Vertical Farming: A Solution for the Future of Agriculture?

[GTOM]

Some people propose vertical farming as the food production of future.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ronald...ld-be-the-future-of-agriculture/#4098681b1175
Well i can see advantages like no problem with vermin living in the ground, save transportation costs. But can it be a realistic plan to feed billions of people, become cheaper than traditional farming?

 

[jim mcnamara]

Hmm. Northern Europe has similar hydroponic farms, that rely to a smaller extent on added light. This is interesting, but the practicality eludes me. We are trading electric generation for what was before, free: sunlight. So while LED's are efficient and so is the water use in hydroponic farming, I'm not sure we want a huge chunk of our agricultural infrastructure completely dependent on the grid. As things stand now.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/09/holland-agriculture-sustainable-farming/

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Verticals farming seems like it is good in situations where you’re limited on space, are looking to cut down on water/pesiticides (IIRC water usage is around 5-10% of conventional agriculture) and/or want to cut down on food miles. The trade off is increased energy.

 

[Rive]

Some people propose vertical farming as the food production of future.

That's just buzzing around. What these 'farms' actually produce is usually some vegetables, not the 'bulk' of foodstuff (grains and such).
As a 'future of food production' I'll take them seriously only at the time they start selling chicken food as their main product.

 

[BWV]

A solution to a non-existent problem. We have likely reached peak farmland in developed countries and how can it be more economic to build vertical farms on expensive urban land vs. cheap rural land? Or, like organic produce, is this just a way to signal high social class / virtue for high income urban hipsters?

https://thebreakthrough.org/index.php/journal/past-issues/issue-5/the-return-of-nature

 

[GTOM]

That's just buzzing around. What these 'farms' actually produce is usually some vegetables, not the 'bulk' of foodstuff (grains and such).
As a 'future of food production' I'll take them seriously only at the time they start selling chicken food as their main product.

Well i have also thought about that, ok they can produce something, but how they replace wheat fields?

 

[256bits]

Hmm. Northern Europe has similar hydroponic farms, that rely to a smaller extent on added light. This is interesting, but the practicality eludes me. We are trading electric generation for what was before, free: sunlight. So while LED's are efficient and so is the water use in hydroponic farming, I'm not sure we want a huge chunk of our agricultural infrastructure completely dependent on the grid. As things stand now.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2017/09/holland-agriculture-sustainable-farming/

Do you know anything about the nutritional quality of hydroponic foods.
Certainly one can supply the nitrogen and phosphorus to the plant roots, and the plant will grow.
Except they also need other elements as well, or deficiencies in plant growth show up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_nutrition

A solution for plant growth that works for some, but not all plants.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoagland_solution

For the hydroponic farmer, or any farmer for that matter, one would want to maximize profit.
But that doesn't mean that the edible part that humans like, or any other animal likes, will have the most beneficial nutritional value.
Bigger strawberries may just mean a more beefed up water content for example.
They do look good and ripe, but a bite brings out the woodiness and the blandness in taste.

For the consumer who pays most of the time for poundage, and not the nutritional quality, and sometimes not the taste, or texture, is he/she getting from a hydroponic food the same experience from a soil grown food, even not taking into account the taste and texture aspect, but from only a nutritional perspective.

Would a person eating only hydroponic foods be full in the belly, but starving nevertheless?
Supplements for the future everyone.

Since this firm, Plenty, in the Forbes expose, is explaining that they will do it better with AI and gadgetry, what is it they would want to maximize?
Profits for the company, or nutritional value and quality for the consumer?
Is there any difference between that motive and a soil farmer motive ( who can't control all his variables before harvest )

.

 

[Rive]

Do you know anything about the nutritional quality of hydroponic foods.

There are a lot of stuff against hydroponic food on the internet - almost as many as diet advice. By my expertise it's the same quality too.

According to some rigorous digging there are two main factors which determines the nutrition value (apart from the health and ripeness of the given vegetable). First is the exact type of the vegetable, other is the road from harvesting to eating.

I could not come across reliable sources against hydroponic farming (on basis of nutrition value). If it's the same type and is healthy (also: ripe, of course), then the nutrition value is ~ the same.

 

[jim mcnamara]

If I understand what you are saying @256bits, then here is a counterpoint:

First off, plants and humans both require micronutrients - For plants it tends to be elements or oxides/chlorides,nitrates,nitrites. Ex: Selenium, Boron, Iron.
Human micronutrient requirements are similar except they are predicated on coming from living things and there are a lot of added ones plants do not require. The human's current list of known required molecules/elements runs to about 120+. For plants that number is much smaller, because plants are autotrophs. They synthesize lots of things humans cannot, so we get them secondhand from plants. Or animals/fungi that "ate" plant material.

Bottom line - if plants grow well, then they have all the micronutrients required by plants. Adding more does nothing to help them - too much is toxic, and possibly toxic to humans eating those plants. Ex: selenium

Note: large parts of India have soils that are iodine depleted, true to a lesser extent in Europe and North America as well. This is the reason that this database for package labeling in the US does not report iodine in foods, simply because iodine values are all over the place. So a political decision was made - do not report iodine, even though it is a known required nutrient:
https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list (select 'standard reference' and 'raw broccoli' then look at the 'full report').

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_nutrition - note the 17 micronutrients listed. Pick up a yellow box of 'Miracle Grow' plant food (US product name) read the label.

So 2 points:
I. We already have major issues with micronutrients in soils. Plants grown in them do not have (for example) iodine, so we add it to table salt in the US. This is an agricultural practices problem.
II. Hydroponics does not automatically mean a lack of nutrients. Plants will not grow when micronutrients are unavailable due to pH or are missing, for example:
They get "sick". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_deficiency_(plant_disorder) - It is called 'iron chlorosis' and has dramatic negative effects on yield and product quality. So if you grow commercially do you think you could sell yellow ¼ size limp cucumbers?

... I have a bunch of nifty stories with issues like pigs, corn, and selenium or cantaloupes, boron, and airplanes. Maybe later.