Is the idea of "farming up" really taking off? Vertical farming could yield long-term environmental benefits, but still faces many obstacles.
"Want to see where your food might come from in the future?", Owen Fletcher asks, "Look up."
The potential environmental benefits of vertical farming are extensive, claim industry advocates, who believe it can help solve some of the world's most pressing environmental issues, such as contributing to slowing climate change and land reclamation. Abandoned farmlands could improve ecosystem functioning, for example. Advocates also claim that if food is grown closer to cities, trucking transport will not be as necessary, reducing carbon emissions. Indoor farming could also curtail the use of pesticides, and protect crops against traditional weather disruptions, possibly allowing for earlier harvests.
Urban farming pilot projects, and other experimental growth methods and techniques, are sprouting up as far off as Sweden and South Korea, and as close as Chicago and New York. Plantagon, for example, a Swedish company at the cutting edge of vertical farming, plans to create a 12-story, triangular farm in Linköping, Sweden, and other facilities in Shanghai or Singapore.
Still, as a business model, vertical farming has yet to prove itself, and some experts claim that the energy required to operate such facilities may cancel out some of their purported environmental benefits.
Dr. Dickson Despommier, a microbiology professor at Columbia University who developed the idea of vertical farming with students in 1999, and chief adviser to Plantagon, remains optimistic despite acknowledging evident obstacles. "You have to start small and you have to start at the research level before you jump into the commercial aspect of this thing, but that's the way all these ideas start," he says. "Everything we have in this world of ours started out crazy."
FULL STORY: The Future of Agriculture May Be Up

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

Ohio Forces Data Centers to Prepay for Power
Utilities are calling on states to hold data center operators responsible for new energy demands to prevent leaving consumers on the hook for their bills.

MARTA CEO Steps Down Amid Citizenship Concerns
MARTA’s board announced Thursday that its chief, who is from Canada, is resigning due to questions about his immigration status.

Silicon Valley ‘Bike Superhighway’ Awarded $14M State Grant
A Caltrans grant brings the 10-mile Central Bikeway project connecting Santa Clara and East San Jose closer to fruition.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Caltrans
City of Fort Worth
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie