World’s Biggest Indoor Vertical Farm Near NYC to Use 95% Less Water
There&#x27;s something neat going on here.<p>Projects like this take growing that happens in the rural areas to the city. We&#x27;ve always had a strife between country and city life, and country life is where food is grown. With this change, we&#x27;re seeing food done in the city as well.<p>Of course this could be seen as potentially bad for farmers, as they lose a bit more control...<p>But there&#x27;s some awesome upsides:<p>Potentially completely robotic. I was looking into with a friend about an automated greenhouse. It fell through due to medical disasters, but we had the nuts and bolts figured out. The gist is hydroponics with tilapia serving as protein and fertilizer for the plants. It would take around 10 mins&#x2F;day for up to 100sq. ft. (it&#x27;s considered that 25 sq ft is enough to feed a human indefinitely.)<p>Provides food for a city. Now, instead of having to rely on &#x27;elsewhere&#x27;, we can point to the building where our food comes from. The gist here is that there&#x27;s now food security.<p>Lower transportation costs. Now, instead of food coming from &#x27;elsewhere&#x27;, it comes from the building over there. Distribution costs are cheaper, storage is onsite and local.<p>Is not subject to the growing season. With this system in place, the growing season is now 24&#x2F;7&#x2F;365.<p>Is also not subject to a host of pests or other environmental damaging effects. Everything is controlled: light, rain, drainage, nutrients. So yields will be much higher than on land.<p>Organic can be much easier. Since there&#x27;s few&#x2F;no pests, neonitonoids and similar aren&#x27;t needed, nor are other nasty insecticides and herbicides.<p>Yes, it does cost more, due to using electricity. However solar is getting cheaper. These buildings could also be used in conjunction with spillover from power plants: There&#x27;s no reason why the day&#x2F;night cycle can&#x27;t be switched, so that the grow building is using power at night, when power is usually not consumed (and is cheaper).<p>Edit: Seriously, modded down already? How about whoever did that <i>also</i> leave a comment why this is not good content?