High-Rise Grow-Ops
No, no, we're not talking about those infamous, illegal and property- and people-destructive grow-ops, where illicit Marijuana plants thrive in dank, damp and electricity-hungry rented bungalows in the affluent suburbs. This is something else again. We're talking agriculture; the growth of food crops in, of all places, high-rise buildings set in the middle of great urban conclaves.
Well, think about it; if the clearing house for fresh foods - and these are ambitious projects that speak not only of the need to produce fresh fruits and vegetables, but poultry and fresh-water fish, crustaceans and mollusks - were co-located with urban-dense homes of all descriptions, from single-family dwellings to large apartment complexes, it'd all be there.
In fact, one of the ideas being floated as being feasible, practical and a potential solution to our current environmental problems seen in transporting food long distances - using costly energy in the process - is to construct a thousand-unit housing complex, complete with indoor agriculture to produce in sufficient quantities to feed all the people housed therein.
Sounds impossibly new-wave lunatic. But there's a professor of microbiology and ecology at Columbia University who insists we are being pressed to look for solutions to seemingly insolvable problems, and one is staring us right in the face. Sustainable agriculture in urban settings, huge "farmscrapers" to provide fresh food for the people inhabiting the near geography.
The potential appears to be there. To grow crops customized in recognition of local needs; organic produce for which weather conditions will be no problem. There would be a reduced environmental impact, since no pesticide would be needed, and although the initial infrastructure might be costly, the usual types of farm machinery would not be needed.
Best of all, there would be no need to import from far and wide.
And then, they whisper conspiratorially, all that unused farmland in great rural stretches could be returned to nature. Trees could be grown there, to fill in what was once farmland, and those trees would commence to absorb all that carbon dioxide we've become so fixated on, in the recognition of how harmful it's become to our atmosphere, our environment.
The name is Professor Dickson Despommier, at Columbia University. www.verticalfarm.com
Well, think about it; if the clearing house for fresh foods - and these are ambitious projects that speak not only of the need to produce fresh fruits and vegetables, but poultry and fresh-water fish, crustaceans and mollusks - were co-located with urban-dense homes of all descriptions, from single-family dwellings to large apartment complexes, it'd all be there.
In fact, one of the ideas being floated as being feasible, practical and a potential solution to our current environmental problems seen in transporting food long distances - using costly energy in the process - is to construct a thousand-unit housing complex, complete with indoor agriculture to produce in sufficient quantities to feed all the people housed therein.
Sounds impossibly new-wave lunatic. But there's a professor of microbiology and ecology at Columbia University who insists we are being pressed to look for solutions to seemingly insolvable problems, and one is staring us right in the face. Sustainable agriculture in urban settings, huge "farmscrapers" to provide fresh food for the people inhabiting the near geography.
The potential appears to be there. To grow crops customized in recognition of local needs; organic produce for which weather conditions will be no problem. There would be a reduced environmental impact, since no pesticide would be needed, and although the initial infrastructure might be costly, the usual types of farm machinery would not be needed.
Best of all, there would be no need to import from far and wide.
And then, they whisper conspiratorially, all that unused farmland in great rural stretches could be returned to nature. Trees could be grown there, to fill in what was once farmland, and those trees would commence to absorb all that carbon dioxide we've become so fixated on, in the recognition of how harmful it's become to our atmosphere, our environment.
The name is Professor Dickson Despommier, at Columbia University. www.verticalfarm.com
Labels: Environment, Social-Cultural Deviations
posted by Pieface @ 6:01 PM
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