Monday, December 15, 2008

Growing Vertical: Skyscraper Farming

Scientific American has a post on how cultivating crops in 'downtown skyscrapers might save bushels of energy and provide city dwellers with distinctively fresh food'. The article goes on to say that

Why not grow grains, vegetables and fruits right where the expanding crowds of consumers are: in the middle of a city, inside a tall glass building? Poultry and pork could be reared there, too. A vertical farm would drastically reduce the fossil-fuel use and emissions associated with farm machinery and trucking, as well as the spread of fertilizer and its runoff. Crops could grow and be harvested year-round instead of at the end of one season, multiplying annual yield by at least four times. Urban agriculture could also convert municipal wastewater into irrigation water, reducing a city’s refuse problem. And consumers would get the freshest food possible, without pesticides.

Is this such a fanciful notion?


Read more at - 'Growing Vertical: Skyscraper Farming'

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