Start a Vertical Farming Business

Start a  Vertical Farming Business 


















                 

 "Local food in growing cities"

Vertical farming is cultivating plant or animal life within a skyscraper greenhouse or on vertically inclined surfaces. The modern idea of vertical farming uses techniques similar to glass houses, where natural sunlight can be augmented with artificial lighting.

Buzz words and pretty drawings Single-story, high-tech greenhouses save significant amounts of water and increase productivity. So why not stack them up and makes cities self-sufficient? The idea for vertical farms came from an infectious disease ecologist, Dickson Despommier, who turned his knowledge of parasites into a way of looking at cities. "Instead of the city behaving like a parasite, it should be a symbiant," Despommier says. "The future city has to take a big lesson from nature and start behaving like an ecosystem." By that, he means zero-waste cities: Even the idea of waste is anathema to a working ecosystem. So Despommier envisions skyscrapers of the future producing the majority of food consumed by citizens, with brown water and food compost used for farming. "City life," says Despommier, "demands city food."

 History

A commercial high-rise farm such as 'The Vertical Farm' has never been built, yet extensive photographic documentation and several historical books on the subject suggest that research on the subject was not diligently pursued. New sources indicate that a tower hydroponicum existed in Armenia prior to 1951.

Proponents argue that, by allowing traditional outdoor farms to revert to a natural state and reducing the energy costs needed to transport foods to consumers, vertical farms could significantly alleviate climate change produced by excess atmospheric carbon. Critics have noted that the costs of the additional energy needed for artificial lighting, heating and other vertical farming operations would outweigh the benefit of the building’s close proximity to the areas of consumption.

One of the earliest drawings of a tall building that cultivates food for the purposes of consumption was published as early as Life Magazine 1909. The reproduced drawings feature vertically stacked homesteads set amidst a farming landscape. This proposal can be seen in Rem Koolhaas's Delirious New York. Koolhaas wrote that this 1909 theorem is

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'The Skyscraper as Utopian device for the production of unlimited numbers of virgin sites on a metropolitan location' (1994, 82) . ” Vertical Farming as a Future It is estimated that by the year 2050, close to 80% of the world’s population will live in urban areas and the total population of the world will increase by 3 billion people. A very large amount of land may be required depending on the change in yield per hectare. Scientists are concerned that this large amount of required farmland will not be available and that severe damage to the earth will be caused by the added farmland. Vertical farms, if designed properly, may eliminate the need to create additional farmland and help create a cleaner environment. It's a beguilingly simple idea: make maximum use of a small amount of space by filling glass houses with plant beds stacked high one above the other. Financial and environmental pressures on modern agriculture have sparked new interest in vertical farming. With global population expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050, competition for land to grow both food and energy crops will become increasingly fierce. Four-fifths of us will live in dense urban areas, and increasing awareness of the carbon and water footprints of well-travelled food will have pushed locally grown produce even further up the list of desirables. So it's easy to see the appeal of a system which, its proponents insist, can surpass the productivity of existing agricultural spaces by up to 20 times, while using less water, cutting mileage and energy costs, and delivering food security. "It answers so many of the big questions of the future", says Caiger-Smith. Advantages Increase Crop Production Protection from Weather- Related Problems Conservation of Resources Organic Crop Urban Growth Technologies and devices Vertical farming relies on the use of various physical methods to become effective. Combining these technologies and devices in an integrated whole is necessary to make Vertical Farming a reality. Various methods are proposed and under research. The most common technologies suggested are: Greenhouses The Folkewall and other vertical growing architectures  Aeroponics /Hydroponics / Aquaponics Composting Grow light Phytoremediation Skyscraper Controlled-environment agriculture Vertical Farming as Business and consulting Vertical farming is a new phenomena, so the queston arises that is vertica farming a business opportunity? Definitely an actual business opportunity. Basically, growing crops outdoors will become too high-risk for farmers and too high-cost for consumers. Indoor has to pay for electricity and equipment, sure, but that'll be nothing compared to the cost of petroleum inputs alone. Plus, indoor farming companies will be able to capitalize on every supply shock that hits the market--potentially big profits there before it takes over as the dominant form of food production. There is a handful of companies who are actively working on a vertical farming business start-up. The business of vertical farming is a hot topic; and on the brink of going huge. As food prices continue to sky rocket more and more people are taking to growing (at least) some of their own food. When food prices get high enough, the costs associated with urban and vertical farming will become more justified and businesses will start to flourish. Consulting: The Green Guerrillas believe our salvation lies within the principals of urban agriculture and sustainable living – this means encouraging business to educate their staff and empower employees to become self sustainable and secure their own sources of food and water. It makes good business sense to invest in the well being of employee’s health, and encouraging sustainability not only at the work place but at home as well. Moving towards sustainability is not just a trend or lip service, it is a raw reality we all have to confront, and a responsibility we all have to undertake and the Green Guerrillas would like to give you the opportunity to introduce the principals of urban agriculture to your business. Some of the things we can do for you include: ·         Consulting on setting up Urban Agricultural Farms ·         Run half day urban homestead workshops for your staff. ·         Install working examples of urban farming around your business – veggie box’s, composting worms and vertical farming. ·         Engineer custom waste management solutions for your business. ·         Use urban farming to drive your business marketing efforts – edible green billboards, veggie box logos, reverse graffiti, business card that sprout vegetables and more! ·         Workshops on Urban agriculture, worm husbandry, animal husbandry ·         Eco school set ups ·         Sustainable apartment and green city living consultancies For More details: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jul/29/vertical-farms-urban-food http://www.verticalfarm.com/blog/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1clRcxZS52s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1wQ2LXeF-k