Growing Up: How Vertical Farming Works

[@fionnlaghcowan8419]

This channel always restores my faith in humanity

[@balazskecskemeti]

Faith in scientifically illiterate journalism...

[@branwhite4973]

​@balazskecskemeti I don't necessarily disagree, do explain though.

[@leaderofthelewishpeople6382]

If there are any abandoned skyscrapers in a city, it should be converted to a vertical farm. Not only would it provide jobs to the people living in the vicinity, it would also decrease prices and use less land for farms and more for forests.

[@TheB1M]

Agreed! This skyscraper would be a great candidate - kzbin.info/www/bejne/bGbYl6Khf9qbj9U

[@leaderofthelewishpeople6382]

Pripyat would be a great vertical farm if the radiation was gone.

[@timmmahhhh]

Even more common in cities like Detroit, Chicago, Gary, Pittsburgh and other formerly industrial cities are abandoned sprawling multi-story factory buildings that are not practical for anything else. Chicago I know has some vertical farms with more on the way.

[@LordDragon1965]

Additionally, abandoned factories and warehouses in urban areas could easily be repurposed as food growing factories and oxygen emitters.

[@LoneWolf-wp9dn]

@@leaderofthelewishpeople6382 unfortunately concrete holds radiation really well so not really doable

[@noahlindegaard9824]

If we use these vertical farms we can convert the former outdoor farmland into forest. Reducing emissions even more!

[@Miquelalalaa]

We should convert them into housing for new immigrants.

[@vksepe]

@@Miquelalalaa How inefficient. Just build more housing on top of the vertical farms?!?!?

[@Miquelalalaa]

vks_ We will be stuffed in like sardines if we continue with the current rates. It needs to end...

[@vksepe]

@@Miquelalalaa Lucky for you the global population will likely stabilise at around 10 billion in 2050. Malthusian concerns of overpopulation are overblown when you consider the facts.

[@PaulHagmueller]

@@Miquelalalaa genocide helps i guess

[@jamescampbell1170]

I'm in year 10 in school and in my STEM class I have been creating an automatic vertical farmbot so this is awsome

[@Karecmeister]

You mean one of those spiders from the matrix movies?

[@waminette]

Are you making it at school or in your own time?

[@cuddliestbear265]

Why STEM, and not STEAM??? Art is more important than all of those other things, you know. It's the basis of culture, and therefore society....

[@jamescampbell1170]

@@cuddliestbear265 I wish, unfortunately since I'm just a student I can't make the curriculum or thigh art is my other elective

[@cuddliestbear265]

@@jamescampbell1170 Yeah, I wish all schools were like my local one - students CAN influence the curriculum there... 6 hours a week are dedicated to specific STEAM classes (in the junior curriculum), and obviously most other classes are STEAM...

[@Declan_Lyons]

We asked for it and you delivered. That's why I love this channel.

[@TheB1M]

Haha, you’re welcome! 😉

[@thestudentofficial5483]

I have built a hydroponic racks in my yard. Eating freshly harvested food is the best thing! I also shared them to my neighbors and some of them started building theirs as well.

[@davetv4705]

Please could you share the idea with me? I want to try it. My email add is: [e-mail] or [phone]

[@Naveenkumar-nh3em]

Share you technique @ [e-mail]

[@aniketbachate5776]

Hey! It would be of great help if you could share your technique with me. My email id is : [e-mail] Thank you.

[@Peyilockpeyilock]

I'm very much interested in your setup. Can you share with me as well [e-mail]

[@neorics8703]

Hi please share me you technique as well.. Thanks in advance [e-mail]

[@Goldcrest7]

Your channel is extremely underrated! I'm always learning something new whenever you bring out new videos. Keep it up!

[@petterv6604]

We have a vertical farm in Härnösand, Sweden, that grows tomatoes and lettuce. It’s also a ecocycle plant with bees and salmons, all using each other’s waste-products. Although the energy consumption crazy high it’s a pretty cool idea.

[@luis_zuniga]

This rapidly became one of my favorite KZbin channels ❤️

[@TheB1M]

Thank you so much! ✊️✊️

[@bigj3508]

I'm So glad you did a video on this. The impact cities have on tearing apart the earth to feed its appetites for tech toys and food goes largely overlooked. Hydroponics and aquaponics are one small facet which can help to reign them in and create sustainability and preservation of this tiny earth we live on.

[@dpsilver1]

i dont even know why but between the narration, the music and the abundance of green, this video is very calming

[@emiliofernandez7117]

In the back on my mind whenever I watch one of your videos I low key want to get into the architectural type industry, this stuff is genuinely interesting.

[@mirkoIncertiFornaciari]

I can't see a bad video that comes out from your channel, also this one is superb, and I would really like to see vertical farms become more popular in order to save space and resources... thank you :)

[@vitaliphotos]

You clearly live in a city - in australia you can drive for days and see no buildings, so where is this limited space. You really need to travel to open ur eyes to the vastness of this world

[@vitaliphotos]

@no one so you're saying fewer ppl should live in cities so as vertical farming can expand?

[@orkon3952]

Same, though the cost is extraordinary

[@ARKGamerYt]

@@vitaliphotos not everyone can come to Australia to produce for their country some countries are very densely populated with less land while some are less populated and have more land

[@connorkapoor]

I really enjoy these videos, if it’s at all possible I’d love to see a B1M and Real Engineering collaboration

[@TheB1M]

Brian is a great guy! We’d be honoured! 👍👍

[@ungh8365]

You guys provide the highest quality videos I love these!

[@daniels7861]

This channel is so underrated

[@cruz1ale]

It's not underrated. Almost every video has an extremely good like to dislike ratio. It may however be less popular than it deserves to be.

[@sorakagodess]

Then The future will be minecraft auto farms?

[@Tsyras]

As soon as I saw what the farms looked like I came to the comments to look for Minecraft lol.

[@adgtheg4146]

Crazy to think that Minecraft has been the future along

[@pbkayakyer]

That's not the future, that's now.

[@alvinxyz7419]

well, we just need one more thing.. *Bonemeal*

[@lastman1239]

Maickel Vieira yes yes It would

[@JeandrePetzer]

Ever since i saw Kimbal Musk (Elon Musk's brother) doing this I've been interested in it. I don't plan to pursue this interest, but i really like the aesthetics of it, and benefits it brings :D

[@abdurazaksiciid1440]

Kkkkkk pro laguma fahmayo

[@JeandrePetzer]

@@abdurazaksiciid1440 What

[@krashd]

His space program is a lot better than his big brothers, I couldn't even get SpaceX to install.

[@joe972]

Flash 🇿🇦 his son went to my school

[@johnbarneswood]

Fantastic video. Glad to see this idea taking shape

[@EurasiaOnYT]

Great video!!! I think this is the future in all honesty. You are a big inspiration for my channel! Thanks for the great everything!

[@FarmLifestyle-4]

This entire sequence from 1:59 had me hooked. Incredible work!

[@rzholland]

Very illuminating. Well Done. "Growing Trend" - Like it.

[@rubzy7841]

This is a great help for me as a student because I can add this as an innovation for my incoming thesis project which is an agricultural facilities that focuses on the community of farmers that would help their progress in society. THANK YOU B1M MORE POWER!

[@TheB1M]

You’re welcome! Good luck with the project!! ✊️✊️

[@davetv4705]

Awesome! I will continue to love this channel more and more for quality contents. This method of modern farming inspires me a lot. We need such in Africa.

[@heatdeathforall]

People seem to think that this replaces field crops. The only crops which it makes sense for is salads, due to their low height, quick growth, poor shelf life, difficult quality standards, and high water content which make hauling too costly. This is a very small fraction of the food we eat and we still need to produce more. All of the crops grown in vertical farms were already being grown in greenhouses with controlled environments, the only substantive difference is that more electricity is being used for lights

[@FarhanSwaggy]

Amazing video. Keep doing good things guyz

[@kingrazor5280]

Innovation never stops. Enjoy!!

[@kimoykalinago4154]

I'm from the very small island of st kitts in the Caribbean, with a relatively small population under (60 thousand people) something like this would be a wonderful idea. Running on power from year round sunshine aswell as wind energy I think it's a very viable idea. Creating jobs, for many, also because space on the island is finite building high would be very benifical.

[@jonsey156]

Was not aware of this concept until viewing this report - Thanks B1M !!

[@TheB1M]

You're welcome!

[@REDnBLACKnRED]

And then we can finally convert back all the acres of forest land that was destroyed to create vast fields. It's a win-win for EVERYONE!

[@tepidtuna7450]

That I would like to see. Bring back biodiversity, or should I say, make biodiversity great again. :-)

[@memeguy8258]

Thanks to the B1M team for creating awareness of sustainable agriculture with a great video!

[@BjEddy1]

excellent topic and presentation,, thank you for posting

[@TheB1M]

You’re welcome! Thanks for the great feedback 👍👍

[@eviljonbob_]

Great video love this channel

[@wilsonfaustin6499]

I'm so proud to like that video because the vertical farm idea was mine. Another Idea, let's use the exterior part of those buildings to make farm and we may live inside the buildings. by that way, we may use the oxygen release by those plants to supply the person living inside.

[@RiceNGravy]

Okay, so I don't claim to be any kind of farming expert, but it seems to me the most important crops we need to be able to grow this way are the ones that require vast areas of land, such as grains and maybe starchy root vegetables like potatoes. The things I was able to identify in this video seemed to be mostly "salad ingredients." If we could grow our grains and starches in this type of environment, then we could also eliminate poisonous pesticides and herbicides on a greater percentage of the foods we're consuming. That's what I'm interested in!

[@balazskecskemeti]

It's impossible to produce anything of real food value (ie. calories) under artificial light in a sustainable way. It's simple physics and biology.

[@adaaudioofficialchannel]

Yeah, it's good to makes plan for the next our children generation, for myself, I've started to approach vertical system, but still on hobby scale, 300 hole pot, hope I can also contribute to my neighborhood

[@eliasgallegos3058]

I always thought of vertical farming as the future!

[@Super_Unlucky_Rubber_Ducky]

The issue with vertical farming is always one of cost. It's the same reason we grow crops in an open field rather than giant greenhouses. When your temperature controlled, lighting controlled, humidity controlled, racked, multi-story, solar powered building can be replaced with "some dirt in a field" it's not cost effective at scale. The yields are better the same way yields in greenhouses is better. It's always cheaper to just get more dirt and expand outwards. Vertical farms are good for ultra-low volume, high cost crops in niche applications but it'll probably never be cost effective for bulk, industrial farming unless the cost of building decreases dramatically.

[@sgbench]

The fact that there are successful vertical farming businesses proves that it can be cost effective. Over time the cost of vertical farming will decrease and the demand will increase. We will eventually see large-scale industrial vertical farming.

[@Super_Unlucky_Rubber_Ducky]

@@sgbench Why? We see the same kind of success with traditional greenhouses. They're good for niche applications because the increased yield offsets the extra cost of building and running the greenhouse but that inherent cost makes them unsuitable for industrial-scale applications. I don't see why that would change just because you've added extra stories and complexity to that greenhouse (and thus more cost). Vertical farming will no doubt grow the same way the greenhouse farming scene has. For example: I can quite easily see vertical farms taking over growing flowers to simplify the supply chain. Just like traditional greenhouses that inherent extra cost though is always going to be a limiting factor. After all, we grow the crops we do on that scale specifically because they're easy to grow in bulk on cheap land. For industrial farms for who things like soil quality, temperature, pH and whatnot are not big limiting factors (corn, wheat, potatoes, etc.) it's far more cost effective to buy lots of cheap land than it is to buy a little bit of very expensive land and build a very expensive facility on top of that. Hell, if quality of land is an issue like it is with rice it's still more cost effective to irrigate the aforementioned cheap land than it is to build a tiered facility that accomplishes the same task. Local demand for long life crops is simply a non-factor. I think people dramatically underestimate the scale of true industrial farms and the cost of building structures plentiful and massive enough to replace them. Dirt is just cheaper than steel and glass. Probably always will be.

[@sgbench]

@@Super_Unlucky_Rubber_Ducky Yes, expanding outward is currently cheaper than expanding upward, but we will eventually run out of arable land, and when that happens our only choice will be to expand upward. It is inevitable that vertical farming will eventually be the norm. Just because it's not as cost effective now doesn't mean we should dismiss it. Why scoff at the people trying to develop the technology now?

[@Super_Unlucky_Rubber_Ducky]

@@sgbench Because we're nowhere near running out of suitable land, there are other more cost effective approaches and the kind of structures nessisary to replace industrial farms simply aren't practical. *If* we run out of suitable land the most cost effective approach currently is to make more. Either by irrigation, fertilisation or by modifying the crops themselves. In my country of Australia we do this with rice, employing mass irrigation to turn cattle stations into rice fields. There was recently a whole uproar about it because they killed a whole bunch of fish in the process. Even ignoring that, modifying crops to make or grow in environments they otherwise wouldn't is still more cost effective as would taking traditional farmland and building a greenhouse to increase yields. Something we don't do now because the scale of industrial farms makes them so even that is far too large an investment to be cost effective. I think people underestimate the scale of industrial farms. We're not talking about warehouse sized facilities. Industrial farms are massive institutions larger even than the cities they feed. Vertical farming is great for niche applications the same way greenhouse are. The same things that prevent greenhouses from replacing traditional farmland are only amplified in vertical farms though. They're simply not practical beyond very specific situations.

[@sgbench]

@@Super_Unlucky_Rubber_Ducky I think you're misunderstanding my argument. All I'm saying is that you're wrong that vertical farming will never be cost effective. Vertical farming will eventually be our only option, and so it will by definition be cost effective, because the cost of the alternatives will be too high for them to be considered options. Also, I think you're underestimating GMO R&D costs and overestimating construction costs. Also, "industrial scale" (a vague and arbitrary threshold btw) greenhouses definitely exist and are profitable, for example in Spain and the Netherlands.

[@veggieboyultimate]

I thought vertical farming was impossible or not efficient enough, but I was wrong. Think of how this would affect forests worldwide.

[@criticalthinker6736]

Speaking of the efficiency of vertical farming, Peter Joseph did a great talk on the economic calculation of many new ideas, like vertical farming (kzbin.info/www/bejne/gWqpdXykmpyAb9E ) and clean energy (kzbin.info/www/bejne/gWqpdXykmpyAb9E ) in a way to provide for all humans and more on Earth and essentially creating an *abundance* so that all humans can have the right to life and have all their basic needs covered without a price tag.

[@veggieboyultimate]

With a new President, this idea may be more likely to be conceived.

[@joeschnoor4170]

I like this channel. Very imfomative and is well done. The video quality is also great. This is the only channel so for that I have notifications on.

[@burinvoyager8964]

Joe Schnoor check out atlas pro

[@joeschnoor4170]

@@burinvoyager8964 I will look that up. Thank you

[@KaylaRoge]

Wow! This seems like a pretty awesome idea. Can't wait to see these in a city near me 👌👏👏

[@literally8647]

I'm a vertical farmer and I love it! The lettuce we grow stays fresh longer when anything I've every bought in the passed. The whole plant growing process is very rewarding!

[@AhTechus]

Absolutely love the creativity in this video

[@ajitacozzi2577]

It seems that most vertical farming hinges around leafy crop, tomatoes and cucumber and a few more. Are there any vertical growers who tackle the larger vegetables, zuchinis, brocolli, cauliflowers, potatoes, carrots, corn, sweet potatoes, etc...?

[@SD-tj5dh]

I always liked the idea that the big out of town supermarkets could utilise the space and roof real estate to grow their own fresh produce.

[@Vertignasse82]

This is my favorite channel on KZbin.

[@TheB1M]

Wow! That’s so cool. Thank you SO much! 👍

[@smurfolissicus]

Ideas are FLOWING through my head RN!!!!!!

[@toxicclown3035]

Another great video. I'd be interested to know how much of these farms electricity usage is provided by renewable means? These farms must use a lot of power.

[@TheGanamaster]

This is the kind of video that I hope to see more and more on this channel, great fan.

[@mehrzadabdi4194]

Thanks for the video, like always it is a very good one.

[@bullskitter]

B1M is actually such an educstional channel I love it keep up the good work

[@davewagner5206]

Incredibly awesome and informative Video, as we are used to the B1M already. Great Work, keep it up!

[@coleeck1150]

Great work guys!

[@TheB1M]

Thank you!!

[@HarvestDailyLife]

The fruit looks so beautiful and appetizing!

[@vnl2780]

I really like the idea and I see the benefits. But on point I want to mention. How this farming gets done and how it gets used is important, because we shouldn't forget what is the fontation of all vegetables. Clean and fertile soil is were it all comes from. We should also protect and honour the good old soil.

[@jellyg.8961]

Most of the soil these days are far from fertile. Not because it's grown in a closed environment with a different medium than soil it is bad. Actually a lot of organic and high quality vegetables, fruits and herbs are produced in vertical farms and they are far better than anyone produced in the soil.

[@charleskesner1302]

Thanks for your excellent report on this promising technology.

[@TheB1M]

You're welcome - thanks for watching!!

[@PaulHagmueller]

great video, this topic needs funding and development.

[@magnificentgoldenbeast6099]

No! Never will work. Not economically feasible see: my other comments.

[@PaulHagmueller]

@@magnificentgoldenbeast6099 not yet. Technology improves, you know. Be a little optimistic!

[@magnificentgoldenbeast6099]

@@PaulHagmueller I'm optimistic. Regular farming is and will continue to be more efficient and this vertical farming will never be more efficient. Look for my comments around here.

[@PaulHagmueller]

@@magnificentgoldenbeast6099 there are no comments from you around here Plus If regular farming continues to be the go-to method for producing food humanity is doomed. Forests would have to be converted to farmland, leaving forests as rare biomes. This would increase climate change, thus the potential for droughts and such would rise. Not very smart.

[@magnificentgoldenbeast6099]

@@PaulHagmueller The video is total bullshit. And I'm not talking about the fertilizer. Totally economically unfeasible now or in 200 years. People are abandoning the countryside to live in densely populated cities and suburbs. Farmlands are being abandoned because of how efficient we are at farming the land we have. Towns are emptying and people are moving to densely populated areas where the property is too expensive for vertical farming. The global supply chain is becoming even bigger and makes it efficient to bring food from where it's grown to anywhere it's wanted so storms and wars and droughts and insects have little effect on the supply of any food. You want food; throw down some seeds and water and fertilizer and pesticide and it appears. Do that enough and you can defeat any adversity to plant life. Build vertical farms and they are expensive and require infrastructure and planning and utilities and zoning approval and ...

[@parichehrmanuchehrkhodayaa5405]

Excellent video So important to us now Thank you very much 👍

[@AntoninVerena]

love your channel. One note on this specific video: pests are not removed as a result of being indoors. In fact, in many vertical farms, pests are worse than outdoors due to the perfect climatic conditions. Ideally, a perfect exclusion method would work, however, even with thrips screening we see pest intrusion. I really hope this is a trend that continues, however, the success of vertical farms beyond two or three years is rare.

[@Jasonsoloka2024]

Why is the success rare?

[@cybird6010]

Not only would this reduce continued pollution of the water and air, but this would provide good, healthy, and affordable food to urban areas and reduce food deserts of poorer neighborhoods.

[@Marco-fc5uf]

Are you gonna make a video about 'the farmhouse'? Would be really interesting! Anyways, your video was really great. Loved it!

[@teardrops716]

A channel that’s finally paying attention to this!!

[@harrison9650]

Great content as always!

[@TheB1M]

Thank you so much!!

[@shantyackah9057]

wow this was helpful for my work

[@kyubestie7921]

This video is amazing! You guys are my top inspiration to work in construction or architecture in the future. Thanks for the informative content :)

[@TheB1M]

Ah wow! We are truly humbled to read that! Thanks so much for watching!!!

[@ThaboHermanus]

Vertical farms are limited in what they are producing now. I recently learnt this as I was corrected that it is not full substitution but more about growing ‘lightweight’ vegetation e.g. garnish as opposed to the full heavy carrot or potato. So it’s a great niche, perfect to serve gentrification, but it won’t solve the urban community problem of food being grown far away from where it is eaten

[@AlecMuller]

I'd love to see a vertical farming video that discusses their caloric efficiency. A hectare of land gets an average of 50 million calories per day from the sun, and can grow 70,000 calories/day worth of sweet potatoes (one of the highest yield conventional crops in terms of calories per hectare). That's horribly inefficient (0.135%), but how does vertical farming compare? What if you're getting the electricity to run them with 20% efficient solar panels?

[@balazskecskemeti]

If you're running it on solar panels, you need to use at least 5x the land for the panels, compared to what is saved by the vertical farm. And you need so much energy that it would need a nuclear plant nearby, just to provide enough food (calories) for a few thousand people. That is what all the upbeat documentaries about vertical farming gloss over. Scientifically illiterate journalism at its best.

[@SD-tj5dh]

Absolutely makes sense where you can't rely on the weather to yield good crops, but CAN rely on the weather for renewable energy.

[@helmialastyanto7345]

Vertical farming is very interesting idea which is applicable for dense population cities with high demands of good and healthy foods supplies but lack or limited soil available. I hope we can see more of this facilities near the future😉

[@the9tailsupersaiyan]

Fascinating

[@cheebee111]

FENTASTIC THIS IS THE FUTURE. I LIKE TO KNOW MORE DETAILS ABOUT VERTIAL FORMING. THANKS

[@VexxsVault]

Quality content as usual

[@muhamadfirdaus7406]

I love u B1M! Continue posting great content

[@hakeemamadu6043]

Another amazing video. Thanks guys!

[@TheB1M]

Thank you so much!

[@matabull469]

The energy requirements of vertical farming lead to significant land use to provide the energy. For every acre of crops grown via vertical farming, 5.4 acres of solar panels would be required to supply the energy via solar power. Thus in practice, vertical farming may require more land than traditional farming, not less.

[@jtprado]

Well written script. Great content. Well done.

[@TheB1M]

Thank you so much! Thanks for watching! 👍

[@francoisg3500]

Another astonishing, entertaining, and over all fantastic video! The issue that were discussed in this video really make me as an individual think about how technology and innovative solutions will positively impact our future on the planet! Thanks for the great video and I hope to see more content of this type on the channel soon! 👍😍 Also it would be great to see if in the future that the idea of vertical farms could be brought down to a smaller scale in order to allow individual and family to grow their own produce with the home!

[@vhaakmat]

I would love to try this out on a smaller scale

[@robertbarlow6359]

For those of you questioning how will the energy intensive high density of LEDs be overcome - well think about it - how can you transfer light into a building? Use optic fibres. There are innovations such as the Parans lighting system. Plus, solar panels could be installed on a VF warehouse roof. That would reduce energy requirement of LEDs during the day - even though LEDs and red and blue ones are more efficient, compared to more traditional electric lighting sources.

[@hein_mcleod]

I would love to start my own vertical farm!

[@thestudentofficial5483]

It's easy! just some 3 inch pipes, a water pump, a plastic container, 5 mm rubber hose and all set.

[@citiesskyscrapers4561]

Great video!

[@TheB1M]

Thanks!

[@lukusblack6442]

I'd love to work at a Studio NAB facility. It looks really nice!

[@pholosalvation943]

I love this farming platform....I feel like creating a business too

[@JeffyPop247]

really awesome video. this is why i come to youtube, to learn and see randomness that i never actually thought of.

[@rezanurm4437]

I'm in love with this vertical farming

[@iamjimgroth]

I work with aquaponics farming. It's super cool stuff. :)

[@globaldigitaldirectsubsidi4493]

Innovation is more than a trend.

[@nanonymous9139]

Isaac Arthur approves!

[@kayrosis5523]

Wait until The B1M does a video on archologies

[@Mac30123456]

I'm sure these techniques will be much more mainstream 10 years from now

[@daveharrison84]

I support doing whatever it takes to feed the world's eventual 12 billion people using as little land as possible.

[@dylanenglund8271]

Woah, this is amazing! Every farmer should have this, even Farmer Brown

[@voetbal12]

Don't tell farmers what to do, maybe you should have it yourself.

[@bengoacher4455]

The next energy revolution will be the key to unlock so much potential for food and water security. Conservation, reduced pollution and reduced air miles. It also means organic food being the main source of food for the majority of people. We need cheap green energy now!

[@Bianstus]

It just works

[@fewthesun2544]

May I ask what size, look, and location are suitable for vertical farming?

[@servin187]

Great video keep it up!

[@haviour305]

Super interesting topic!

[@dillonmariano7538]

Do they ever grow anything beside lettuce in these things? Seems like a great idea, but if we’re talking about a paradigm shift, we’d need to have this model work for many crops with varying needs

[@jasonjohnson6216]

I grow pot

[@Azivegu]

While I love the concept it isnt going to be viable for feeding populations. It currently is too expensive so only cash crops like fruits, lettuces, and herbs can be grown. Potatoes, rice, and corn which are staple crops require more resources and space and are too cheap to grow in such environments. We wont be able to see away with traditional farms just yet.

[@NinetooNine]

I wish he would have talked about this limitation. Still even if we just converted all other crops besides corn, beans, rice, and potatoes to vertical farms it would still be a huge win for the human race.

[@Azivegu]

@@NinetooNine It would indeed be good, but there have to be some major limitations placed. Often when we talk about the resources required for crops, we talk about nutrients and water. But that leaves out the most important of all: light. While leds (specifically designed for a plant) are very efficient, a lot of power is still required. You cannot get away with normal lighting levels, it has to be daylight equivalent levels. And if you have a 100m2 of plants in a vertical farm, you need to produce 100m2 of light. Given that solar panels will never be 100% efficient, you'll therefore need more than a 100m2 of solar panels. Otherwise it is easy to rely on fossil fuels. I am 100% for vertical farms, but the energy issue must never be forgotten.

[@sgbench]

@@Azivegu The "energy issue" will eventually be solved by fusion power.

[@Azivegu]

@@sgbench that is a promising solution that even my father heard was only 20 years away. Now he is 70. I have hope for fusion energy, but I refuse to be under the illusion it is just around the corner until substantial evidence is provided otherwise.

[@cheese-je9xs]

Also given the fact that self driving and electric trucks and tractors will make farming and transportation to the cities extremely cheap severely cutting into the vertical farming advantages. Also traditional farming doesn’t need the very valuable intercity land and doesn’t require the energy and materials to construct and maintain the very complicated structure like the vertical farm does. Another factor is that I highly doubt the population will ever get to 10bill given how quickly birthrates are dropping world wide.

[@zaired]

Tbh every parking in downtown LA should converted to vertical farms

[@waminette]

Where would you park cars then?

[@Mgtow_Monk]

How about the use of curved mirrors during the day time to concentrate and make use of natural sunlight to support plant growth, no lights can compare to the sun. Doing away with running lights during the greater part of a day?