DWTP

Vertical farming is a sustainable farming technique that aims to provide higher yields with less land, water usage, pesticides, and herbicides. It involves growing crops in a controlled environment, such as a skyscraper filled with crops. This method increases yield by 20-fold per acre compared to conventional agriculture. Vertical farming also conserves and recycles water, making water input low. However, there are challenges, such as the high cost of purchasing a space and the need for expensive LED lights. Despite these setbacks, vertical farming offers year-round crop growth and increased yields. It addresses the problems of conventional agriculture, such as environmental damage and decreasing yields due to declining soil health. Overall, vertical farming is an efficient and sustainable solution to feed our growing population. Hello, welcome to Down with the Plants, a podcast all about sustainable farming. My name is Savannah Wright and I am your host. A little bit of background on me is that I am currently a junior at the University of Florida and I am studying soil science with a minor in sustainable and organic crop production. Many people ask me why I chose this major because of how niche and unheard of it is. When I was growing up, my mom and grandma taught me to garden and ever since they haven't been able to pull me away. So today, we're going to be discussing a relatively new sustainable farming technique that has taken the world by storm and that is vertical farming. Vertical farming has been around since the early 1900s but it did not become modernized until the late 1990s. This modern proposition was introduced by Dixon Despommier, who is a professor in public and environmental health at Columbia University. This model consisted of a skyscraper filled from bottom to top with crops. Pretty cool stuff, am I right? When I think of this, it reminds me of the movie WALL-E, but hopefully we never live in an environment like this. What this method of agriculture aims to do is provide higher yields with less land, water usage, pesticides, and herbicides. All of these goals are achievable in vertical farming because the crops are grown in a controlled environment where they can regulate all of these things. The beauty of vertical farming is that it can look different from operation to operation. One technique is to grow plants in a movable bookcase seen at Plenty Agriculture in Laramie, California. This summer, I'm going to be working at Plenty Ag, so I will be able to see how cool vertical farming is and how their models differ from others. Their model has plants stacked vertically in movable rows, allowing more surface area for crops to be grown. If there are any issues with one row, it can be removed, inspected, and treated, which makes their operation very efficient and practical. One of the coolest things about vertical farming is that it takes the surface area of land horizontally and compresses it vertically, which increases yield by 20-fold per acre compared to conventional agriculture. The USDA has given us this piece of data, and the USDA is a super helpful resource in comparing vertical agriculture to conventional agriculture. One of the main concerns in our farming system is how to feed our fast-growing population. Vertical farming could be the solution to this as we see how much more efficient vertical farming is. Another really awesome thing about vertical farming is that water is conserved and recycled throughout the whole farm, making water input very low. Agriculture is known for using tons of our surface and groundwater, and with advanced technology seen in these vertical farms, this amount of water used shrinks immensely, says Jane Marsh. Now that I have hyped up vertical farming, let's get into some of the challenges and setbacks that it poses. We all know now that this style of farming must be done indoors, so the purchase of a space is needed to start a vertical farm. This can be very expensive, as building prices are just rising as the years go on. What a lot of companies are doing is buying foreclosed warehouses or storage units to start their farms. This method is super sustainable as they are repurposing an old building into a sustainable farming operation. Light is another key factor in farming, and vertical farming does not use the sun at all. Because of this, LED lights are necessary, and man, these farms need a lot of them. These can be very expensive to buy and keep running, and honestly, this part of vertical farming is what turns a lot of people away. Many people don't have the funding to start vertical farms, so they aren't being built. Now that I've shamed LED lights, let's talk a little bit about what makes them so great. They are operated all day every day, making crops grow much faster, and crops are able to grow all year long. This means that you won't have to wait until winter to get your delicious Florida strawberries, and you can enjoy all of your favorite fruits and vegetables all year long. This increase in yield is also so important for the farmers, as this is where they get all of their money. They can grow wherever they want, whenever they want, and whatever they want, and their yields are so much higher than if they were to grow their crops conventionally. I could honestly go on and on about this forever, but I'd probably have no listeners, so before we wrap this podcast episode up, I just want to give a brief overview of what the problem we are facing in agriculture and how vertical farming aims to solve it. Conventional agriculture that is used globally damages our natural environment with its harmful techniques, and farmers who are using these conventional practices are experiencing an extreme decrease in their yields due to soil health declining. The consequence of this is food insecurity. Vertical farming takes all of the unknown factors of farming, like a bad year, a late freeze, pest issues, plant disease, and it demolishes it. Vertical farming doesn't use chemical pesticides or fertilizers, it saves water, and is less taxing on the environment while increasing yields by an exponential amount. It seems pretty awesome to me. Thank you so much for listening to Down at the Plants. Episodes are released weekly, so be sure to check back in next week if you want to learn a little bit about GMOs. If you want to read more about what was discussed today, check online sources. The Rise of Vertical Farms, usda.gov, greenforges.com, agrilinks.org, and verticalfarmdaily.com.