What do you project when you think about farming ? For most of us , agriculture take to beware a red b , tractor , crop in the landing field , or livestock grazing in the weed . Farming has been that way for one C of old age , but farm technology is evolving to the point where the concept of what a farm is or could be is changing somewhat quickly .
Case in point ? Vertical farms .
Vertical farming has only been around for a few year . But it ’s been so successful it ’s clear this is a new method acting of farming that ’s not go anywhere .
What is vertical farming?
Vertical agriculture , also known as controlled environment husbandry , is the cognitive process of growing solid food indoors in stacks .
If you walked into a perpendicular farm you ’d see a hallway with stacks upon passel of park in row stretching from floor to ceiling . At first glimpse , you ’d suppose it looks like something out of a sci - fi movie .
And you ’d be proper about the skill part ( though the tech is anything but fictional ) . This type of technology was firstdeveloped by NASAin an attempt to rise solid food in space .
Not long after NASA started experiment with this type of agriculture , Elon Musk ’s brother Kimbal launch a farming operation called Square Roots . What started in 2016 as a way to grow green groceries in a major metropolitan field has branched out into a commercial byplay with vertical farm in New York , Michigan and Wisconsin .
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How does vertical farming work?
More often than not , vertical farming takes place in a cargo ships container or another type of indoor blank . People are hire to oversee plant health , but everything is completely supervise using automate farm engineering that takes over every part of the growth hertz .
you may grow everything from herbs to salad K to strawberry on a erect farm .
Benefits of vertical farming
If you grow your own crop , you know the work that goes into every part of the growth process . You also know all of the things that can go awry when you ’re grow .
For starters , there is there only one grow time of year per year . And your crop could be destroyed by everything from floods to explosive weather to insects . That crop wo n’t give off until it ’s harvested and sell — and there are no guarantee in farming ,
That ’s why citizenry find a bunch of benefit in erect farming . upright farm can uprise 365 days a class for a farm season that never ends . And because they are mood keep in line , you do n’t have to worry about a weather system move in .
Hail or rain do n’t destroy indoor crop . And it ’s always a sunny day in indoor husbandry . The sun that shine down on a vertical farm is solely man - made in the pattern of grow light .
Furthermore , there are no louse inside upright farms . Nothing will eat your produce before you could .
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Drawbacks to vertical farming
It ’s easy to get excited about upright husbandry . But there are a few drawback you may want to think about before you jump in with both feet .
For starters , vertical land start - up is expensive . transportation container have jumped in price since the pandemic . Setting up the indoor place to grow could cost you an norm of $ 5.00 or more per square foot .
Vertical husbandry also requires the utilisation of farm engineering to supervise your growth . You ’ll need to be plenty tech - savvy to spring up indoors .
And you ’ll need to pay up high energy monetary value for heating system and chilling , too . Vertical farms are completely clime - hold in .
Is vertical farming the way of the future?
With vertical farms popping up all over the USA , it ’s clear this raw method of farming is n’t go anywhere . As farm technology advance , it could become less expensive to originate indoors , too .
It ’s exciting how hoi polloi are finding innovative ways to develop food . But venerate not — traditional farms are n’t going anywhere either . As long as the great unwashed need to produce and grow food , nothing will replace the metre - abide by appendage of planting and harvesting crops outdoors .
