To make room for nature, farms of the future may have to move off the land and into skyscrapers. Dickson Despommier explains his idea.

In September 2014 the Centre for Urban Agriculture held an international conference on Vertical Farming and Urban Agriculture.

As part of the conference Dickson Despommier gave a presentation entitled ‘City Farms for City Dwellers’ and in this video we hear a summary of his views on this subject.

To watch the whole 25 minute interview visit http://youtu.be/lwCR8peN6ok

Dickson Despommier is the author of ‘Vertical Farming’ and Emeritus professor of microbiology and public health at Columbia University.

For more information about the Centre for Urban Agriculture and their upcoming events visit:

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/urbanagriculture/index.aspx
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Farms of the Future

| Vertical farming | 20 Comments
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20 Comments

  • Jonathan Stahl

    Good idea but plants and our bodies require more then the 14 or less nutrients found in hydroponic water systems. there are over 90 trace minerals found in healthy soil that in turn get absorbed by the root systems of plants to then be absorbed by our bodies. typical farmers are not replenishing the minerals in their soil so we are all being robbed of these minerals already so how is hydroponics going to solve our malnutrition issues as well?

  • flack youe

    I'm fascinated with growing my own food. I think the problem here is much more simplistic. I'm an American, so you know where im talking about. We have a bunch of welfare druggie losers everywhere as well as the yuppie vons shoppers that wont put effort into what they eat. Look at Japan during the dark days of WW2, those people pulled it together and grew their food in their neighborhoods and survived just fine. If every American used their water for more food than pools/lawns, we'd never worry about food. We forget that we used to live well before refrigeration, and fancy gizmos. Learn to follow the ways of the elders of long ago and well come out just fine. To other countries, do the same, a full stomach means peace is in place. God bless…

  • wikieditspam

    Interesting, but this seems a little bit misguided, and might not be the most economical solution to what I think might be a non-issue. The premise seems a little misinformed, but I'll read more into this.

  • Haleene Williams

    This plan is nice, but the amount of mouths to feed are not the problem.  
    The government paying subsidies to their favorite contributor is.  
    Don't pay subsidies and farmers will grow what grows best there rather then products they know won't but they get more money from subsidies then the iffy market.  They over farm the land and change the soil.  Eliminate the way Commercial Co. have been allowed to destroy the lands they exploit.  
    This is not a cure, because the same would happen with this.  
    We have to make ranching profitable for the farmer who just wants to grow things from the earth.  Their not looking to be rich, just comfortable in the industry they love to wake up to every morning.  There needs to be a limit on size to stop huge commercialized Co.  from destroying our food and land now and in the future, should there be anything left in 30 years.
    You have to be able to make at least what you put into it, but the poor quality and short cuts Big Co's do is breaking the real farmers and ranchers and destroying the growing value of the property they ware out and poison, if not all the buying from other countries.
     If ever there was a time for local ranching and farming with freash markets to sell at,, now it that time..

  • ImMADasAMeatAxe

    there is only so much energy within a square foot of sunlight
    the sun doesn't shine at the floor of a rainforest
    only the walls of the skyscraper would have enough sunlight to grow
    the interior would be far too dark
    plants need sunlight to grow and there is only so much sunlight within a square foot
    plants don't grow in darkness
    this idea would cost billions of dollars and would only work with artificial light the energy required to do that would require solar panels or fossil fuel and solar panels are not as efficient at harvesting sunlight per square meter as plant leaves, the solar panels would take up much more surface area than what it would take growing horizontally
    the sunlight doesn't reach the foor of a rainforest and plants don't grow in darkness
    Dickson despommier is DELUSIONAL

  • yien phe

    that is really gonna be a problem; who will clean up the mess, and who will pick the fruits and vegie, trim them, replace them.  Until he can figure out the benefit and cost ratio, his vision is far from reality.

  • Robert Wiltshire

    Prepare for internet trolling to commence. Human caused global warming is not a lie, learn to read statistics and not the misnomers from Inconvenient truth. First off "who" is taxing the air? I would love to read an article about the implementation of that. Second, while Co2 does hold greenhouse characteristics and is a contributor, it is not the gas we should be worried about cough*(warming methane clathrates in the ocean)cough*. Pat yourself on the back for aquaponics though.

  • Robert Wiltshire

    Prepare for internet trolling to commence. Human caused global warming is not a lie, learn to read statistics and not the misnomers from Inconvenient truth. First off "who" is taxing the air? I would love to read an article about the implementation of that. Second, while Co2 does hold greenhouse characteristics and is a contributor, it is not the gas we should be worried about cough*(warming methane clathrates in the ocean)cough*. Pat yourself on the back for aquaponics though.

  • WemaConsulting

    I like this idea but dont say something about this global warming lies as reason! I got sick of it that stupid people argue with things they have no clue about.

  • honeybeesinjapan

    Human caused global warming is a lie! Global warming is used as the excuse to tax the air. Without c02 we will all die! Plants need co2 to grow and produce OXYGEN! We need the oxygen to live. Aquaponics is the answer.

  • jceess

    Money makes (efficient) trade possible. Trade is the reason humans have been able to create a modern society with advanced technology.
    Money as it's done today is completely screwed up. It's handled by central banks that serve no purpose other than to allow governments to borrow more and more money to pay for things that are not sustainable. As long as resources are limited (i.e.; until the end of time), money will allow for a more efficient economy that supports more people comfortably.

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