In a world with a growing population and growing demand for food we must look for new ways in order to quench the thirst for this growing demand. However, we must do this knowing that there is an ongoing climate crisis and biodiversity crisis as we are currently going to go through the world’s sixth mass extinction. In order to work towards this goal, we must look at the best ways we can improve agricultural yields while also trying to reduce our impact on the environment as best as we can. I think one way we can do this is to diversify our agricultural practices, one of these practices should be urban vertical farming.
Urban vertical farming can be an important aspect in our ability to sustainably grow produce and assist in the transition to a more sustainable world. Vertical farms use less water and land than conventional farms and as a result are less resource intensive. According to the world bank agriculture currently accounts for up to 70% of global freshwater use. Through practices like vertical farming, modern technologies could prove useful to save water while increasing yields. Water recycling is an important part of vertical farming and can drastically reduce the amount of water necessary to produce substantial amounts of produce. There is a vertical farm in Japan ran by the Mirai company they tout impressive numbers. They say they are 50-100 times more efficient in producing their foods than traditional farming practices, while using 1/50th of the water required to grow similar amounts of crops. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15487733.2017.1394054
This technology is all about maximizing efficiency. The amount of input needed to get similar outputs in vertical farming is far less than in traditional farming. If we are able to focus on farming in terms of resources inputs to yields (the amount of food we need) then sustainable agriculture can be more feasible. If we can improve efficiencies then sustainable agriculture will be more attainable. Through technologies like vertical farming, we are able to maximize production of these plants without exploiting substantial amounts of land and water. If we can transition to a mixture of vertical urban farming and traditional horizontal farming we can reduce the amount of land needed to produce the same amount of food. This means that we can then start thinking about reforesting or rewilding the areas that were farmlands, restoring them to their former glory and improving the biodiversity of these areas.
Urban vertical farming can and should play a significant role in improving food security. As our climate becomes more unstable and increasingly hard to predict with more devastating storms and unpredictable climate trends we will need to adapt to these new conditions in the best way possible. In order to avoid more crop failures and unforeseen agricultural disruption more technology must be implemented so we can better mitigate damage from these events or adapt to new practices if its needed. Urban vertical farming can do just that. Because the produce is growing inside buildings with climate control technologies the farms are more resilient to our changing climate. These plants will not drown in torrential rain or die off in prolonged drought. This technology is essential to improving food security around the world for these reasons and already implemented in certain parts of the world already stricken with prolonged drought. According to this case study (https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/2/1042/htm) It evaluates the sustainability of vertical farming in the post disaster areas of Japan hit hardest by the Earth quake in 2011. It shows in the study how vertical farming in these disaster-prone areas increases food security by decreasing the need for imported foods, while also using less resources than traditional vertical farms. Based on the study vertical farms use less phosphorus and nitrogen inputs then traditional farming because of the increased efficiencies of resource inputs to produce outputs. As a result, the study prescribes the use of vertical farming for anywhere in the world that might be at risk of climate change or other disasters that could hinder people’s ability to find or produce food in times of disasters. Vertical farming has been implemented all over the world, and in places like Singapore and Indonesia it has made up for the lack of available farmland allowing for these countries to increase their food security by ensuring their ability to grow the crops they need despite the lack of available land.
I think it is imperative that we use all the technologies that we have in order to better optimized agriculture around the world. If we can implement this technology into practices like vertical farming where we can drastically reduce resource inputs and drastically increase yields we must implement these new practices. We need to use everything at our disposal to create good nutrient rich food for everyone in the world while also not contributing to more ecological destruction like deforestation, and poor use of water. If we want to reduce our impacts on the world while also increasing food production with the goal of feeding people we need to use methods like this. Like I said before it is imperative that we implement all of these practices and diversify the way we grow food, we can’t have massive industrial chemical agriculture all over the world, it will only further decrease biodiversity and lead to worse living standards for many people around the world.
As the world grows increasingly uncertain with climate change exacerbating desertification, and geopolitics affecting the distribution of food around the world it is and should be a top priority to increase food security around the world. As shown in Japan and the middle east vertical farming is already applied in spaces that are becoming increasingly hard to grow food. It is a crucial tool that must be utilized with other technologies to best support people around the world in having the fundamental resources necessary to live. Vertical farming can and I think should have a place in our world to feed people, as our population grows, and resources become increasingly scarce we must look to every possible solution in order to meet the demands of our growing population.
