Vertical Farming Viability

Couldn’t indoor farming also accomplish this?

Maybe pest and weed control is cheaper in vertical farming?

I was blocked as a suspected bot by the wordpress site, so I'll post here...I think this discussion requires a bit more nuance. Of course classic row crops like corn, wheat, soy, oats, etc., are unlikely to ever make sense for indoor crops. But that's not what any of these businesses are tackling. Instead they are focused on high value fruits and vegetables, herbs, and fresh greens. You only have to look at the agricultural success of the Netherlands to see that these crops can

The original comment suggested putting the farm below apartment buildings ("below grade" means underground).It's extremely costly to provide sufficient light to grown plants, as photosynthesis isn't terribly efficient. Natural sunlight is significantly stronger than what people tend to expect.Not only that, but you would need to move massive amounts of air to keep the plants happy, plus the humidity from being underground and all the water they need. Beyond that, you ne

No, no they won't, anyone who says they will lacks a grade-school understanding of plant biology.Plants eat sunlight. With adequate irrigation, light is the key limiting factor on plant growth. Stacking plants vertically is a very expensive waste of time, because you're not gathering any more solar energy than if you just planted them at ground-level. You're just spreading the same amount of light between more plants - plants that are housed in a very expensive building and that are impossibl

what about hydroponics? that doesn't need vast amounts of horizontal land

A model of farming is capturing the sun's energy in the grown produce. This is why farming takes so much land: to get more of the sun.Growing in warehouses or vertically forces you to substitute the sun with artificial lights: even if those are powered by the sun, there's a huge loss of energy in the system, hence increased cost.

why is it not viable to grow food with vertical hydroponic setups or whatever?

It feels like there should be a more direct way to grow stuff. AppHarvest is doing something interesting. Why plant in dirt outside and rely on lossy transmission of fertilizer and water to the plant? Plus fungus, parasites, etc. A controlled environment where you can get the nutrients and water directly to the plant seems a lot more efficient. I know the capex is huge but still. We probably should all be eating less (and wasting less) food here in the US.

I can grow a lot of food in that much space. The problem is plants need light which is cheap from the sun, but there isn't enough in my closet so I need expensive lights on all the time. It is much more energy efficient to grow plants in open fields and fly the results to me (and using trucks, trains and ships is cheaper yet)