When executed correctly, vertical farming can yield as much produce as traditional farming methods in urban areas and smaller spaces. Additionally, vertical farmers gain the added benefit of consistent, year-round production without the uncertainties of climate or pests, all while utilizing 90 percent less energy and 98 percent less water than a traditional farm. Although it can’t be a replacement for more traditional methods, vertical farming provides fresh produce in areas that have little food production or access to healthy foods.
… 90% less energy? I’d love to see a citation on how on earth that is possible. This is a puff piece taken entirely from a few companies, taking their claims as truth. I’m not saying vertical farms don’t have their place, but how can they use 90% less energy while having to operate grow lights.
Vertical farms seem to have a lot of hype, and consequently I’ve seen mounting criticism. Lowtech magazine had a piece about how a solar paneled vertical farm actually uses more space than a regular one, if you account for solar panels, and are only cost effective because of fossil fuels.
edit: the link earlier in that sentence goes to a press release from IDTechEx, which does “independent market research.” These are marketing agencies who put out “reports” as self-marketing, hoping to be hired by companies to make more rosy reports on how great their industries are. It’s capitalist cargo-cult science, but even they seem to outright contradict the smithsonian magazine claim:
On a larger scale, vertical farms may prove more profitable in different geographical regions. Vertical farms can reduce water usage significantly over conventional agriculture, and the high degree of control over the growing environment allows them to grow crops in extreme climates – where such crops may not otherwise be able to grow. In return, vertical farms demand more energy to carry out growing operations [emphasis added]. To maximize their potential, vertical farms would ideally be located in regions of water scarcity, such as Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, or in areas with extreme climates, such as in Scandinavian countries, where the low amounts of sunlight and high costs of regulating greenhouse environments single out vertical farms as an optimal solution. The amount of agricultural land available is also an important factor – regions looking to increase food security and reduce reliance on imports while facing challenges in acquiring sufficient agricultural land would find vertical farms to be ideal. A particularly prominent example of such a country is Singapore, which has demonstrated much interest in vertical farming over the last few years.
[V]ertical farms are very energy intensive [emphasis added], and it is important to ensure the facilities chosen can support these energy loads. In addition, the ergonomics of the facility is also important; should the layout not be given proper consideration, this can impede workers and decrease worker efficiency. As labor costs are typically among the largest sources of expenditure for a vertical farm, improving labor efficiency to reduce these costs is of paramount importance.
I call shenanigans on the energy usage claim. There’s no way it’s possible.
No, it’s not even close. According to that link I posted, growing 1m2 of wheat costs 2,577 kilowatt-hours of electricity. 1 gallon of gasoline has 33.7 kilowatt-hours. That single 1m2 of wheat used the energy equivalent of 76 gallons of gasoline, and that is for a single pound of flour. LEDs are efficient, but vertical farms require extraordinary amounts of them to be on 24/7, whereas a single farm can use one tractor.
You can just look up how much fuel farms use. The general rule of thumb for cereal crops is 2 gallons per acre per season, and that includes planting, the maintenance, and the harvesting. Multiple that out, and you get that vertical farms use 157,827x more energy. That is 5 orders of magnitude. To put that in perspective, the distance across the US vs the distance to the moon is only two orders magnitude difference.
It claims that vertical farms use 57.35 kWh per square meter per month for the lowest possible energy consumption crop, lettuce. This is an astounding amount of energy. That is 1.5 gallons of gasoline per month per square meter for lettuce. If you want to grow strawberries, it almost triples. That still comes out to 3-4 orders of magnitude, depending on the crop.
Solarpunk is not explicitly vegan or vegetarian, in fact it strongly objects to attempts to put the blame for climate-change and environmental destruction on individuals actions aka "don't use plastic straws" etc. that just distract from where the real problems are.
In this case, the problem is IMHO clearly the industrial meat production and the resulting meat over-consumption of our societies and not the chickens someone grows in their backyard for small-scale consumption.
I think you will be fine posting here, but please don't get into arguments with people in /c/vegan.
I managed to learn quite a bit about living soil when I created a terrarium. Understanding the role of each part in an enclosed ecosystem really reframed what I thought a garden should look and act like.
I was able to build a garden last year and I’ve kept a focus on trying to build a good home for the life living within the soil.
Keeping a cover crop such as clover really helped keep moisture in the soil. By mid summer, I was able to skip days watering my garden because the soil remained so moist. That constant moisture is great for any bacteria or fungi living in the soil. Also great for worms and isopods since they require high humidity as well.
I also chopped up any waste from trimming back some plants and threw it back in there as food for what’s living in the soil. Chopping the waste up also sped up it’s decomposition so it didn’t sit around for long.
Last Fall I also took some leaves from the trees and made a layer on top of the soil. I thought it would be a good idea to add a protective layer before the snow came. As a bonus, the extra leafy goodness would be broken down in the spring to be added back into the soil. I couldn’t find any information about doing something like that online but I figured trying to recreate forest-like conditions would be beneficial for the soil.
With a focus on what’s in the soil, I’m hoping that above ground becomes the delicious bonus. I am allowing some native plants to grow alongside my crops to attract a variety of pollinators which seemed to work well last year.
This year is only my second year with my garden so I’m still observing, learning and adapting things. I’ve recently noticed some native chickweed growing will be watching to see how it acts this year as ground cover alongside my clover.
I don’t know how you define “organic”.
Does that mean “free of certain pesticides”, or “natural fertilizer only”, or something else to you?
Maybe hydroponics could be for you. It’s extremely well scalable, plants grow better than in soil, you don’t need to worry that much about pest control, less wasteful than soil, efficient, and much more. But, you’ll need inorganic (mineralic) fertilizer. Depending on your definition and standards you want to follow, this could be a problem.
This link seems like what you’re lookibg for. Are you in the US? If so, you should also reach out to your nearby extension office for extra documentation and support for the transition of the farm. They’ll have best practices and resources for growing particular crops in your area.
A few places to start: The local extension agent. Local suppliers might have some expertise. You might find an organic supplier that knows something. However to be honest in the U.S. you are not going to find much useful. Most of what you will be told is unsubstantiated bullshit ment to make a sale.
Your best bet is to hop on a plane to northern Europe and tour some of the organic greenhouse facilities.
Not limited to chicken there. Even companies who still have a pledge and marketing on not using antibiotics for beef have been found to use antibiotics
I wonder how viable it might be to add an algae loop in to feed the fish. Something like the unit from Cody’s Lab on YT.
I’m doing some science fiction hobby writing with the premise that all life in an O’Neill cylinder interstellar colony is in full balance with all elemental cycles. The second cylinder is dedicated to agriculture, organic materials processing for external industrial production mechanisms, and the basis for a managed cycle budget amongst the inhabitants. The story is posited in an era well past the age of scientific discovery has past. Science is 99.997% complete and largely considered an engineering corpus. I wonder what unexpected aspects of the elemental cycle will become most difficult. I’m leaning towards problems acquiring nitrogen within any given Type-G stellar system, as it seems bound to larger gravity wells and past the ice line.
Anyways, same idea as this post, but exponentially scaled :)
I don’t see why you couldn’t add a loop! A lot of fish owners use sponge filters now (they sit at the bottom of the tank and release bubbles), so you wouldn’t have to worry about your floaters being sucked into your filter. Also, floating plant coverage can cut down on harmful algae blooms(it cuts down on sunlight in the water) and gives your fish more places to hide, so it would be extra ideal for people with a window tank or outdoor tank. I think most people put the outtake pump (going to the plants) under the rocks or with a filter, so I don’t think it would bother the setup either.
Woah! Your story sounds crazily detailed. It must be taking you a lot of research. If it helps, there are plants called “nitrogen fixers” that add nitrogen back to soil
Thanks for the insights. Will carp/(easy fish to farm) eat algae or does it require some intermediate lifeforms or maybe pelletization or something? I know Cody was eating the stuff and talking about its protein contents etc.
The nitrogen problem is actually acquiring the element in the first place. In space, nitrogen is often found in the form of ammonia. This compound boils off/evaporates easily. It takes a large gravity well to hold onto such a gas on stellar cycle time scales as the stellar radiation will break it down to lighter components while the stellar wind will strip off the gas with time. Gravity wells are very expensive things to deal with overall. We can only barely escape Earth’s gravity well. It is like a prison of sorts. The prison is even worse because of gravitational differentiation that separates heavier elements drawing them down into the depths. In space, small bodies have a lot more even distribution of rare heavy elements. The wealth of space is immense. However there are other types of rarity and processes that impact distribution.
This was simply me probing at random to see what kinds of awareness people have about the complete elemental cycles involved with life in a practical sense. There are cycles of hydrogen, carbon, phosphorus, sulphur, iron, oxygen, nitrogen, etc. It is easy to take for granted the things the Earth provides, but that a space station that is tens of kilometers in scale will need to source directly :)
I have never owned carp, but a lot of fish are opportunistic, though have food preferences(so basically, if they are starving, they may resort to eating something, even if they prefer something else). If your setup is outdoors, they may get enough food from wild insects. For example, my mother has a very small outdoor goldfish pond with some real lily-pads, and thanks to the wildlife insects, she does not have to feed them and they are many years old. Otherwise, you could grow your own fish food (example: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6k9xuW2Irck ) or some fish even like certain kitchen scraps.
AH WAIT. 💡 I just remembered a video of a system in Japan where the people of a town wash their produce and dishes in a kabata. It is basically a network of streams going from house to house, and the free-roaming fish there(which I think *might *have been carp) eat all the waste and help keep the water clean. Here is the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rwxsjzjDhsI also remember this article being informative (and is where the image is from): ihcsacafe-en.ihcsa.or.jp/news/harie/
In regards to your story, haha I am sorry to say it does not sound like I will be much help for that. The science your story is going into is far too smart for my brain, I’m afraid. You sound like a scientist! hahaha.
This is a really helpful suggested reference that will definitely make it into my tech tree. Thanks!
I’m just naive enough to imagine a world with such future tech, and have too much time on my hands. The little ideas like these you shared all add up into something bigger eventually. It’s about dreaming of a better future and a magnifying glass to view the present, even if I’m the only one that is ever interested in it all. Thanks again!
Changing color of existing nets is a trivial change for such a big gain! Sounds like we can be investigating color as insect repellent for other crops too.
Yes! There are studies about fish for that. You might have to be more specific for the species of fish if you want more specific answers(since fish behavior can be so different between species), but here are some studies:
A lot of it typically comes down to the basics. For example, fish feel less stressed when they have somewhere to hide, and so if you put driftwood in a tank(simulating a log they might hide behind in a natural environment), they feel safer. Part of it making them live longer can also come from it being a breeding ground for healthy microbes, but driftwood can also release tannin’s, which help with the water PH.
These do originate from very hot and dry climates, so I agree there might be a leak in yours, or perhaps you are trying to water too large of an area with too few of Olla’s.
I am in Alberta(Canada), and it did work here during our droughts when we were also dry and hot last summer, with temperatures comparable to Texas (at least according to your averages online).
However, drip lines are a good choice, too! I quite like them paired with rain barrels and battery-operated faucet timers(for automatic watering). Though I don’t know if rain barrels are legal where you are? I have heard they are illegal in some places in the USA.
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