clipped from features.csmonitor.com

Cities may sprout vertical farms

Proposed high-rise greenhouses could help solve a looming food crisis, professor says.

The world is going to need vertical farms because conventional agriculture can’t handle what’s to come, Despommier says. By mid­­century, the world is expected to add another 3 billion people, pushing its population close to 10 billion. Feeding all those extra mouths will require finding an area of agricultural land larger than Brazil – without cutting rain forests needed to stabilize the world’s climate.

And indoor agriculture is more efficient. One indoor acre of strawberries can produce as much as 30 outdoor acres can. In general, indoor acreage is four to six times more productive, in part because of the year-round growing season. “Outdoors, you might get one crop [per year]; indoors, you might get four or five crops per year,” Despommier says.