The United Nations recently revealed that the world’s population is expected to grow to 9.7 billion by 2050. Feeding all of these people will present us with a considerable challenge. The world is losing more and more of its arable lands daily due to industrial development and urbanisation. A study by the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures in 2015 stated that the Earth had lost over a third of its arable land over the previous 40 years.
However, the answer to the challenge of feeding an ever-growing global population could lie in vertical farming – with many people believing it has the potential to be the future of agriculture. But what is vertical farming, and how can it help?
What is vertical farming?
Vertical farming is the process of growing produce in vertically stacked layers instead of on a single level, such as in a field or greenhouse. Food crops are grown in vertically stacked layers inside another structure, such as a repurposed warehouse.
This modern way of growing crops uses hydroponic or aeroponic growing methods to make the production of food indoors possible. In many ways, vertical farming is similar to growing crops in a greenhouse. But what is different about this method is that it allows us to produce food in challenging environments, e.g. where available land is rare or unavailable, and maximise crop output in a limited space.
How does vertical farming work?
There are four areas you need to be aware of when it comes to vertical farming:
- Physical layout – To produce more food crops per square metre, crops are cultivated in a stacked formation using a tower-like structure.
- Lighting – A perfect combination of natural and artificial lighting is used to ensure the lighting levels in the structure are at the most beneficial level for crops – sometimes including the use of rotating beds.
- Growing media – Aquaponic or hydroponic growing media is used rather than soil to help ensure all product is of uniform quality.
- Sustainability – Vertical farming uses a variety of sustainable techniques and features designed to offset the energy cost of agriculture, including using 95% less water than traditional farming.
Pros and cons of vertical farming
As you can imagine, vertical farming has many benefits, which is one reason it has been called the farm of the future. However, there are some stumbling blocks in the way that do need to be overcome first.
Pros of vertical farming include:
- Vertical farms use less land, produce fewer greenhouse gases, use fewer resources, and protect our air, land, and water.
- No chemicals or pesticides are used as it’s not needed in a controlled environment.
- Vertical farms produce crops three times faster than traditional farming, using only 5% of the water a conventional farm uses.
- Because vertical farming doesn’t use soil, they aren’t bound to a geographical location.
- Vertical farms can be set up in urban areas, reducing transport emissions.
- Vertical farming grows crops quicker and can be used year-round.
Cons of vertical farming:
- It is a costly investment to start with, and no economic feasibility study has yet been completed.
- Pollination has not been taken into account. To introduce this could be very costly – and very difficult.
- It relies heavily on technology, so power cuts could be devastating.
Although vertical farming is a costly investment, the benefits can help advance several of the UN’s sustainable development goals in the long run. We believe vertical farming is a successful way to meet rising customer demands, and our Gelponics products are an excellent way to help more people achieve this goal.