Vertikale Landwirtschaft

Proposed designs for vertical farms

Vertical farming is a proposal to perform agriculture in urban high-rises. These building have been called "farmscrapers." Using greenhouse methods and recycled resources, these building would produce fruit, vegetables, fish, and livestock year-round in cities. This proposal might allow cities to become self-sufficient.

Dickson Despommier has promoted most recent research. Despommier is a professor of environmental health sciences and microbiology at Columbia University in New York City, New York.

There have been architectural designs by Andrew Kranis, Columbia University; Gordon Graff , University of Waterloo; Chris Jacobs (Creative Director of United Future) of Los Angeles, California; and SOA Architects in Paris, France (Augustine Rosenstiehl and Pierre Sartoux).

Mass media attention began with an article by Lisa Chamberlin in New York magazine. Since 2007, articles have appeared in The New York Times, U.S. News & World Report, Popular Science and Maxim, among others, as well as radio and television features.

Advantages

Weather related crop failures cannot occur. Continuous production of food occurs without regard to seasons. Minimal land use can reduce or prevent further deforestation, desertification, and other consequences of agricultural encroachment on natural biomes. Transportation energy use and pollution are reduced, because the food is produced near the place it is used. Producing food indoors reduces or eliminates conventional plowing, planting, and harvesting by farm machinery, though automation might be used. The controlled growing environment and recycling reduces the need for pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers.

Combinations of hydroponic, aeroponic, and related growing methods allow most crops to be produced indoors in large quantities. Current building designs plan to use energy from wind power, solar power, and incineration of raw sewage and the inedible portion of harvested crops.

Today, over 70% of the liquid fresh water on Earth is used for conventional agriculture. The agriculture often pollutes the water with fertilizers and pesticides. Vertical farms will use less water, and recycle it. The recycling condenses water transpired from the plants. This recycled water is pure, and can be used for crops or drinking.

Plans

Professor Despommier argues that the technology to construct vertical farms currently exists. He also believes that the system can be profitable and effective, a claim evidenced by some preliminary research posted on the project's website. Developers and local governments in the following cities have expressed serious interest in establishing a vertical farm: Inchon (South Korea), Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), and Dongtan (China).

See also

• Aeroponics
• Indoor plant cultivation
• Agriculture
• Aquaculture
• Farm
• Folkewall
• Hanging Gardens of Babylon
• Horticulture
• Hydroponics
• Sprouting
• Terrace (agriculture), Terrace (gardening), and Terrace (building)
• Development Supported Agriculture

External links

• The Vertical Farm Project
• Various Vertical Farm Designs
• Vertical Farms & Large Scale Urban Agriculture Research - Except Consulting
• Animation of large Vertical Farm in city - Chris Jacobs and Dean Fowler
• CNN Vertical Farming; Sky Farming Video
• "Professor sees vertical farms on horizon," Columbia Tribune, 8/30/2005, accessed 9/3/06
• "La Tour Vivante de l'agence soa architectes" (French and English)
• wiseGEEK-"What is a Vertical Farm?"
• "Comment on article "Urbanism and the environment" - Gar Lipow coins the term "farmscraper" 4/23/2007
• "Vertical farming in the big Apple" BBC article from June 19, 2007
• Chris Jacobs Vertical Farm Blog
• Howstuffworks - "Will there be farms in New York City's skyscrapers?"
• "Sky Farm Proposed for Downtown Toronto"
• "Grow Up" Pullquote: "If designer Gordon Graff gets his way, a new skyscraper in Toronto's Theatre District could be the unlikely source of food for 35,000 residents."
• Crowd-Sourcing a Vertical Farm in NYC
• The Hanging Gardens of Babylon An informative Blog about Green Roofs, Rooftop Gardens, Vertical Gardens, Interior Gardens and all solutions to bring Green back into the cities of the 21st century.

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