How vertical farming can save the planet & feed the world

How vertical farming can save the planet & feed the world | James Lloyd-Jones of the Jones Food Co
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Vertical farming is a radical new way to feed our growing population sustainably. But can it replace traditional farming?
Since people began farming 12,000 years ago, agricultural productivity has largely been subject to the chaos of nature - uncontrollable factors like weather, insects, and viruses. Space is also an inherent problem in agriculture: Arable land can only produce a finite amount of crops per harvest, and the health of soil degrades over time.
Vertical farming minimizes both problems. Under carefully controlled conditions, plants can grow 365 days a year without sunlight, herbicides, or pesticides. And unlike other indoor farming techniques, vertical farming goes an extra step by optimizing space: Crops are grown on shelves stacked in columns, boosting the productivity of each square meter.
Vertical farming won’t disrupt the global food system overnight. But the growth of the industry could speed up as LEDs become cheaper and people become more aware of how industrial agriculture contributes to climate change. The key to a sustainable and efficient food system could be to copy how libraries store books and New York City houses people: build up.
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This video was created in partnership with Million Stories Media.
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[@freethink]

Do you think vertical farms will go mainstream?

[@andrewgleason6680]

Great video! It absolutely will go mainstream. Especially with the current environment of major cost increases in transportation and delays at many major ports around the world that may extend in to 2023. Should bring price parity a little closer. The video talked about it a somewhat with the LED lights providing the correct sunlight, but does vertical farm food taste as good as horizontal farm food?

[@kimberlybrock783]

Yes

[@lev1673]

They SHOULD

[@wilkensbrito2879]

Absolutely. Too much sex going on up in this World. lol

[@bzrk6251]

For cereals corn potatoes rice ?? no way it will go mainstream.

[@troywalt4834]

These farms do not need pesticides and chemical products, they are much better for human consumption and crops variety can be chosen based on taste and not resistance to insects or disease like traditional outdoor farming.

[@toast6375]

That’s what he said

[@danielpicassomunoz2752]

No chemicals?? Hahaha what are all the fertilizers then? You also need desinfecting,and microplastics are finding their way into leaf and fruit

[@troywalt4834]

@@danielpicassomunoz2752 fertilizers are not necessarily harmful chemicals.

[@eSheeep]

Have you grown plants in large scale before indoors? It's practically impossible to not get some sort of pest in time. So you either need pesticides of any kind or integrated pest management.

[@eSheeep]

@@troywalt4834 Not harmful in a sense that it won't make the plants poisonous, but artifical fertilizers are known for their terrible CO² footprint in production, transportation as well as for polluting waters, overfertilizing our bodies of water (which comes with it's own cascade of problems) and making them unsafe for human use.

[@fritzstierhof2467]

Vertical farming is a great solution for small leafy greens but because of height of corn for example it makes less sense to stack them over each other. A very interessting solution are solar greenhouses with a terra preta soil. Because of the charred biomass (biochar) inside it is even carbon negative. The advantage of solar greenhouses are that they store the heat of the sun in the soil/ground and release the heat on colder days. This technique is very cheap to build and needs no additional electricity or fertilizer. Would be cool if you @Freethink make a video about it!

[@nerdlingeeksly5192]

Or simply use tall/large crops in fields and have all others go in vertical farms

[@ginsederp]

You'll be surprised by how fast selective breeding can take us to inches high corn. After all, we've managed to breed micro tomatoes small enough to grow well in a tea cup. There simply isn't a market for super dwarf stable crops right now, but that can easily change within a generation of focused breeding.

[@nerdlingeeksly5192]

@@ginsederp the down side to that is small versions of crops like corn will yeald less corn due to the stock not being long enough to support more heads of corn, Farmers and have to determine will this severely effect my bottom line?

[@ginsederp]

@@nerdlingeeksly5192 that is true, on top of corn being very easy to store and transport, it'll be the last kind of vegetable anyone would think of farming vertically, maybe with the exception of sweetcorn...

[@benjaminal2097]

Scientist are developing a way to grow corn from a vine indoors. They have already succeeded corn is just not as big soon they will be able to grow it indoors

[@ryansheridan732]

Vertical farms is the way forward. Am luckily enough to be working at this exact site as a reach truck driver. I give credit to James Well spoken and smashed it.

[@Sebtt]

I had a dream of an almost fully autonomous system of vertical farming... built on block of flats, so anyone who is paying a rent had unlimited access to fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs and maybe in the future cultured meat. Everything powered up with renewable energy, including the biogas made from inedible parts of plants that are growing in these modern hanging gardens. This way many people may not require to earn much to do anything they want to in their life and live really sustainable. It may impact the economy negatively, like know we see governments giving away money to people, but that did not contributed to any production, but if everyone could live like that maybe this could actually help economy to grow stronger?

[@WorldWideWonder360]

This sounds like a great idea.

[@Caterfree10]

I would love to see indoor vertical farming take off tbh! It sounds absolutely amazing and just what we need as the population continues to boom.

[@diggleda2952]

It’s a win all around. This must succeed

[@TheBest-tz6yx]

Finally, a good idea

[@nerdlingeeksly5192]

This technology could grow foods from other temperature zones that can't be grown where you are

[@tathagatb1981]

According to the FAO, Globally we grow Rice or paddy- 751,885,117, Maize (Corn)- 1,126,990,585, Soybeans- 335,613,801 of metric tons of produce. Out of curiosity, how close are we to grow them indoors?

[@spicychad55]

Corn is difficult as it grows over 3 feet, then would is going to collect it? Immigrant labor? Machines? Rice is usually flooded and is picked by hand or machine; but there might not be machinery that can grab rice. Corn,pineapples, apples, or anything tree-based would be difficult.

[@keithcooper3159]

All of those crops can be grown indoors none of them are profitable though due to the low cost per lb/kg.

[@mauriciogerhardt3209]

As you can control indoor insects, you can develop indoor plants to not need to defend against them, therefore freeing up plant energy to grow faster

[@dertythegrower]

Major respect. Yes, it is the future along with aquaponics.

[@nerdlingeeksly5192]

So long as it doesn't make me sick and it's nutritious I don't care where the food comes from.

[@mrlepercon]

I don't think food should be as cheap as it is in the first place , when it's under valued it get thrown out easily. Our society has a waste problem.

[@thetaomega7816]

Food should be cheap, our modern society has beaten hunger

[@user-hl6ls8sv4t]

Waste problem comes from mass production and big restaurants chains. Not household

[@harveyspecter1855]

It's a necessity. It should technically be free.

[@dineshbhana2920]

I’m interested , as Vegetable Grower in New Zealand we grow Potatoes , Onions , carrots and other crops , I think this type of farming is ok for salad 🥗 crops , herbs . But here’s the million dollar question how to grow root crops that require SOIL for them to grow in , and remember we are talking about millions of hectares world wide . ?

[@OnePok3monMast3r4gam3rs]

I been talking bout this

[@ebyrnes97]

I did a college project on these & I believe they will be the future because we won’t have any other choice.

[@vthilton]

Sharing, Justice and Peace for All.

[@thomasford5893]

you vill stack ze plants

[@achinthmurali5207]

WHY ARE WE NOT FUNDING THIS?

[@holleey]

you should invest in it.

[@santoshp7887]

Can this grow grains though

[@fredbloke3218]

Given the double conversion inefficiencies of solar to electricity to LED light how much would a loaf of bread or a sack of spuds cost grown this way?

[@ebyrnes97]

S/o to the University of Wisconsin for making the first ever LED lights used to grow food 💯🤝

[@benpattinson1]

I’d be very interested to how the nutrient density in the vertically farmed units compares with traditionally grown produce.

[@Jerry4Dover]

In most cases VF produce is BETTER, because specific crops can be chosen for nutrition over hardiness. Also look up Philips and what they're learning with using light spectra to stimulate the uptake of nutrients.

[@benpattinson1]

Also interested to know what foods are being grown this way.

[@YourCapyPal_bigupsfor3DPipes]

I hope this technology bears fruit. Let's see where it is 5 years from now. I believe ALL ways of producing food should be maximized. Traditional and alternative methods is the way forward IMO.

[@jjxlifts]

Imagine Jeff decided to build his own vertical farms…

[@Ou8y2k2]

Jeff Bezos? At $10M per farm, he could build 20,000 farms with his net worth of $200B. Obviously, I'm not taking economies of scale or many other factors like pandemic-induced supply issues into account, but you get the idea.

[@jjxlifts]

Yeah tbh I don’t really know the numbers but I see his profit sky rocketing and wealth spread if he decides to invest especially with his Amazon grocery stores

[@user-hl6ls8sv4t]

@@Ou8y2k2 also the fact that net worth isn’t actually money on hand or easy liquidity. Non of these billionaires actually have that much “money” it’s just assets that aren’t sustainably worth selling unless you want to crash the whole business

[@danielz1767]

If the metrics are 'good for business' and 'the price has to come down', you're not gonna solve the problems we have. You may create new ones

[@QuantumEcofarm]

without the bacteria activity, the system lacks organic matter which is critical for sugar, protein, organic acids, metabolite and vitamins. to be chemical grown veges lacks vitamins, unless lab shown otherwise

[@arieleliasov]

Does the price not change more based on the cost of electricity.

[@luderickwong]

good, here is just one question, how to fertilize the flowers? it is indoor, no wind, presume no insects as well, is it going to manual hand pollination every single flower to make fruits and seeds happen just like the greenhouse did? as the article said, it is 6~7 stories for the same area of natural farmland, you have to expect millions of flowers waiting at the same time. or it had to rely on seeds outside in natural fields? or…you may count on lab grown flies to get the job done? the worse scenario is, rely on seeds growing outside and only capable to grow green leaves while the lab flies escaped. yes, it can still be consider successful in a certain degree, but it is not a complete plant life cycle, which is not that sustainable in long term. no fruits and seeds is always a problem which we, humans consume a lot.

[@MrPetrochelly]

Could be a good start, even, we need a diet with more than basil, lettuce and strawberries...

[@hailmaryrecordings8255]

Awesome

[@avi130avi130]

future of farming..

[@sushantrocks]

Could u use mirrors/highly reflective surfaces to increase light coverage?

[@wilkensbrito2879]

I cant wait till Governments start looking more towards innovations, instead of just economical Businesses. It is so sad that we need money to save or better our Planet.

[@AdamGtr86]

Am I dumb to think why doesn't this building have an open roof to let sunlight in during the day and put mirrors on the walls so that at least 20%+ of the plants can get free energy?

[@UlexiteTVStoneLexite]

It's not going to allow the lower levels of plants to get enough light you're going to have uneven growing times. By using the LEDs they can make all the grow times and the amount of light equal across all the plants. If the entire room was flat and only one level of plants yes but with it being vertical no, you are going to have shaded spots in a vertical farm.

[@AdamGtr86]

@@UlexiteTVStoneLexite In a typical store greenhouse the entire dome is transparent so its not just the top roof. But still you can electronically track what levels/sections are getting how much light and reduce your electrical bill either way. Like I said maybe 20% just by having an open roof. Maybe 40% by having a true greenhouse.

[@UlexiteTVStoneLexite]

@@AdamGtr86 your typical greenhouse is not vertical. Your typical greenhouse still has a flat layout. Your typical greenhouse is still limited on horizontal space. In a greenhouse you have to be concerned about taller plants and shorter plants underneath those taller plants because you are not going to get equal lighting across the different levels. This is even more of a problem when you're using shelves and flat trays. The bottom shelves are never going to get nearly as much sunlight as the top shelves. Light cannot travel through solid objects

[@phillipjacobs9147]

Vertical farming won't work untill there is much cheaper electicity.

[@ryansheridan732]

I agree but there's ways to make it cheaper by having solar panels. Hopefully soon a way to store power in something to use dureing might. This site in the video has solar panels on the roof

[@phillipjacobs9147]

@@ryansheridan732 no dude. I cultivate plants indoor. You have no idea how much electricity it takes to provide adequate artificial light, aircons... Dehumidifiers.. Solar ain't practical. BTW the panels only last like 20 years and aren't recycled because they weren't made to be recycled haha so what happens to billions of tons of solar panels after they expire? Same with the batteries, how do we get rid of billions of tons of batteries needed to store the electricity? If there is nuclear fusion electricity and it costs like 2 or 3 cents a kw unit yeah then maybe this is viable but this is nothing but a pipe dream. Tesla has made major improvements in battery storage and generation but it's still no where near where it has to be and the issue of what happens when the batteries when they have to be replaced...

[@AKASH-dl9me]

Love 💗 your work, from INDIA 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳 Please 🙏 can someone help me how to procure lithium ion battery 🔋 for my home storage+solar Or molten salt or anything as such , it's almost impossible to find here in India .here we only have lead acid battery which has very very low life cycle , especially with solar Please suggest something

[@arnabsaha5185]

Use free energy to cost reduction ...

[@francisestillore2574]

i want to see some plant that need polinators to produce. they all leaf

[@OnesFan1]

📢Vegan from now on!

[@nathanpeachs2704]

This guy gets it😄

[@shambhaviarun2261]

Can you say what crops are suitable for vertical farming.. Can rice, wheat or corn grown using vertical farming?

[@Emanuel-jr2ii]

To my knowlegde, all crops are suitable for vertical farming. However, some crops just don't really make sense, yet. Take corn for example. It's already very efficient to farm corn in greenhouses and even in open fields.

[@holleey]

not yet. staple crops that grow tall aren't suitable for vertical farming yet. but that may very well change over time as they are being selectively bred for with that purpose in mind.

[@ernestocruz9630]

I still think they’re over complicated something that occurs for free in nature using free energy from the sun. I think there creating a bigger carbon footprint by running a climate controlled facility with lighting then any old tractor would for a few hours.

[@thetaomega7816]

Its not free when you destroy the environment... using solar energy is basically the same than using the sun

[@JamesRoyceDawson]

It’s been talked about for a decade but has made little improvement on the big issues. It can’t do much more than leafy greens at the moment and I haven’t seen much evidence that it could work well for making substantive vegetables at anything like a competitive price

[@satviktasupalli4885]

its actually make huge improvments what are you talkinga bout?

[@JamesRoyceDawson]

@@satviktasupalli4885 it’s made improvements to the current implementation with cheaper LEDs, but there hasn’t been change that adds anything beyond the leafy greens they’ve been farming.

[@satviktasupalli4885]

@@JamesRoyceDawson costs for renewable electricity is dropping, yields are increasing, automation is making its way in as well, and LEDS are becoming more efficient and cheaper, which all will lead to staple crops being able to be grown soon

[@Emanuel-jr2ii]

That's because leafy greens actually has the highest margins and are very depended on the weather conditions.

[@reportingsjr]

There's a vertical farm near me that has started growing and selling tomatoes. They're pretty dang tasty! Still a bit pricey, but as the video said, hopefully the price comes down.

[@homelessperson5455]

I think I've made these in Minecraft before with redstone.

[@JohnJohnson-rl7fq]

Could you pump Carbon Dioxide in from a power plant and sell that as a carbon credit for cash?

[@charb802]

Sounds like a solution!

[@bouvaneshejothiram5055]

I have a very odd feeling of this vertical farming it always needed to be a supplement and not as a replacement of conventional farming

[@vigneshhatake4324]

Vertical farming will reduce the burden on the environment but it will never overtake normal farming...Atleast not for another 100 years. But there is a lot of hope for vertical farming.

[@wovasteengova]

Repost?

[@freethink]

Nope, we did a separate video on vertical farming a few months ago that looked more at the technology while this looked more at the economics. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gGW2koaco61-aas

[@csiderydah11]

$grso has the vertical growing tech . Stock symbol GRSO

[@laniianl7125]

Can they currently grow something else than basil ?

[@holleey]

I think pretty much anything that doesn't grow tall. and probably no root vegetables I'd assume. this may change over time over time though.

[@rickrouse7865]

that's nice and who is going to own these farms?

[@i3_13]

but these are only rabbit food. how about fruits?

[@thegroove2000]

Even better if families did this for themselves.

[@catgaming2210]

im a country guy and this scares me. i will have nightmares. hope i can still long so i can be a *real* farmer.

[@YourCapyPal_bigupsfor3DPipes]

Lol Technology isn't our enemy bro. Modern problems require modern solutions. But no one stopping you from being a traditional farmer.

[@nicholasamemazior3066]

So far it seems most, if not all new green innovations are going to be more expensive so long as people don't adopt it

[@Graeme_Lastname]

Less people would be a better proposition.

[@holleey]

no. more efficient systems is a much better idea than population control. this planet could easily sustain twice of its current population sustainably if it weren't for our horribly inefficient and wasteful systems. if people feel their existence to be secured, families with more than two children are increasingly rare anyways. population has never been the root issue - linearity in economy and wastefulness is.

[@Graeme_Lastname]

@@holleey Yeah, knock down a few more forests and dam some more rivers. We can claim success when there's nothing left alive on the planet except starving humans. What a bloody good idea.

[@anthonybenjamin2122]

Aahhh yesss, creating an artificial and incomplete environment and cutting it off from the sun indoors is better for the environment 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡😂😂😂

[@framboisenoir4910]

I work on the electrical systems of those towers in canada, its huge the quantity of high tech electronic and light needed for those kind of project. They waste 100% of the sun light all year long. They are dependant of the global mining, transformation, production, distribution chain and called them selve greener. It's just green lies.

[@crashbuilds]

I thought Alphabet had already written off this idea? I read an interview with Astro Teller where they ended up axing this project due to inefficiency.

[@kingwillbisthebest]

We have to start talking about population control. The problem is not every country will play ball (cough theocratic countries cough)!

[@holleey]

population control is not needed once a society is achieved where people feel their existence to be secured. in countries where we are closer to that, families with more than two children are increasingly rare. only in places with poorer conditions and subsequently higher infant mortality rates are people getting to many children.

[@allanyoung7423]

Qt

[@kineticstar]

Vertical farms are a great idea but there is no way we can fill the needs of a massive city of 2 million people or above. The idea of sustainable development of non traditional farming is beyond our current population numbers. We need to focus on more sustainable traditional farming with nontraditional as a real augmentation as a way to grow easy to grow booster crops like tomatoes, carrots, etc and leave staple crops like corn, wheat and others in the fields under better management.

[@UlexiteTVStoneLexite]

Vertical farming will out produce traditional farming because you can grow more food in a smaller area. You cannot continue to increase farmland while also increasing housing. You're going to have competition for one over the other. When you have limited space you need to start going upwards Also traditional farming is never going to be as sustainable because you have to use a lot more water with traditional farming which is not sustainable. vertical farming uses up to 90% less water. Traditional farming is never going to be able to achieve that. You lose way too much water to evaporation.

[@lukesky1998]

Actually no 😂😂 look at app harvest, they yielded way less than they anticipated. It’s expensive af too.

[@justinfowler2857]

Anyone else tired of hearing about vertical farms? Seriously these types videos are a dime a dozen yet they never seem to ever scale up. It's always a niche market. Not that it's a bad idea, just tired of hearing the the future will arrive tomorrow. Just like the sign says, "Free beer tomorrow."

[@barraca1393]

Totally unnecessary. Just do Agroforestry.

[@holleey]

this isn't going to be an option in city centers any time soon. and it doesn't look like we are going to give up on cities any time soon, either.