Aqua Vista Topic: Future of Farming #1

Looking at the past and current state of agriculture, we have come to the conclusion that it is failing to provide nutritious foods, it is insufficient to sustain us in the future and the ecological destruction caused my modern farming methods has taken an incredible toll on our planet. 

  

Dr. Despommier's solution is to utilize skyscrapers to grow food hydroponically in the middle of cities. According to Dr. Despommier, the vertical farm has a number of advantages over traditional agricultural methods used currently worldwide.

1. Year-round crop production. By growing crops inside controlled environments, crop production is not dependent upon the seasons. Instead of one season of tomatoes, staggered planted tomatoes can be harvested year round.

2. No Weather-related Crop Failures. By growing foods in controlled environments; droughts, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural phenomena are irrelevant. 

3. New Employment Opportunities. When farming exists in a skyscraper there are plenty of job opportunities created in the cities. In the Vertical Farm, the crops exist in all of these stages all the time, necessitating the need for labour.

4. No Agricultural Runoff. "According to the USDA, Agricultural nonpoint source pollution is the primary cause of pollution in the U.S." - The Vertical Farm. By growing hydroponically in a controlled environment, these toxic chemicals are essentially unnecessary.

5. Allowance for Ecosystem Restoration. By moving agriculture into city skyscrapers, Dr. Despommier argues traditional agriculture won't be necessary and the land can be turned back over to nature for recovery.

6. Animal Feed from Post-harvest Plant Material. You don't eat all parts of a plant and what is leftover can be used as animal feed.

7. No Use of Pesticides, Herbicides, or Fertilizers. Guess what? There are no weeds to pull in hydroponic/aeroponic/aquaponic systems! So there's no water pollution caused by this method of farming.

8. Use of 70-95 percent less water. According to The Vertical Farm, "Today, traditional agriculture uses around 70 percent of all the available freshwater on earth, and in doing so pollutes it." Of all the benefits on this list, this is the most important of them all.

9. Purification of Grey Water to Drinking Water. Grey water reclamation will become an even hotter topic as the scarcity of clean water becomes more desperate. Plants provide a natural (bio) filtration process that can cleans the water.

10. Greatly reduced food miles. A common argument for alternative farming is that the average distance food travels from farm to table is 1500 miles, on average. The Vertical Farm proposes growing food in the centre of cities, drastically cutting this distance down.

11. More Control of Food Safety and Security. The Vertical Farm is designed using the same equipment hospitals use in intensive care units to prevent pathogens and pests from affecting the crops. Security is proposed to prevent people from sabotaging the environment produced.

credit to OHIO AQUAPONICS

Aquaponics + Farm Towers

Vertical Farms 
(credit to: http://www.verticalfarm.com )


Problem Statement

By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth's population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. An estimated 109 hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA).

Potential Solution

The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes, a wide variety of herbs, and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another 3 billion people. An entirely new approach to indoor farming must be invented, employing cutting edge technologies. The Vertical Farm must be efficient (cheap to construct and safe to operate). Vertical farms, many stories high, will be situated in the heart of the world's urban centers. If successfully implemented, they offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.

Vertical Farms' Advantages

• Year-round crop production; 1 indoor acre is equivalent to 4-6 outdoor acres or more, depending upon the crop (e.g., strawberries: 1 indoor acre = 30 outdoor acres) 
• No weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests 
• All VF food is grown organically: no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers 
• VF virtually eliminates agricultural runoff by recycling black water 
• VF returns farmland to nature, restoring ecosystem functions and services 
• VF greatly reduces the incidence of many infectious diseases that are acquired at the agricultural interface 
• VF converts black and gray water into potable water by collecting the water of evapotranspiration 
• VF adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible parts of plants and animals 
• VF dramatically reduces fossil fuel use (no tractors, plows, shipping.) 
• VF converts abandoned urban properties into food production centers 
• VF creates sustainable environments for urban centers 
• VF creates new employment opportunities 
• We cannot go to the moon, Mars, or beyond without first learning to farm indoors on earth 
• VF may prove to be useful for integrating into refugee camps 
• VF offers the promise of measurable economic improvement for tropical and subtropical LDCs. If this should prove to be the case, then VF may be a catalyst in helping to reduce or even reverse the population growth of LDCs as they adopt urban agriculture as a strategy for sustainable food production. 
• VF could reduce the incidence of armed conflict over natural resources, such as water and land for agriculture

Vertical Farms' Designs

Courtesy of: http://archdezart.com/2011/09/25/loft-london-farm-tower-competition/

 Courtesy of: http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_59707.shtml

Courtesy of: http://www.inspirationgreen.com/vertical-farms.html

Comment:

Farm Towers are nicely suited for Aquaponics system. The fish tanks would be located on the ground floor since it is where the sunlight is most deficient. The hydroponics will then occupy all the floors above it. Using minimal pumps, the water flow would be highly energy efficient since it travels back to the fish tank using gravity. In addition to that, the tower could also be energy independent if renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are tapped.