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Vertical farming: a local solution for greens, but not feeding the world any time soon
(www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com)
Good to see a real analysis on this topic instead of the puff pieces we usually see.
In the future, vertical farming systems could potentially run entirely on renewable energy, which would significantly reduce their carbon footprint. However, this might not always be enough to make them lower-carbon than outdoor farming. For example, the study in the Netherlands modelled a renewable energy scenario. While the carbon footprint gap narrowed, the vertical farm’s emissions still exceeded those of traditional outdoor farming.
This is why I’m skeptical of this technology for the foreseeable future. Even if we solve the current energy crisis and achieve the cheap, carbon-free energy necessary to solve the issues with indoor lighting, there’s still the issue that buildings are scarce and require many resources to build. I’m not sure indoor farming is worthwhile barring some additional huge innovation that makes construction much cheaper and more efficient. That could happen, but now we’re looking at two major economic and technological revolutions to make this idea viable, which puts it in the far future by my estimation.