corn/wheat.
Financing for vertical farms are virtually non-existant. So generally you have to go to private equity for financing. This is a problem as vertical farms are not the most profitable even after recovering $$ from upfront startup costs.

So it has great potential to seriously change our current food system and allow us to keep producing food in spite of drought. However it has a long way to go as a technology and will need serious federal legislation to create financing programs for this method of agriculture so farmers are not saddled with insane debt and growth projections that they will never be able to meet.

[–] Dohnakun@lemmy.fmhy.ml 10 points 1 year ago

One more advantage: Vertical farming creates it's own mini ecosystems, thus

allowing growing of exotic vegetables in your town
leaving natural ecosystems unoccupied and unaffected by pesticides, if used in the broad.

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