Is Vertical Farming Really the Future of Agriculture?
There's a lot of misunderstanding of agriculture in this thread.<p>1) No, land is not expensive.  In agricultural areas, land is quite cheap.  Organizing shelves of crops vertically solves for a problem that isn't actually a problem.<p>2) The sun is free and electricity isn't cheap.  Putting plants indoors and then buying electricity to create light is going to be expensive compared to using the free sun.  (The absurdity of putting solar panels on a roof to make electricity to beam LEDs on plants, losing 90% of the energy along the way, shouldn't be lost on anyone.)<p>3) Shipping is cheap.  It may make us feel good that a salad's greens were created on a roof-top in Brooklyn, but using some of the most expensive real-estate on Earth to save a few cents on shipping is beyond economically irrational.<p>I actually love the idea of hydroponics for another reason entirely: it saves a ton of water.  Water is a real problem worth solving, particularly in the dry west.  Focus on this and forget about all of these other non-benefits.