I have been staying on top of the concept of urban desolation, food scarcity, environmental damage and vertical farming for a while now. And I thought that vertical farming would be something of the distant future. If you’ve never heard of vertical farming before click on this link to find out more! In a nutshell, vertical farming is a way to make food inside cities by building large tall structures that grow food and recycle waste, known as, black water. The whole idea of vertical farming is very romantic to me because it has a glimmer of a Utopian future where people live in cities and their food is grown close to home and there is sustainability as well as self-sufficiency of the food that’s consumed within city limits. This self-sufficiency would make cities more independent and would be safer in case of some kind of transportation disaster where getting food from rural farms in distant places became difficult due to freeway or rail congestion and/or destruction. There is a great deal of technology and thinking that needs to happen before vertical farms become a reality. But one such precedent that is happening now that will seed the way to vertical farming is what is happening now in Detroit.
In Detroit there are many properties that have foreclosed and/or abandoned their property and there are desolate areas. This is causing not only an ugly looking spot on different neighborhoods in Detroit, but it is a waste of space that could be used for other uses. The problem is that many manufacturing and other jobs have left Detroit and so much of its population has left as well. This is leaving big holes in the city. What a company known as Hantz Farms wants to do is create farms in Detroit that require the removal of pavement and asphalt, and access to the old soil of a once rich farming community. If you click on this link you will be taken to Hantz Farms and the site will explain how the company wants to rejuvenate Detroit by creating farms directly inside the city. This will provide much needed jobs and will beautify the city, not to mention the green will be a nice change-up from the grey buildings everywhere.
These farms in Detroit already exist to an extent. There are small tomato farms in Detroit. But this is just the beginning. If Hantz has its way then there will be entire city blocks full of farms as well as having beautiful gardens on the outskirts. Hantz believes that the farms will also inspire local business to sprout up near the farms because of tourism and other activity. But I think that these farms will be the foundation to vertical farms. The reason why is because these Hantz farms are for profit. And they will show other cities that food production inside city limits is a profitable enterprise. If there is a market for farms then there will definitely be a market for high-rise vertical farms in the future. Why? Because bigger cities may not have as much open land as Detroit but they may want to have farms in their less populated areas. Since vertical farms take up less horizontal space and acreage it makes sense that vertical farms would be the logical choice.
Imagine a USA where each major city provides its own emergency reserves of food right within city limits. And you could go to school in urban horticulture or city farming at your local city college and get a job at a urban farm not too far away. Think of how more connected people would be to their dinners if they saw the potatoes and tomatoes that they have on their plate growing in buildings outside their office windows. That would just inspire me to eat more veggies because I’d like to know that I’m supporting people having jobs that they feel good about. Also isn’t it a cool idea that Hantz thinks they will be able to provide benefits to farm workers? Vertical farms are definitely a technology of the future but they’re based on things we already know about, Hydroponics, Agriculture, High-Rise Building Construction etc. And you will see that vertical farms are part of my ideas on creating a more secure, productive and prosperous future for the USA.
-Tyler
Sources:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/29/news/economy/farming_detroit.fortune/index.htm
CNN Money – By David Whitford, editor at largeDecember 29, 2009: 11:37 AM ET
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming
Wikipedia: Vertical Farming
http://www.brighthub.com/environment/science-environmental/articles/39036.aspx
Vertical Farming – Providing Alternative Resources for Food Production
Article by ciel s cantoria
Edited & published by Niki Fears on Jun 17, 2009
http://www.hantzfarmsdetroit.com/introduction.html
Hantz Farms – Detroit
GM’s Bust Turns Detroit Into Urban Prairie of Vacant-Lot Farms
GM’s Bust Turns Detroit Into Urban Prarie of Vacant Lot Farms
By Michael McKee and Alex Ortolani – Bloomberg News – Dec 8, 2008