http://www.insidergreen.com/possibilities-vertical-farming-urban-greenhouses/ Advice and news on green lifestyle, technology and products Wed, 05 May 2010 04:35:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 http://www.insidergreen.com/possibilities-vertical-farming-urban-greenhouses/comment-page-1/#comment-17 Vertical Farming: The Future of Eco-Agriculture | InsiderGre Sun, 14 Mar 2010 09:25:18 +0000 http://www.insidergreen.com/?p=322#comment-17 [...] The vertical farm is a concept which could be put in place in populated areas to help create a sustainable source of crops. This concept is very valuable to urban communities as it could increase employment opportunities while taking advantage of a smaller space to grow larger yields of varied crops all year round. Utilizing one acre of land to build these special vertical farms can produce yields of crops that could be comparable to 6 acres of horizontal farming or more depending on the crops being grown. Another advantage is the fact that the vertical farming facilities could take advantage of a number of efficient methods to water and feed the crops. Vertical farming does have its challenges, but the fact that they could be put in locations where environmental factors such as weather and climate can be devastating in horizontal farming can be avoided you can reduce wasted crops. Where drought, monsoons or other factors can destroy crops vertical farms can have controlled climate to help ensure that farming can be done all year to provide food to many people. Vertical farms can even be a source of energy production to reduce strain on the power grid by using methane gas from the compost cycle of inedible parts of plants. Pests and problems with disease can be severely reduced in vertical farming to produce organic crops free of pesticides, herbicides and inorganic fertilizers which can be harmful to your health. All water runoff can be collected and recycled through evapotranspiration, essentially reducing water usage which is normally wasted through horizontal farming. The process also allows farmland to be returned to wildlife and reduce the need to cause destructive clearing for more farm land. This is important, especially as the human population will grow and more demand for farm land will increase. To have efficient vertical farming, the structures must be constructed with a design that saves money, reduces resource use and can be many stories tall. Vertical farms can even be designed into several new buildings that wish to add in some sustainable crop growth into their available space facing south. Different designs have been proposed to make the vertical farms more efficient as to have the largest amount of natural light flood in for crops as well as using artificial growth lights for plants that do not receive the correct amount of natural sunlight to grow well. Read ahead [...] [...] The vertical farm is a concept which could be put in place in populated areas to help create a sustainable source of crops. This concept is very valuable to urban communities as it could increase employment opportunities while taking advantage of a smaller space to grow larger yields of varied crops all year round. Utilizing one acre of land to build these special vertical farms can produce yields of crops that could be comparable to 6 acres of horizontal farming or more depending on the crops being grown. Another advantage is the fact that the vertical farming facilities could take advantage of a number of efficient methods to water and feed the crops. Vertical farming does have its challenges, but the fact that they could be put in locations where environmental factors such as weather and climate can be devastating in horizontal farming can be avoided you can reduce wasted crops. Where drought, monsoons or other factors can destroy crops vertical farms can have controlled climate to help ensure that farming can be done all year to provide food to many people. Vertical farms can even be a source of energy production to reduce strain on the power grid by using methane gas from the compost cycle of inedible parts of plants. Pests and problems with disease can be severely reduced in vertical farming to produce organic crops free of pesticides, herbicides and inorganic fertilizers which can be harmful to your health. All water runoff can be collected and recycled through evapotranspiration, essentially reducing water usage which is normally wasted through horizontal farming. The process also allows farmland to be returned to wildlife and reduce the need to cause destructive clearing for more farm land. This is important, especially as the human population will grow and more demand for farm land will increase. To have efficient vertical farming, the structures must be constructed with a design that saves money, reduces resource use and can be many stories tall. Vertical farms can even be designed into several new buildings that wish to add in some sustainable crop growth into their available space facing south. Different designs have been proposed to make the vertical farms more efficient as to have the largest amount of natural light flood in for crops as well as using artificial growth lights for plants that do not receive the correct amount of natural sunlight to grow well. Read ahead [...]

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