🌍 Do you grow any veggies? Do you think vertical farming is a viable solution? 👍 Apparently, commenting and liking this video helps get more views. So, if you want, comment, like, and share it around!!
we have a small garden and we had plans to make a year-round verticle farm that would be powered by solar panels. I think it is a solution but only if 3d printing and constructions and transportation costs go down.
Commercial vertical farming of course not sustainable currently. The best and most sustainable farming is regenerative farming. But I strongly disagree with meat as the pollutant. Every element on earth that sustains life has a cycle. One of the most important cycle is phosphorus. Vertical farming clearly help reduce the phosphorus waste, clearly helps the cycle, if we care about the cycle... on the other hand, conventional mono cropping really kills everything. You have a strong bias for plant based foods. However, there is no essential carbohydrates for human. If you learn and understand the nutrition and physiology of human body, you will learn that how bullshit some mega things are. Meat is not the culprit of carbon emissions and destruction of environment, but instead mono-cropping, conventional farming, fast food industry, giant grain fed cows and pigs and chickens warehouses. Don’t just go straight for the low number of CO2. It’s only one of the hundreds of important markers of environmental issues. CO2 is very simplified version of the complete version of environment destruction we are facing.
I have small veggie garden that i have created using hydroponics outdoors. on average it produces about 2/3kg of veggies in the winter and the same amount of fruit in the summer, and all of it runs on solar.
Really? How can you compare vertical farming of leafy greens to beef farming? WTF? Dude do some actual research and compare protein and protein. For example you can vertically farm insect protein vs animal protein and the cost is shockingly different. The insects eat vegetable scraps and don't need any water. How about making a video on that. Vertical Farming can be completely run from solar power cheaply and you don't need robots nor AI, that is all "wank" for getting investors. Researching vertical farming by referencing tech articles designed to hype investors is not journalism. You mentioned Permaculture for all of 3 seconds. By using a mix of vertical farming, solar energy and permaculture together we can actually repair the land, stop the food waste and feed the world. But as you keep mentioning - sounds like all your after is beating the algorithm and getting views. Good luck with that dude!
I am missing one essential angle: We have the technology to provide clean energy and as the production of batteries, solar panels and wind turbines are predictably falling, this type of farming will become cheaper and cheaper and with a smaller and smaller footprint. The potential is enourmous. Another benefit, which is not included in this type of comparison, is that the land we could potentially give back to nature, if we switched to vertical farming. This land would now become carbon negative and a huge benefit for biodiversity.
Clean energy is coming at a massive environmental cost, clean energy addicts are so blind to what damage those things are causing. In 10 years we are going to have MASSIVE fields of useless litter we can't recycle, solar panels have a lifespan and they are beginning to expire. Turbines as well, those things require incredible amounts of waste to create. Than when they run their life cycle you have giant towers of litter that will require so much more waste to remove and emissions. I don't think people know the full scale of waste and invironmental damage of "clean energy". The youth have been conned into giving billions of dollars to greedy manufactures to make these "clean" products and they don't give two craps about the environment. They only need to convince morons that it's pure goodness.
Last year there was a container that sold fresh lettuce and other veggies straight from the source. Themselves. It was amazing to see on television how they were 100% green energy ( as it was more labour intensive, not that much machine) with the container ceiling being all solar panels. The initiative went through several cities and sold quite a lot. It is possible to do it. Of course a container is smaller than a building sized farm but it is a good step to the future
@@sasukeuzumakinaruto1 If we don't give land back to nature our chances aren't looking so great regardles of the combined potential effect of other solutions we've come up with so far, including carbon sequestoring farming techniques which is still far less effective for sequestoring carbon than wild unmanaged nature. People talk about directly human made emissions a lot, and it overshadows the fact that we've essentially been carving out huge swaths of the planet's buildt-in climate controll system in order to house and support a massive and ravenous population and the convenience industry we've come to rely on in our daily lives. Even if it is unlikely, it is important for us that we find ways to do it, and then try, and I mean really TRY, to turn land we are currently using to ineffectively sequestor carbon or even generate emissions, into carbon-sequestoring and climate-regulating nature-reserves filled with regenerated wilderness. Nature has been healing itself after environmental disasters for a long time, and has shown to be incredibly good at it, but our landmasses are covered by a staggering 38 percent farmland against only 23 percent wilderness now, which as you might guess does not quite leave it with the same amount of space it has had to work with when disasters have struck in the past.. and now we're rapidly digging our claws into marine wilderness as well. Highly unlikely... We'll have worked long and hard to earn the end result, either way we collectively choose.
lets just say, everyone "wraps" a truth/half-truth into a packaging that serves their economic interests, be wary of going word by word about anything you hear, they are all lairs to varying degrees! This video looks like something tacitly sponsored by the pesticide industry, such that the farming evolution can be dis-credited and people keep farming the traditional way which shall require the use of pesticides and keep the pesticides order register ringing with income inflows!
The thing about growing lettuce is it's footprint is actually huge compared to what you get with it. It has almost zero nutritional value, yet takes the same space as other more nutritious foods to grow and transport. Lettuce should be grown locally or not at all.
@@lorissupportguides We won't need to stop eating meat if we stopped wasting so much space on traditional agriculture and build more vertical farms instead..
I feel like you pointed out the pros, the cons, but never weighed them against eachother. The cons seem somewhat refutable long term as increasing use of green energy deals with the carbon emissions and over time improvement of the technology will quickly make things cheaper. On the other hand, other than mentioning them you didn't compared that to the decrease in soil erosion, lesser use of pesticides and less water use. All of which have significant environmental impacts and are probably worth paying a bit extra for short term. Would be very happy to get a response on whether I missunderstood something.
Also yes there are alternate solutions, that however doesn't invalidate other solutions especially when decreasing meat consumptions deals with emissions whilst this would help other issues that will decrease but remain if we ate less meat, such as the soil, water and pesticide issue. And even though it uses AI+robots, which has a high initial investment and is unaccessible to less well off regions, in the long term not having to pay wages(different issue) will likely make them profitable.
@@sebastianljung8745 I totally agree with you this video assay looking at the vertical farming in very narrow perspective. There is not yet a perfect solution would solve all problems of traditional farming but it tackles down important once like water use which collectively take very granted. It could eliminate water use up to 95%, monoculture farming, pesticide and herbicide elimination and deforestation. Just because the current vertical farms relying on AI and automation it doesn’t mean it has to be done that way. You can create an all glass green house and eliminate your dependency of LED light source. Not to mention one of his arguments about perished food during transportation a lot of produce gets spoiled.
You're right. This video is very one sided and it was difficult to watch. The author went into it with a bias and this was not a critical and fair look at the options. They have blinders on, cherry picking information that supports their view and ignoring most of the picture around vertical farming (eg. Preventing soil depletion and reducing water consumption) This channel has become an echo chamber of like-minded individuals validating each other and I'm really over the author squeezing in a comment about meat into every single video.
@@laurarhodes7193 I think that's super fair, I don't eat meat and feel very strongly about the eco benefits to that decision but he bought it up in something that had nothing directly to do with meat. And he's definitely formed a bad habit of going into the research with a narrow view and letting that inform his argument instead of the other way around.
Well, the problem is that currently electrification + switch to green energy is the solution for pretty much every industry from cars to steel to this. All while the transition to renewable energies only has an impact on percentages not absolute numbers so far, not even in developed countries like the US (www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=39092) So it´s highly questionable whether we´ll manage to scale up renewables at such a speed that we can afford even more demand while reaching net-zero in 2050. Hence, if we have alternative options (e.g. permaculture) for something that´s not a "big point" then we should explore them.
You forgot to mention the other side effects of conventional farming including the threat to wildlife habitat. Those vertical farming companies have high costs but that space is still young and there is room for changes when it comes to efficiency. Concerning energy usage, renewable solutions exist and would pair well with this type of industry. You also have to consider that some of the technologies that they are deploying might not be necessary at all. Since there aren't that many companies doing vertical farming compared to conventional farming, I'd say some time is needed before implying anything really. Yes, addressing food waste and infrastructure is beneficial but it doesn't mean that we shouldn't invest in vertical farming just because there are some growing pains. That's par for the course for something like this.
The number one cause of habitat destruction is animal aggriculture. If we stop breeding animals we suddenly dont need those huge monocultures of corn, soy and grains. We only need 25% of our current farmland to feed the world.
i agree. Renewable energy and battery storage is the key to solving a lot of climate related issues. The concept of Super Power, meaning you produce too much energy and need to find ways to spend it. What better way than to offer residents and corporations deals on energy usage. Since the cost to utilities will be so low to produce the power, allows cities and States to make deals and offer incentives to stimulate growth. But more efficient light bulbs will also bring about lower energy costs for vertical farms. Vertical farms can also be built underground thus minimizing land use in expensive cities where more residential units need to be built to create affordable housing. Heck, throw some solar panels on those warehouses too.
@@seanwoolven I personally have seen evidence that renewable energy has many limitations too. Lithium extraction is extremely damaging to the environment (in my country there is a big issue with this, the land contains lithium but the environmental cost is too high) and solar panels are not as harmless as they may seem. They have an environmental impact (production, implantation on land, and impact on animals) and are not recyclable. I think we need to use less energy as a whole, find other solutions, because using more and more resources and more energy is not the way in my opinion. We need to do more with less instead.
@@martaso643 I agree with you about solar panels. It's not easy to strip away all of the metal framing, then the conductors, then the silicon which may or may not be sufficient enough for further recycling. Then where does all of those spent resources go? "Waste to Energy" facilities? Yuck. On the topic of lithium, is what you're saying true? Are you from Chile btw? It seems to me that the practices companies have adopted there, skimming lithium salts off the tops of lakebeds when water evaporates, is much more sustainable than straight up mining.
There’s an emerging consensus that the agriculture industry needs to adapt to use less water, land and also fewer chemicals, make crops less vulnerable to changes in the climate, and produce more reliable yields. Part of the answer may lie in vertical farming, where growing conditions can be better managed.
Couldn't all those things be achieved with greenhouses? A technology that's been around for hundreds of years? The only real benefit of vertical farms compared to greenhouses is in footprint, the necessity of which really depends on location.
@@jellevm less footprint means less destruction of natural habitats and more rewilding. It allows human to condense and optimise our activities and to have as little adverse effect on the environment as possible. Obviously we shouldn't rush to grow everything vertically right away until we have improved the process and transformed our energy systems to be renewable and stable. But current vertical operations are a testing ground for this. And the energy revolution is a seperate problem which is already on it's way to be solved.
The complete lack of carbon sequestration that is involved in a hydroponic farming system means that even though a vertical farm may have a smaller footprint, it is not necessarily environmentally any more beneficial than traditional cropping. In addition the conditions lead to less bacterial and fungal growth, and hydroponic crops can be very nutrient poor. It leads to increased amounts of nitrogen-high water, which is actually a health problem. In the field of regenerative agriculture, very little weight is given to vertical/hydroponic farming as a good option.
This channel was what I finally needed to start my change to a plant based diet. I had thought about it for years, but you finally convinced me. This month is my first change, no more beef. It's going to be a strange transition for me, but cheers to a new journey in life!
Im currently at 5/7 days vegetarian, and 2/7 days with 150 grams of poultry and/or pork *I would recommend starting with beef exclusion _and_ a small reduction (50ish grams) in overall meat consumed. Substitute it w vegan or egg or such. edit; thats how i started :)
@@lil_weasel219 watch the documentary Dominion free on RUclips, you wouldn't have to take baby steps if it was dog meat/eggs/milk so just go vegan already!
I've basically swapped red meat for chicken in my diet. Beef burgers as an occasional treat. It's not revolutionary but it's simple and if everyone did it then we'd have no worries about the Amazon being destroyed
@@moritzkeller4502 They don't talk about it because the electricity grid is getting cleaner and cleaner. With solar PV vertical farming will be way cheaper and cleaner.
If we get to the point where energy is clean and bountiful enough to justify those monstrosities than they would be useless anyway. We would have solved the environmental impact issue. In fact the tech behind the clean energy that is miraculously enough would be a FAR greater aaccomplishment, no one would even give two craps about these farms. What are people gonna do? Survive off Kale and Tomatos? You can't grow the stuff people actually want to eat.
@@MrSirFluffy One of the issues these farms seek to solve is the fact that we're actually running out of viable SPACE for growing food for our growing population. If you could reduce or eliminate the carbon footprint of these operations you could sustainably feed the world even if the population doubled. Even if it just meant eliminating the existence of regular farms for this specific kind of food, it would still improve overall efficiency with water use, room for natural plant growth (as well as limiting deforestation in developing countries) in the space gained (or for growing other crops you think would be more popular), as well as reducing the overall use of things like pesticides and herbicides which have a negative effect on human and plant life the world over. I agree that clean energy should be a bigger focus at this point in time, but writing off this idea based off that alone seems kinda short-sighted. If anything it's a perfect example of how sustainable energy is useful beyond just limiting climate catastrophe.
@@TheRangerFox I don't think space is an issue. I've driven through the Middle America, it's open land for the vast majority of the continent. That red dot map doesn't give the mind a real depiction. All the crop growth can be multiplied by 5 or 10 times and still remain in the same dot clusters. We are not running into space problem for atleast a few more centuries. I think it's more likely that people will switch to Sci Fi like nutrition capsules/bars than having to rely on vertical gardening. It's good for outer space and crop growth research though. I hope they solve the problems, but at the end of the day I don't even eat any of the food involved in vertical gardening. Well, maybe lettuce or cabbage.
This is a great video, however I just want to point out that in my opinion, vertical farming is not trying to be a solution to help in climate change or solve food shortage, however it is extremely good for countries such as Singapore, that have no land space to spare for all uses required, therefore we can utilise the technology to allow for local production of food, as we rely on imports for over 70% of our food, this technology, while not being able to solve climate change, it is able to provide food security and more.
The law of comparative advantage suggests that Singapore should devote its limited land to do what it's GOOD AT (finance, electronics, etc), and not to unproven high-tech lettuce farms. Then it can trade with other countries for REAL food (rice, beef, soy, etc) which really cannot be produced in these goofy vertical "farms".
You can have a fish farm in the system to provide nutrients to the plants. Another bonus is that there's no worrying about weeds or wild animals that can die from the pesticides. A lot of the cons seem like short term problems to me.
As an agricultural engineer I have to answer this question with: "It depends on how it's implemented" The answer is a lot more nuanced than the video. Let me make it clear from the beggining: the problem is not the technology of vertical farming, the technology is not the problem, it's capitalism. With that out of the way let me explain. For one hydroponics are not limited to the NFT system which you described above, it can also utilize substrate systems such as wicking beds and ebb and flow systems as well as deep water culture systems. And even though these methods do sacrifice some verticality or can only be used as the ground floor of each installation their combination can pretty much be used for the production of most plants. In addition hydroponics can be paired with aquaculture. The hybrid system, aquaponics, creates a curcular system where you have aquatic animals (almost always fish) whose waste is sused as nutrients for the plants, therefore making a twofold prodution of compact plant production and animal protein with minimal enviromental impact. On top of that not only are we cutting on pesticides and herbicides (which cause other severe enviromental problems aside of climate change) this technology cuts down on a lot of heavy machinery. In addition the ability to grow anywhere, and I do mean anywhere, could help ease the distribution problem and cut on distribution energy losses and costs. Finally it does help with the goal of restoring ecosystems lost to farmlands. The downsides of this technology you mentioned come from capitalism. Us being stuck with fossil fuels, patent minefields, a financial sector that's not compatible with co-op startups, inflated cost of tech (usually due to the patent minefields), competition with a heavily subsidized traditional farming system, a massive beef lobby, etc. This is a classic case of technology being a tool but a tool can be used for good, bad or inappropriately. Unfortunately... capitalism.
Maybe I missed it, but I feel like you missed the cost aspect that overlooks the fact that new technologies and processes are often prohibitively expensive during the R&D and before they scale. The current cost of vertical farms has the capability to drop drastically, especially when you start to pair them with on-site low-cost green energy providers like wind or solar. etc. etc. As with all tech solutions the idea is that you start with something inefficient and simple but are forever continuously improving a repeatable process.
Yeah this viewpoint is myopic and uninspired. My money’s on the future. It always plays out. Wake up bruh. Production A++++ and that algorithm faker posted earlier should be mandatory haha.
The cost aspect is expensive in terms of startup, but capital intensive new industries create difficult barriers to entry, so key patents in tech that help reach economies of scale can also help a vertical ag co with a good business model dominate an industry and be able to reduce its long term operating expenses. R&d also creates value in the products which points to success. Investors want to see companies reinvesting into their products to remain leaders in the industry and continuously create key drivers. Also, realize it’s not exactly about debt if you know that the business strategy will help the company pay the debt off. Which is what investors and banks will see. So as long as the company is solvent, they will have the extended time to reach optimal profit margins and pay down their debt.
This video was half attacking vertical farms, and half saying they're actually a really great solution (for some contexts) however the overall feeling I got from it was negative. I think this is a mistake. Right now the industry is nascent, its giving us a glimpse of what could be possible in the future. As the energy grids decarbonise the co2 footprint of these farms will drop with them, and energy is one of the easier things to decarbonise. Transportation is much harder. Regarding cost, well its the very beginning. In time the costs will drop and eventually it could end up cheaper (per unit of food) than a land based (horizontal) farm. I believe that technologies like these are what will allow us to eventually return more of the earths surface back to wildlife rather than requiring huge %s of the earths landmass used to grow food for us humans.
what TCC is saying is that if we really wanna help Earth. We can't ignore the obvious fact that livestock produce large co2 and used up lands. Vertical farm is good but we can forget this and not be overhyped.
You can build your own setup too and that'll save a lot of money. The robo arms are overkill. Get some "gutter metal" make a lid, cut holes for net pots. Set up a shelf using spare wood or repurpose a metal shelf. You can use cheap 10-25$ aquatic air pumps to cycle the water. You don't want to skimp on your lights. Finding something energy efficient that also produces the needed waves is critical. (also!! its better when making the holes for the plants for them to be more spaced out than less spaced out. Otherwise, you'll get long lanky thin plants and if you start using every other hole for more space, it becomes alge city with all that extra "sun light " hitting the water.
well done! my one critique would be that while you point out that vertical farming is by no means a solution to climate change, you somewhat play it down as a solution it isn't even meant to be. so I think it should be celebrated for things it is very promising at, and not shunned for the things it's not good at but also doesn't need to be good at - at least not for the time being. the prospect of being able to grow produce both high in quality and quantity in city centers, in controlled environments where we are sure to keep finding optimizations and increase efficiency, highly consistent yield all year around, entirely without pesticides or herbicides, is without question something we should all want in our future. and the issues are all solvable: - yes it does have a potentially high carbon footprint, but the great thing about it is the extend of control over that since it comes down to almost exclusively the LEDs. for starters, of course it can be plugged into renewables, but also the increasing efficiency of LEDs and algorithms that learn exactly what light profiles the plants need can make a massive difference over time. - for now it's only leafy greens, yes, but there's the prospect of GMO'ing crops that are currently unsuitable for vertical farming to make them compatible, too. - if vertical farms are scaled and common-place, prices for consumers should also go down significantly. another thing that's important to mention is that environmental protection is not just about carbon emissions! the segmentation and destruction of habitats is also a major part, and in that regard, vertical farms are potentially much better than conventional outdoor farming. and who knows, it may also contribute to our culture moving away from animal products because of the superior quality of the local produce. anything that makes it easier for people to eat plant based helps.
On the topic of growing in city centers, you potentially can take advantage of urban heat island effects to help regulate interior V.F. climates. I'm not a mechanical engineer, but I wonder if a heat sink in such a way would have an impact on reducing said effect so that local people's and wildlife don't suffer as much.
I am a meat-eater, I like my steak, etc., but I know that people it much more meat than they need. We don't need meat with every meal we eat, we don't even need meat on daily basis.
@@bikerbean well fact of the matter is we don't require it at all for a healthy physiology. all that meat offers can also be obtained from plant foods. so it's not about "need", but rather about the comfort of tasting what you're used to. but with the fact that you had to identify yourself as "meat-eater", which implies that there must also be "non-meat-eaters", you essentially already said all that yourself. ;)
@@holleey The excess calories, fats, proteins and minerals in meat, and the fact that it's some of the most nutritionally dense thing that we currently eat right now is what gave us this big ol' brain we have now. I also understand that we don't need to eat meat all the time, but you can't have good "physiology" without eating meat, and your comment is proof of that.
@@astroman0500 plain wrong. there's plenty of great and entirely sufficient plant-based protein sources. there's no issue with being a body builder on a plant based diet. this dude is vegan: up.r00t.li/20190303_i_view64_SQ2Y.png you think he doesn't have any "physiology"? the idea that meat consumption in particular made the difference in the evolutionary jump regarding our brain size is just one of many notions, and even it has been a major factor, then that has no bearing in light of our modern possibilities.
Great video that reflects my thoughts exactly as someone who has worked in a vertical farming research lab. Connecting animal agriculture and vertical farming is absolutely the right idea, despite how dissimilar they may seem.
8:23 "So investing a hundred of millions of dollars into vertical farms, feel similar to trying to colonize mars to escape a changing climate. it's a prohibitively expensive and technology ridden solution, to a problem that has other, more just, and less expensive answers." >>> So glad to hear it nowadays! Space exploration with some reasons they're using now, is disturbing.
Colonizing mars to escape climate change is a moronic notion. Meanwhile, farming with natural light is so incredibly energy inefficient, you could literally catch sunlight with photovoltaics, power optimized LEDs with that energy and feed MORE CROPS that way per square meter, DESPITE how bad our solar cells are right now....
@@Alexander_Kale Leafy greens only need 1/30 sunlight and vegetables 1/10 so they are wasting 97% and 90% of the energy they get, which is already less efficient than solar.
Just wanted to drop a quick comment letting you know this video was really well put together! I've been watching your channel for a while now and it's clear you're growing as a creator. The pacing and story elements of this video feel spot on. Love the tie in to meat in agriculture too and how that should be our primary focus when looking to improve that industry. Anyway, rambling aside, keep up the great work! :)
Look up some videos on it, Vertical Farming is cool but permaculture farming can solve like 80% of humanity's problems rn lol it just needs more attention.
Great video! Thanks a lot! I especially liked the nod to meat industry as well as dairy and other animal products. These are the most important factors to tackle. If you can make a vertical farm growing soybeans for plantbased meat alternatives instead of raising cattle, pigs and so on - this would be a true game changer!
When you are calculating the impact of Vertical farming did you take into account the land that would be freed up and could therefore be rewilded? Yes, the direct emissions are higher from these vertical farms but what about the emissions sucked out of the atmosphere by the land that you no longer need for farming that could be rewilded or the forests that won't be chopped down due to needing to increase food production? Exa cognition did a great series of videos on how vertical farming works now and how it will start to include more plants than just leafy greens in the future. I highly recommend it.
@@Alexander_Kale yeah but I was more talking about the columns of plants with nutrient irrigation rather than the shelves either way it's a cool idea. To bad it isn't always as efficient as it looks
I actually bought a hydroponic system this week. The plan is to grow lettuce and perhaps other greens, as well as herbs. The reason I decided to try it is simply that I love growing my own food, but for 6 moths of the year I cannot harvest anything in my garden. The hydroponic system doesn't take up much space, I can fit it on a counter in the kitchen. The grow lights are a must because it's dark for around 18 hours a day in the winter. It says I will be able to harvest in 5 weeks. And setting it up was super easy, actually hardest part was coming up with a way to hang the lights. I really think hydroponics is useful and sustainable for people to have in their own homes - fresh herbs year around (a must in a vegan diet, imo) and as apartments get smaller and smaller, it is a space saving and time saving way to grow a bit of your own food. Instead of paying 4$ for a basil plant in the supermarket that will inevitably die after a week - not sustainable for the environment nor my wallet
You made some great points. But indoor vertical hydroponics IS the future and will evolve considerably driving down costs. It's worth it to our remaining natural area! Solar lined buildings will mitigate energy consumption, we will no longer be dependent on the weather, we will need only a fraction of fresh water, and I love the thought of not being exposed to chemicals from our food.
Good shit, I've wanted a short objective overview of the sustainability of these farms to be on the internets for a while now. All I kept seeing were hyped up intrview commercials by reporters from news sites I'd never trust to begin with, with the exception of maybe a few videos. In any case this is the best one I've found so far, thank you! While I do think that the upsides of this emerging field are nothing short of amazing, I'm tired of having the downsides be only briefly mentioned or left out entirely.
You should be interested in solar energy then because it's going to change everything. It's now at 3 cents per kwh and could drop by 72% in the next 10 years.
I'm in to vertical farming but not growing vegetables like leafy greens I grow peppers and chilli's! I love this video becasue every bosts about the benefits but since I have done it for a while I can see the drawbacks first hand. You have hit the nail on the head and definitely shown both sides of the argument which I love!
As far as cost in concerned, that will change over time. I remember when a LED watch was THOUSANDS of dollars and now you can get them out of a bubble gum machine. Cost changes as innovation makes it happen. Much of it may be Prohibitive now, but the cost will lower each year as new ideas and and new products are introduced. I see new ways of making energy and products every day.
I really love and appreciate your videos! I hope that these types of videos will become more common on RUclips, even if the algorithm doesn’t like them. It educates a lot of people! 😊
Good points however the pros of vertical Farming long outweighs the cons. The main downside of indoor farming is the high energy usage which can be replaced with solar.
Huh, that's a very different looking vertical farm than the one from the bee documentary. That one was just super tall tomato vines in a greenhouse. And that guy didn't have any high tech stuff, just some motorized rope system to move easily and effortlessly up and down.
I discovered your channel a few months ago and it has become one of my favorite! Currently a business student with a background in operations and I love how detailed your videos are. Thank you for your work!
Firstly, let me take the time to say THANK YOU for being the first RUclipsr I've seen to actually take a critical look at vertical farms. I have no doubt they will one day be part of the solution, but people trying to make it an agricultural moonshot are being foolish, imo. However I noticed that your graph for CO2 generated by crops was per kg. Normally, that would seem the best measure, but with food crops, surely total CO2 would've been a better graph to measure by? You'll get no argument from me that meat, dairy production etc is number one, but if significantly more lettuce is grown than milk bottles sold (and it's probably not, sure) then making lettuce more efficient isn't quite the same as tinkering at the edges. Great video, again!
Your videos are never disappointing and always provide useful information. But what about putting all the references of the data you collect and use in order to make the video? I'd love to read the papers
@@OurChangingClimate I know but those are not papers, are they? I did not click on them singularly, but they seem more newspapers and stuff like that (from the source cited next to the title).
This was really fascinating. I do believe in innovation in agriculture, though am usually more for the democratisation of it, so smaller farms, more urban production, not relying on mega corporations for all our food production and especially not going for methods that make it more energy intensive. I do like that there is so much innovation and it's great learning more about all this, the comments are very insightful.
Your videos are informative, balanced and well made. I like that you address a broad range of topics and don’t shy away from controversial subjects. Few do so these days! Brilliant channel.
So how do we reduce meat consumption? Educating people about the downsides does not seem to be enough. Should we make it more expensive so that only the rich can afford it? Just forbiddind it won't work either. Does someone have a Solution?
Every video you make I learn so much about a new topic in such a professional and high quality manner. I am still here wondering why RUclips is sleeping on this goldmine of a channel...
for the algorithm: “Minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Pokemon cards" "card unboxing" "charizard" "they don't want you to know" "Flat earth" "round earth" "triangle earth" "earth is not earth" "what even is earth if not earth omg government is lying to you" "minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Halo" "Devil may cry" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” “Cocomelon” “t series” “Minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Pokemon cards" "card unboxing" "charizard" "they don't want you to know" "Flat earth" "round earth" "triangle earth" "earth is not earth" "what even is earth if not earth omg government is lying to you" "minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Halo" "Devil may cry" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” “Cocomelon” “t series”
A really good video on the classic attempt at solving a systemic problem with innovation rather than adressing the actual cause underlying the problem.
Good informational video, even though I don't agree with some of the downsides proposed: 1. The industry is stil very young, which means that a lot of potential is still to be achieved. Naturally, this will most probably be seen in new technology (growth systems for other types of crops/vegetables) and cost efficiency; 2. What does beef emissions has to do with vertical farming? Are you proposing that people should not invest their time in vertical farming because of cattle? Really don't get the connection. Also, if the power source for vertical farms comes from renewable energy, surely the footprint would be greatly reduced; 3. Yes, vertical farms are more capital intensive, and the produce is more expensive. But for a reason! To be fair, you should've compared the net profit/Kg of lettuce. Keep in mind that you have a lot of government help to farms, a lot of pesticides and fertilizer being ineficciently used and farmers margins are completly obliterated by big supermarket chains. This would, in principle, happen less with vertical farms, which can be more decentralized. 4. Getting back with the beef situation, we also see that vertical farms are helping the cattle industry by providing fodder grown vertically to cows, pigs and poultry, albeit only being good as "proof-of-concept" base. This just shows the potential that vertical farming along with sustainable practices and sources can achieve, all of which outpasse current farming by a landslide IMO
Thank you, I now realise why vertical farming has not been adopted on large yet. Perhaps if, fusion power plants where here or renewables with batteries where used to power the facilities, it would lower the operating costs. I do think the 95% reuse of water is brilliant, considering the predicted fresh water shortage facing the planet in the coming decades. Just want to also add, Curiosity Stream is brilliant and amazing value for money. The content is plenty and the documentaries are great quality. I have not tried Nebula but indeed it is included with my subscription. Thank you Charlie.
Some of the points you bring up in this video seem a little short sighted. The mars analogy isnt warranted becuase colonizing mars isnt just about escaping climate change. Emerging tech like this is often expensive, we need to work on efficiency and broadening there use.
When I first heard of vertical farming, the idea made a lot of sense. In a way apartment buildings combat urban sprawl by placing people in a 3d dimensional space (stacked on top of each other) instead of a 2D dimensional space (rows and columns, like a subdivision.) vertical farming could be considered the same approach, but applied to agriculture. Regarding sunlight, I've seen technology using mirrors that can take natural sunlight deep into the center of an office building; while that can reduce electricity use, it does forego the "seasonal independence" described in the video. Where I take issue with the examples provided is the use of A.I and robotics that seem... excessive. Living in a rural suburb, I've seen how the local farms operate, and the labour is usually done by large farm machinery or low-wage immigrant workers (I'm Canadian btw.) Does a robotic arm perform that much better than a minimum wage worker? Does the additional cost of rare-earth metals, equipment and maintenance get justified by the value provided by "cutting-edge" equipment? How much is necessary compared to "tech-hype?" When researching the topic in design school for my city (Vancouver BC) the main obstacles for vertical farming were zoning laws and land availability. Ideally these vertical farms would exist in urban centres where they could address the larger need for produce, however the land in these areas usually costs more than land outside urban limits. Oustide urban limits one would encounter bylaws limiting the height of a building, effectively capping the potential farming space. Compared to other cities, such as Boston and Seattle, local legislation was outdated and provided little assistance to those looking into sustainable urban farming solutions.
Yeah, it will be hard to find property especially in cities like Vancouver where property prices are outrageously high rn, but I feel more optimistic with cities like Detroit that have nothing but empty warehouses and where fresh fruit and vegetables are a rare occurrence for residents with a tighter budget.
In my opinion, you have a few flaws in your conclusion. First, you conclude we should eat less meat instead of investing in vertical farms. I would say you can do both. Second, you went very fast over the many benefits. And didn't weigh them against the negatives. To name just a few, insect who die due to pesticides is huge and should be limited. Water use is a big issue in many areas and will get worse over time. Predictable food production is also needed to truly eliminate hunger. Third, you did not take into account it is still an upcoming technology, like saying after the first solar panel made we should not invest in it because it will never generate enough energy.
I think the main reason, why all vertical farming companies are failing now, is that its not energetic viable. Photosynthesis is very inefficient. It can only catch at best 0,1% of the incoming light.
Some ideas to mitigate some of these complications with vertical farming: -Couple these farms to renewable energy plants to run them and the surrounding community with clean energy. -Redesign the hydroponics systems and everything else about the buildings to use as low impact materials as possible. -Design these farm buildings to be greenhouses to use natural light when possible -have double clear walls to the building with retracting blinds to maximize artificial light use. -target areas that have particular difficulty with food access and engage with the local community to design, build , and staff these farms and associated power plants (climate-permitting, some vertical farms may need a lot less energetic input).
So my butt feeling was right :D i am getting really good at guessing what is enviromentally friendly :D oops i forgot that butt feeling is a finnish thing and not English :D it means the same as gut feeling :D
I just found your channel and it’s super uplifting to see a RUclipsr tackling environmental issues like this. Definitely turning the bell on for you! Gonna check out your stuff on Nebula too when I get the chance.
Vertical farming is also a good answer for islands. They doesn't have much space for growing and so food is already expansive environnementally and econnomically.
If it's the technology that's making it prohibitively expensive, it's worth considering how that tech will invariably get cheaper and more efficient over time. Just look at LED technology. Ten years ago that was a major pain point, but the lighting tech has advanced substantially. That didn't just happen for the purpose of vertical farming; it happened because of every sector that needed better lighting solutions. I can see vertical farming becoming financially and ecologically sustainable in the next 10-15 years as we convert to more renewables. And tech advancements happen - regardless of whether those advancements come from within the farming industry or elsewhere. This video also doesn't seem to consider the harmful effects of soil depletion, runoff, deforestation, and habitat destruction associated with traditional farming practices.
Tbh I find the obsession with vertical farms to be part of a greater dystopian ideology that wants to eliminate essentially all forms of traditional human life styles in favour of automation.
nothing about vertical farming appears dystopian to me. if you see something desirable in field work I think that's entirely cultural conditioning, e.g. you are appealing to what seems more natural or traditional to you, but there's no reason to stick with that in order to be able to live a healthy and fulfilled life as a human being.
@@holleey yeah sure, except when you eliminate the vast majority of jobs and the working class continues to languish in a system that has replaces them with robots and a few technicians.
@@cadian101st then the majority of the population - e.g. the working class - would no longer be subjected to the illusion of having a decent life selling their time, and a revolution would be inevitable. the collapse of the current economic model - and with that a disruption of the employee employer relationship - has to comer sooner or later anyway. when we have access to technology that provides in abundance then there's no reason for people to still be required to sell their time in order to make a living.
@@cadian101st do you know what believed would eliminate vast majority of jobs? The first industrial revolution. People thought the same way it would take away jobs from working class which it did but a long with it created new jobs, better paying jobs. Forcing people more to be skillful. I think as a society our goal shouldn’t creat jobs just the sake of having but creating quality jobs with security, safety and benefits.
Vertical Farms and similar inventions might not always be 100% beneficial (especially in their early stages), but I think, generally, automation helps to adress many problems in terms of production efficiency. It all depends on how exactly this technological innovation is applied, whether it helps to adress social or environmental problems.
Our local supermarket just introduced a small vertical farm in the store itself! I think it's a pr-stunt but I like that it tried on a small scale and visible for the public.
Great video, definitely worth my time We're still at the very beginning of vertical farming, so I would be interested to see a time-cost analysis for these farms. On top of that come other questions: 2. is there low carbon vertical farms? What drives this factor up? 3. does it need ground space or can it be mounted on top of groceries? 4. Can we get just-in-time lettuce to reduce packaging? 5. How does vertical farming and traditional farming compare to ground hydroponics and other alternatives where lower electricity consumption and infrastructure is possible? And with home-based (or small associations) solutions that would be more labour intensive in term of costs and carbon emissions? Big comment, hope it brings ideas and interest to the topic and your videos!!
That silver bullet graphic is really sexy, and nice joke about Mars. Seems that old Tech like permaculture and agroforestry are way better,. As always, the industrial replacement comes with tons of resource extraction and wasted energy (manufacturing solar panels to make electricity to then shine on your plants, instead of just putting your plants out in the sun, ridiculous).
As much as as I love permaculture and agroforestry, I do have reservations about them being the only solution. Unless you are planting with mostly native plants and encouraging native wildlife (not discouraging them from getting into your harvests), these forms of agriculture do still face the problem of taking up horizontal space that could be put to conservation efforts. Industrial farming definitely needs to change, but if everyone of our soon-to-be 9 billion population lived off of permaculture farms, what space would be left for native ecosystems, I wonder? * I would think a mixed solution of vertical farms and permaculture could theoretically upend conventional farming practices while leaving space for rewilding and conservation. As other comments have pointed our, the cons pointed out in the video can be fixed with technological advance. *I recognize that native plants and non-natives can be planted together in recombinant ecology, but there is always an opportunity cost of the benefit of a native plant when a non-native plant is put in. Native plants have the benefit of symbiotic relationships with native bees, for example, while a non-native plant might rely on the foreign honeybee, which may contribute to the extinction the native bees.
Solar is now at 3 cents per kwh and should get 72% cheaper within 10 years. And since most cities are on the shores you can use floating solar and have as much energy as you want. Leafy greens only use 1/30 sunlight and vegetables 1/10 so even with rooftop solar you can have many levels.
I did a lot of research into making more efficient lighting for vertical farms by using light emitting capacitors instead of LEDs. The advantage is in the fact they don't produce heat at the bulb but instead at the ballast. You can then harvest the waste heat very conveniently.
@@OurChangingClimate you’re probably one the only channels in which my notifications actually function properly, so I try to take advantage of that lol. But I do look forward to your videos. They’re always well made!
“Minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Pokemon cards" "card unboxing" "charizard" "they don't want you to know" "Flat earth" "round earth" "triangle earth" "earth is not earth" "what even is earth if not earth omg government is lying to you" "minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Halo" "Devil may cry" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” “Cocomelon” “t series” “Minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Pokemon cards" "card unboxing" "charizard" "they don't want you to know" "Flat earth" "round earth" "triangle earth" "earth is not earth" "what even is earth if not earth omg government is lying to you" "minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Halo" "Devil may cry" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” “Cocomelon” “t series”
I don't get why people naively believe that (yet to be created) technology will save us. It is already right here. Oh well. This video is on point Charlie... as always ;) You are creating good content here. Thank you, it's very much appreciated.
It's not about technology but capitalism. Every problem is an opportunity to make money by finding a solution so capitalism is a self-governing system.
At 3:51-3:55 the narrator says that you can "theoreticaly grow plants right next to a supermarket." I just wanna point out that this is done already, i have seen a vertical growing closet at a big supermarket in Hannover, Germany. So they are already growing plants INSIDE a supermarket. In this case different herbs, including mint and basil.
Great video, most of the problems with these farms comes from how the electrical power is created for them which is not renewable. This same problem happens with Meat production besides the fact that beef requires a lot more than other types of meat. But there is no need to knock down meat to uplift plants
Great video. Just a small clarification. No one is trying to escape earth to mars. That's a complete misinterpretation of the goals of space explanation. Keep up the good work!
I've watched and read quite a bit about vertical farming and very few, including this one, (unless I missed it), gloss over the fact that these vertical farms are just producing low-calorie leafy greens. No one can be sustained on leafy greens. Until we can start producing grains, legumes, tubers and high calorie fruits through these methods, vertical farming will have next to no impact aside from providing fresh herbs and such to high end restaurants.
Great video :) I think based on what you said, vertical farming has a place in the future, but that future is quite far from reach as of yet. Another important economic and social consideration would definitely be the impact on traditional farmers all over the world, many of whom are already struggling to keep up with demand and climate change. So far it feels like a world with vertical farming as a common source of fresh food is just a pipe dream. Looking forward to more great stuff from you!
I find the filter that flickers every other second throughout your videos a bit distracting. Once I notised it I can't stop thinking about it. I don't know if I'm the only one that gets distracted from the otherwise perfect animations and video content, but do please consider removing the filter or perhaps exchanging it for a static one! :)
One variation of vertical farming I came across was actually just made of old pop bottles and with earth in them and built vertically to avoid using too much water. It uses zero electricity and much less water than regular farming... even though it only grown foods like kale, it isn't actually expensive to run and I feel that variation of vertical farming would be useful in urban gardens and the like.
Honestly the thing that attracts me the most to the vertical farms idea is the lack of need for pesticides, I don't want my food sprayed with chemicals if it's possible
There are vertical farms that implement aquaponic farms as well so in addition to plants you get a great amount of fish as well and you save some money on nutrients for your plants...of course you have to feed the fish so...I would like a video that incorporates all kinds of vertical farms and their pros and cons if you have a time :)
Most of these issues seem to only be for industry level farming. But as more people start quarantine gardening, rural areas with small spaces to farm, may be the best market
Great Video, but I think you missed a few important points that I would like to talk about. - Where do the carbon emissions of vertical farms come from? If its just the electricity, which often relies on oil, then the problem is not the vertical farm. In a study, people calculated how much electricity germany would have, if every house had a solar roof. It was 3x what germany needs right now. - Vertical farms can replace traditional farms. This would give us more rural space or space to reforest But tbh, just get rid of animal meat first, i totally agree
I've heard of some office buildings shutting down completely because of the COVID stay at home orders. With some jobs permanently staying at home, I feel that some of those once office buildings could be used for vertical farming. This would be very practical in dense cities like Los Angeles
I think that vertical farms could be a viable solution in certain places especially to lower shipping costs/carbon emissions specifically in cities. Plus lowering the use of pesticide and weedicide use is a HUGELY important factor. Traditional farming as it stands may be lower in carbon emissions, but the environmental damage caused by chemical use is absolutely atrocious. These pollute the waterways, the soil, the entire ecosystem, and it also hurts the human who are exposed to it. So I would suggest maybe doing a follow-up video on this topic in the future once the vertical farming industry is more developed.
I really liked the fact that you did both the pros and cons. Rare these days. I container grow veggies in my driveway and we've had upwards of 30 tomatoes and 15 peppers plus berries, herbs, corn and all kinds of other things all in containers. I really enjoy the alternative forms of gardening coming out now that save water and save the dirt from getting stripped! I've also tried small scale aquaponics, that was fun and successful until the humidity forced us to take it out of the garage XD
Vertical farms are drastically important. 1) A lot of the cost is R&D in AI, robotics, and making each oz of lettuce produced as efficient as possible. Once those benefits start slowing down, R&D will reduce, and will drastically decrease the costs. 2) The 2nd largest bit of the cost is in the lighting, power and robotics equipment. Again, these costs are decreasing very quickly. LED lighting (especially custom lights used in these kinds of farms) have halved several times over the past 15 years that vertical farms started as a pet project in old Mitsubishi HDD plants in Japan. As green tech continually gets cheaper, these farms will quickly make their budgets work better. Right now it is a 4x production per acre and a 2-3x cost for the food produced, which means that tipping point is very close and likely just a few short years away. In fact, if you remove R&D costs, we are likely already there. 3) The US (and China) with lots of quiet rural space is perhaps not the best candedate for vertical farms. The original development with these systems is from densely packed geographically limited areas like Japan where the land savings alone make the whole effort worth pursuing from day 1 compared to importing food or wasting rural land that could now be used for more profitable crops (ie, they may loose money growing lettuce this way, but the freed up land to use on more profitable crops more than makes up the difference). Africa can also greatly benefit from this as many of their farming problems have to do with wild animals that can devistate a harvest (not a lot of roaming elephants trampling down corn fields in Indiana lol). Sadly, the high up-front costs will prevent these from gaining traction in many developing nations that could best benefit from this... for now at least. 4) While the focus has been on small greens like lettuce and kale, most of the R&D efforts are on ground crops (roots and tubers) and small fruits (berries), as well and dwarf grain varieities. Once we can produce oats, rice and wheat in factory farms, it is going to change the world overnight. Corn will likely always be too tall to be a candidate though, so again... US not an ideal match for this tech. 5) The carbon equation is not complete until we see traditional farms convert to vertical farming and put trees and wildlife back onto the land... I have no idea how the numbers will play out, but my bet is that a farm that reduces it's land use and can successfully convert farm land back to woods will be a larger carbon sink than what vertical farms use in energy as our grid greens over time. Granted, if the farm land is never converted, then that becomes worse rather than better. 6) The future of populaiton growth. Again, these farms take up very little space, while having a much higher output, whihc is going to be key as we double the Earth's populaiton over the next few years. When there is no more pristine land to farm, traditional farming is going to get more expensive just as vertical farms are reducing in price. They will meet in the middle eventually, and vertical farms will provide all of the food that traditional farming cant. 7) Breaking from the traditional seeds. Everyone knows about monsanto and others who develop crops and pesticides that are compatible with eachother... problem is that pests are adapting to the pesticides, and the seeds and pesticides cannot keep up. We will need to move many of our crops indoors eventually for this reason alone... plus, as many of these vertical farms are creating their own modified plants, they are becoming less reliant on 'big farm' to provide seeds. So yeah... it is not ready for mass deployment yet. But it is improving rapidly, and getting cheaper, and will be spreading to other crops in the next 5-10 years which is going to turn the world upside-down! Very important space to watch.
What options are available for using existing solar light that can be focused, redirected and dispersed to hydroponic facilities rather than using solar power to generate energy to generate light?
Great video! When I was studying architecture I got a bit sucked into the concept of vertical farms but I became increasingly skeptical about them as time wore on. This video kind of validates that skepticism, but I can't deny feeling a little disappointed that they are not really viable outside of some edge cases
About sustainabiliy there is a couple of questions: assuming used light is in the all solar to be sustainable 1. Can one distribute the light vertically, either by mirrors/glass fibre or via conversion to electricity and back to led 2. Can one efficiently stack crops with different light intensity needs to overcome unequal light distributions 3 to what extent is sun light, as quanta per m2, then more efficiently used? 4 if that is not the case, what are you actually doing the freecoming space, instead? Bonus question in what ways does your vf system actually differ from its the natural counterpart being a forrest, with tall and small trees, bushes, etc.?
🌍 Do you grow any veggies? Do you think vertical farming is a viable solution?
👍 Apparently, commenting and liking this video helps get more views. So, if you want, comment, like, and share it around!!
we have a small garden and we had plans to make a year-round verticle farm that would be powered by solar panels. I think it is a solution but only if 3d printing and constructions and transportation costs go down.
Commercial vertical farming of course not sustainable currently. The best and most sustainable farming is regenerative farming. But I strongly disagree with meat as the pollutant. Every element on earth that sustains life has a cycle. One of the most important cycle is phosphorus. Vertical farming clearly help reduce the phosphorus waste, clearly helps the cycle, if we care about the cycle... on the other hand, conventional mono cropping really kills everything.
You have a strong bias for plant based foods. However, there is no essential carbohydrates for human. If you learn and understand the nutrition and physiology of human body, you will learn that how bullshit some mega things are. Meat is not the culprit of carbon emissions and destruction of environment, but instead mono-cropping, conventional farming, fast food industry, giant grain fed cows and pigs and chickens warehouses. Don’t just go straight for the low number of CO2. It’s only one of the hundreds of important markers of environmental issues. CO2 is very simplified version of the complete version of environment destruction we are facing.
I have small veggie garden that i have created using hydroponics outdoors. on average it produces about 2/3kg of veggies in the winter and the same amount of fruit in the summer, and all of it runs on solar.
Really? How can you compare vertical farming of leafy greens to beef farming? WTF? Dude do some actual research and compare protein and protein. For example you can vertically farm insect protein vs animal protein and the cost is shockingly different. The insects eat vegetable scraps and don't need any water. How about making a video on that. Vertical Farming can be completely run from solar power cheaply and you don't need robots nor AI, that is all "wank" for getting investors.
Researching vertical farming by referencing tech articles designed to hype investors is not journalism. You mentioned Permaculture for all of 3 seconds.
By using a mix of vertical farming, solar energy and permaculture together we can actually repair the land, stop the food waste and feed the world.
But as you keep mentioning - sounds like all your after is beating the algorithm and getting views. Good luck with that dude!
@@DarthDread Perfectly said. This channel is clearly not about taking care of our environment, just about making money. It's so sad.
7:25 OCC: "If we want to drastically reduce agricultural emissions we need to address the meat industry"
Me, nodding in agreement: "vertical cows"
hahahaha
im pretty sure vertical cows already exist and they are cruel farms with high carbon emmisions
Top tier comment!
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A portion of GHG emissions from livestock come from deforestation for grazing, so vertical livestock *might* address that to some extent (?)
I am missing one essential angle: We have the technology to provide clean energy and as the production of batteries, solar panels and wind turbines are predictably falling, this type of farming will become cheaper and cheaper and with a smaller and smaller footprint. The potential is enourmous.
Another benefit, which is not included in this type of comparison, is that the land we could potentially give back to nature, if we switched to vertical farming. This land would now become carbon negative and a huge benefit for biodiversity.
Clean energy is coming at a massive environmental cost, clean energy addicts are so blind to what damage those things are causing.
In 10 years we are going to have MASSIVE fields of useless litter we can't recycle, solar panels have a lifespan and they are beginning to expire.
Turbines as well, those things require incredible amounts of waste to create. Than when they run their life cycle you have giant towers of litter that will require so much more waste to remove and emissions.
I don't think people know the full scale of waste and invironmental damage of "clean energy". The youth have been conned into giving billions of dollars to greedy manufactures to make these "clean" products and they don't give two craps about the environment. They only need to convince morons that it's pure goodness.
Highly unlikely, the land would end up being used for something else for sure.
Last year there was a container that sold fresh lettuce and other veggies straight from the source. Themselves. It was amazing to see on television how they were 100% green energy ( as it was more labour intensive, not that much machine) with the container ceiling being all solar panels. The initiative went through several cities and sold quite a lot. It is possible to do it. Of course a container is smaller than a building sized farm but it is a good step to the future
@@sasukeuzumakinaruto1 If we don't give land back to nature our chances aren't looking so great regardles of the combined potential effect of other solutions we've come up with so far, including carbon sequestoring farming techniques which is still far less effective for sequestoring carbon than wild unmanaged nature.
People talk about directly human made emissions a lot, and it overshadows the fact that we've essentially been carving out huge swaths of the planet's buildt-in climate controll system in order to house and support a massive and ravenous population and the convenience industry we've come to rely on in our daily lives.
Even if it is unlikely, it is important for us that we find ways to do it, and then try, and I mean really TRY, to turn land we are currently using to ineffectively sequestor carbon or even generate emissions, into carbon-sequestoring and climate-regulating nature-reserves filled with regenerated wilderness.
Nature has been healing itself after environmental disasters for a long time, and has shown to be incredibly good at it, but our landmasses are covered by a staggering 38 percent farmland against only 23 percent wilderness now, which as you might guess does not quite leave it with the same amount of space it has had to work with when disasters have struck in the past.. and now we're rapidly digging our claws into marine wilderness as well.
Highly unlikely... We'll have worked long and hard to earn the end result, either way we collectively choose.
lets just say, everyone "wraps" a truth/half-truth into a packaging that serves their economic interests, be wary of going word by word about anything you hear, they are all lairs to varying degrees! This video looks like something tacitly sponsored by the pesticide industry, such that the farming evolution can be dis-credited and people keep farming the traditional way which shall require the use of pesticides and keep the pesticides order register ringing with income inflows!
The thing about growing lettuce is it's footprint is actually huge compared to what you get with it. It has almost zero nutritional value, yet takes the same space as other more nutritious foods to grow and transport. Lettuce should be grown locally or not at all.
your name is somewhat hilarious, given the context in this video :)
We wouldn't need 75% of our current aggricultural land if we stopped wasting our resources for animal aggriculture
@@lorissupportguides yes
@@lorissupportguides We won't need to stop eating meat if we stopped wasting so much space on traditional agriculture and build more vertical farms instead..
@@MarkWTK hhhh真的是
I feel like you pointed out the pros, the cons, but never weighed them against eachother. The cons seem somewhat refutable long term as increasing use of green energy deals with the carbon emissions and over time improvement of the technology will quickly make things cheaper. On the other hand, other than mentioning them you didn't compared that to the decrease in soil erosion, lesser use of pesticides and less water use. All of which have significant environmental impacts and are probably worth paying a bit extra for short term. Would be very happy to get a response on whether I missunderstood something.
Also yes there are alternate solutions, that however doesn't invalidate other solutions especially when decreasing meat consumptions deals with emissions whilst this would help other issues that will decrease but remain if we ate less meat, such as the soil, water and pesticide issue. And even though it uses AI+robots, which has a high initial investment and is unaccessible to less well off regions, in the long term not having to pay wages(different issue) will likely make them profitable.
@@sebastianljung8745 I totally agree with you this video assay looking at the vertical farming in very narrow perspective. There is not yet a perfect solution would solve all problems of traditional farming but it tackles down important once like water use which collectively take very granted. It could eliminate water use up to 95%, monoculture farming, pesticide and herbicide elimination and deforestation. Just because the current vertical farms relying on AI and automation it doesn’t mean it has to be done that way. You can create an all glass green house and eliminate your dependency of LED light source. Not to mention one of his arguments about perished food during transportation a lot of produce gets spoiled.
You're right. This video is very one sided and it was difficult to watch. The author went into it with a bias and this was not a critical and fair look at the options. They have blinders on, cherry picking information that supports their view and ignoring most of the picture around vertical farming (eg. Preventing soil depletion and reducing water consumption) This channel has become an echo chamber of like-minded individuals validating each other and I'm really over the author squeezing in a comment about meat into every single video.
@@laurarhodes7193 I think that's super fair, I don't eat meat and feel very strongly about the eco benefits to that decision but he bought it up in something that had nothing directly to do with meat. And he's definitely formed a bad habit of going into the research with a narrow view and letting that inform his argument instead of the other way around.
Well, the problem is that currently electrification + switch to green energy is the solution for pretty much every industry from cars to steel to this. All while the transition to renewable energies only has an impact on percentages not absolute numbers so far, not even in developed countries like the US (www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=39092) So it´s highly questionable whether we´ll manage to scale up renewables at such a speed that we can afford even more demand while reaching net-zero in 2050. Hence, if we have alternative options (e.g. permaculture) for something that´s not a "big point" then we should explore them.
You forgot to mention the other side effects of conventional farming including the threat to wildlife habitat. Those vertical farming companies have high costs but that space is still young and there is room for changes when it comes to efficiency. Concerning energy usage, renewable solutions exist and would pair well with this type of industry. You also have to consider that some of the technologies that they are deploying might not be necessary at all. Since there aren't that many companies doing vertical farming compared to conventional farming, I'd say some time is needed before implying anything really. Yes, addressing food waste and infrastructure is beneficial but it doesn't mean that we shouldn't invest in vertical farming just because there are some growing pains. That's par for the course for something like this.
The number one cause of habitat destruction is animal aggriculture. If we stop breeding animals we suddenly dont need those huge monocultures of corn, soy and grains. We only need 25% of our current farmland to feed the world.
@@lorissupportguides This is the most important thing. Thank you for pointing it out.
i agree. Renewable energy and battery storage is the key to solving a lot of climate related issues. The concept of Super Power, meaning you produce too much energy and need to find ways to spend it. What better way than to offer residents and corporations deals on energy usage. Since the cost to utilities will be so low to produce the power, allows cities and States to make deals and offer incentives to stimulate growth. But more efficient light bulbs will also bring about lower energy costs for vertical farms. Vertical farms can also be built underground thus minimizing land use in expensive cities where more residential units need to be built to create affordable housing. Heck, throw some solar panels on those warehouses too.
@@seanwoolven I personally have seen evidence that renewable energy has many limitations too. Lithium extraction is extremely damaging to the environment (in my country there is a big issue with this, the land contains lithium but the environmental cost is too high) and solar panels are not as harmless as they may seem. They have an environmental impact (production, implantation on land, and impact on animals) and are not recyclable. I think we need to use less energy as a whole, find other solutions, because using more and more resources and more energy is not the way in my opinion. We need to do more with less instead.
@@martaso643 I agree with you about solar panels. It's not easy to strip away all of the metal framing, then the conductors, then the silicon which may or may not be sufficient enough for further recycling. Then where does all of those spent resources go? "Waste to Energy" facilities? Yuck.
On the topic of lithium, is what you're saying true? Are you from Chile btw? It seems to me that the practices companies have adopted there, skimming lithium salts off the tops of lakebeds when water evaporates, is much more sustainable than straight up mining.
To put it simply: *It's a whole new dimension to farming*
*Literally*
XD Thank you for the unexpected laugh tonight. I really needed this today :D
laterally
There’s an emerging consensus that the agriculture industry needs to adapt to use less water, land and also fewer chemicals, make crops less vulnerable to changes in the climate, and produce more reliable yields. Part of the answer may lie in vertical farming, where growing conditions can be better managed.
Did you watch the video...
Couldn't all those things be achieved with greenhouses? A technology that's been around for hundreds of years?
The only real benefit of vertical farms compared to greenhouses is in footprint, the necessity of which really depends on location.
@@jellevm less footprint means less destruction of natural habitats and more rewilding. It allows human to condense and optimise our activities and to have as little adverse effect on the environment as possible.
Obviously we shouldn't rush to grow everything vertically right away until we have improved the process and transformed our energy systems to be renewable and stable. But current vertical operations are a testing ground for this. And the energy revolution is a seperate problem which is already on it's way to be solved.
@@michael-lucanatt8009 not sure what your point is here...
The complete lack of carbon sequestration that is involved in a hydroponic farming system means that even though a vertical farm may have a smaller footprint, it is not necessarily environmentally any more beneficial than traditional cropping. In addition the conditions lead to less bacterial and fungal growth, and hydroponic crops can be very nutrient poor. It leads to increased amounts of nitrogen-high water, which is actually a health problem.
In the field of regenerative agriculture, very little weight is given to vertical/hydroponic farming as a good option.
This channel was what I finally needed to start my change to a plant based diet. I had thought about it for years, but you finally convinced me. This month is my first change, no more beef. It's going to be a strange transition for me, but cheers to a new journey in life!
Hey Kellie, how is it going?
I hope you have gone vegan and if not watch the documentary Dominion free on RUclips
Im currently at 5/7 days vegetarian, and 2/7 days with 150 grams of poultry and/or pork
*I would recommend starting with beef exclusion _and_ a small reduction (50ish grams) in overall meat consumed. Substitute it w vegan or egg or such.
edit; thats how i started :)
@@lil_weasel219 watch the documentary Dominion free on RUclips, you wouldn't have to take baby steps if it was dog meat/eggs/milk so just go vegan already!
I've basically swapped red meat for chicken in my diet. Beef burgers as an occasional treat.
It's not revolutionary but it's simple and if everyone did it then we'd have no worries about the Amazon being destroyed
Oh man, this video was so well made. I've wanted this one for a while and you really delivered Charlie!
I was waiting for this as well. All the things they never talk about in their promo movies, but seem evident to the critical viewer.
Have you seen some of the urban farming initiatives in Vancouver?
What about hydroponic systems that don't use electricity?
@@moritzkeller4502 They don't talk about it because the electricity grid is getting cleaner and cleaner.
With solar PV vertical farming will be way cheaper and cleaner.
@@johntheux9238 Is this because of all the nuclear fusion reactors?
You can't knock it down for trying to do good, it's in its infancy so yes, there are still stuff to figure out, economy of scale and Co.
agreed
If we get to the point where energy is clean and bountiful enough to justify those monstrosities than they would be useless anyway. We would have solved the environmental impact issue. In fact the tech behind the clean energy that is miraculously enough would be a FAR greater aaccomplishment, no one would even give two craps about these farms.
What are people gonna do? Survive off Kale and Tomatos? You can't grow the stuff people actually want to eat.
@@MrSirFluffy One of the issues these farms seek to solve is the fact that we're actually running out of viable SPACE for growing food for our growing population. If you could reduce or eliminate the carbon footprint of these operations you could sustainably feed the world even if the population doubled.
Even if it just meant eliminating the existence of regular farms for this specific kind of food, it would still improve overall efficiency with water use, room for natural plant growth (as well as limiting deforestation in developing countries) in the space gained (or for growing other crops you think would be more popular), as well as reducing the overall use of things like pesticides and herbicides which have a negative effect on human and plant life the world over.
I agree that clean energy should be a bigger focus at this point in time, but writing off this idea based off that alone seems kinda short-sighted. If anything it's a perfect example of how sustainable energy is useful beyond just limiting climate catastrophe.
@@TheRangerFox I don't think space is an issue.
I've driven through the Middle America, it's open land for the vast majority of the continent.
That red dot map doesn't give the mind a real depiction. All the crop growth can be multiplied by 5 or 10 times and still remain in the same dot clusters.
We are not running into space problem for atleast a few more centuries.
I think it's more likely that people will switch to Sci Fi like nutrition capsules/bars than having to rely on vertical gardening.
It's good for outer space and crop growth research though. I hope they solve the problems, but at the end of the day I don't even eat any of the food involved in vertical gardening. Well, maybe lettuce or cabbage.
Fossil fuels are heading out, as green energy technically advances we'll likely see vertical farms having a lot less emissions.
This is a great video, however I just want to point out that in my opinion, vertical farming is not trying to be a solution to help in climate change or solve food shortage, however it is extremely good for countries such as Singapore, that have no land space to spare for all uses required, therefore we can utilise the technology to allow for local production of food, as we rely on imports for over 70% of our food, this technology, while not being able to solve climate change, it is able to provide food security and more.
The law of comparative advantage suggests that Singapore should devote its limited land to do what it's GOOD AT (finance, electronics, etc), and not to unproven high-tech lettuce farms. Then it can trade with other countries for REAL food (rice, beef, soy, etc) which really cannot be produced in these goofy vertical "farms".
That's true, but not in our world, he said food security for a reason@@glynnec2008
You can have a fish farm in the system to provide nutrients to the plants. Another bonus is that there's no worrying about weeds or wild animals that can die from the pesticides. A lot of the cons seem like short term problems to me.
As an agricultural engineer I have to answer this question with: "It depends on how it's implemented"
The answer is a lot more nuanced than the video.
Let me make it clear from the beggining: the problem is not the technology of vertical farming, the technology is not the problem, it's capitalism.
With that out of the way let me explain.
For one hydroponics are not limited to the NFT system which you described above, it can also utilize substrate systems such as wicking beds and ebb and flow systems as well as deep water culture systems. And even though these methods do sacrifice some verticality or can only be used as the ground floor of each installation their combination can pretty much be used for the production of most plants.
In addition hydroponics can be paired with aquaculture.
The hybrid system, aquaponics, creates a curcular system where you have aquatic animals (almost always fish) whose waste is sused as nutrients for the plants, therefore making a twofold prodution of compact plant production and animal protein with minimal enviromental impact.
On top of that not only are we cutting on pesticides and herbicides (which cause other severe enviromental problems aside of climate change) this technology cuts down on a lot of heavy machinery.
In addition the ability to grow anywhere, and I do mean anywhere, could help ease the distribution problem and cut on distribution energy losses and costs.
Finally it does help with the goal of restoring ecosystems lost to farmlands.
The downsides of this technology you mentioned come from capitalism.
Us being stuck with fossil fuels, patent minefields, a financial sector that's not compatible with co-op startups, inflated cost of tech (usually due to the patent minefields), competition with a heavily subsidized traditional farming system, a massive beef lobby, etc.
This is a classic case of technology being a tool but a tool can be used for good, bad or inappropriately.
Unfortunately... capitalism.
Well You seem like a have a problem with The Corporate Subsidies I Agree as well. Subsidies to green house create a distorted Market.
Yes thank you
Maybe I missed it, but I feel like you missed the cost aspect that overlooks the fact that new technologies and processes are often prohibitively expensive during the R&D and before they scale. The current cost of vertical farms has the capability to drop drastically, especially when you start to pair them with on-site low-cost green energy providers like wind or solar. etc. etc. As with all tech solutions the idea is that you start with something inefficient and simple but are forever continuously improving a repeatable process.
Yeah this viewpoint is myopic and uninspired. My money’s on the future. It always plays out. Wake up bruh. Production A++++ and that algorithm faker posted earlier should be mandatory haha.
The cost aspect is expensive in terms of startup, but capital intensive new industries create difficult barriers to entry, so key patents in tech that help reach economies of scale can also help a vertical ag co with a good business model dominate an industry and be able to reduce its long term operating expenses. R&d also creates value in the products which points to success. Investors want to see companies reinvesting into their products to remain leaders in the industry and continuously create key drivers.
Also, realize it’s not exactly about debt if you know that the business strategy will help the company pay the debt off. Which is what investors and banks will see. So as long as the company is solvent, they will have the extended time to reach optimal profit margins and pay down their debt.
Low-cost, green energy like turbine and solar panel? Lol
This video was half attacking vertical farms, and half saying they're actually a really great solution (for some contexts) however the overall feeling I got from it was negative. I think this is a mistake. Right now the industry is nascent, its giving us a glimpse of what could be possible in the future.
As the energy grids decarbonise the co2 footprint of these farms will drop with them, and energy is one of the easier things to decarbonise. Transportation is much harder.
Regarding cost, well its the very beginning. In time the costs will drop and eventually it could end up cheaper (per unit of food) than a land based (horizontal) farm.
I believe that technologies like these are what will allow us to eventually return more of the earths surface back to wildlife rather than requiring huge %s of the earths landmass used to grow food for us humans.
He wasn't attacking vertical farm. He just think it miss the point.
@@blugaledoh2669 The point is more food per square meter for fewer resources expended, which vertical farming will eventually achieve.
@@Alexander_Kale Yeah?
what TCC is saying is that if we really wanna help Earth. We can't ignore the obvious fact that livestock produce large co2 and used up lands. Vertical farm is good but we can forget this and not be overhyped.
You can build your own setup too and that'll save a lot of money. The robo arms are overkill. Get some "gutter metal" make a lid, cut holes for net pots. Set up a shelf using spare wood or repurpose a metal shelf. You can use cheap 10-25$ aquatic air pumps to cycle the water. You don't want to skimp on your lights. Finding something energy efficient that also produces the needed waves is critical.
(also!! its better when making the holes for the plants for them to be more spaced out than less spaced out. Otherwise, you'll get long lanky thin plants and if you start using every other hole for more space, it becomes alge city with all that extra "sun light " hitting the water.
well done!
my one critique would be that while you point out that vertical farming is by no means a solution to climate change, you somewhat play it down as a solution it isn't even meant to be.
so I think it should be celebrated for things it is very promising at, and not shunned for the things it's not good at but also doesn't need to be good at - at least not for the time being.
the prospect of being able to grow produce both high in quality and quantity in city centers, in controlled environments where we are sure to keep finding optimizations and increase efficiency, highly consistent yield all year around, entirely without pesticides or herbicides, is without question something we should all want in our future.
and the issues are all solvable:
- yes it does have a potentially high carbon footprint, but the great thing about it is the extend of control over that since it comes down to almost exclusively the LEDs. for starters, of course it can be plugged into renewables, but also the increasing efficiency of LEDs and algorithms that learn exactly what light profiles the plants need can make a massive difference over time.
- for now it's only leafy greens, yes, but there's the prospect of GMO'ing crops that are currently unsuitable for vertical farming to make them compatible, too.
- if vertical farms are scaled and common-place, prices for consumers should also go down significantly.
another thing that's important to mention is that environmental protection is not just about carbon emissions! the segmentation and destruction of habitats is also a major part, and in that regard, vertical farms are potentially much better than conventional outdoor farming. and who knows, it may also contribute to our culture moving away from animal products because of the superior quality of the local produce. anything that makes it easier for people to eat plant based helps.
On the topic of growing in city centers, you potentially can take advantage of urban heat island effects to help regulate interior V.F. climates. I'm not a mechanical engineer, but I wonder if a heat sink in such a way would have an impact on reducing said effect so that local people's and wildlife don't suffer as much.
I am a meat-eater, I like my steak, etc., but I know that people it much more meat than they need. We don't need meat with every meal we eat, we don't even need meat on daily basis.
@@bikerbean well fact of the matter is we don't require it at all for a healthy physiology. all that meat offers can also be obtained from plant foods. so it's not about "need", but rather about the comfort of tasting what you're used to.
but with the fact that you had to identify yourself as "meat-eater", which implies that there must also be "non-meat-eaters", you essentially already said all that yourself. ;)
@@holleey The excess calories, fats, proteins and minerals in meat, and the fact that it's some of the most nutritionally dense thing that we currently eat right now is what gave us this big ol' brain we have now. I also understand that we don't need to eat meat all the time, but you can't have good "physiology" without eating meat, and your comment is proof of that.
@@astroman0500 plain wrong.
there's plenty of great and entirely sufficient plant-based protein sources. there's no issue with being a body builder on a plant based diet. this dude is vegan:
up.r00t.li/20190303_i_view64_SQ2Y.png
you think he doesn't have any "physiology"?
the idea that meat consumption in particular made the difference in the evolutionary jump regarding our brain size is just one of many notions, and even it has been a major factor, then that has no bearing in light of our modern possibilities.
Great video that reflects my thoughts exactly as someone who has worked in a vertical farming research lab. Connecting animal agriculture and vertical farming is absolutely the right idea, despite how dissimilar they may seem.
Wendover and OCC are unmatched in quality. This is exceptional.
8:23 "So investing a hundred of millions of dollars into vertical farms, feel similar to trying to colonize mars to escape a changing climate. it's a prohibitively expensive and technology ridden solution, to a problem that has other, more just, and less expensive answers." >>> So glad to hear it nowadays! Space exploration with some reasons they're using now, is disturbing.
Colonizing mars to escape climate change is a moronic notion. Meanwhile, farming with natural light is so incredibly energy inefficient, you could literally catch sunlight with photovoltaics, power optimized LEDs with that energy and feed MORE CROPS that way per square meter, DESPITE how bad our solar cells are right now....
@@Alexander_Kale Leafy greens only need 1/30 sunlight and vegetables 1/10 so they are wasting 97% and 90% of the energy they get, which is already less efficient than solar.
Colonizing mars will create a lot of intellectual property we will use here on earth...
Just wanted to drop a quick comment letting you know this video was really well put together! I've been watching your channel for a while now and it's clear you're growing as a creator. The pacing and story elements of this video feel spot on. Love the tie in to meat in agriculture too and how that should be our primary focus when looking to improve that industry. Anyway, rambling aside, keep up the great work! :)
I was wondering whether this could work or not, another 🔥 video!
Will work at scale once the grid is clean. Might happend sooner than expected.
@@johntheux9238 Its easier to not use solar power to power this. Except you have fusion and every country is super advanced and can build such stuff.
I think I'd like to know more about permaculture and other high density farming. Are you planning on doing a video on that?
Yes, I’ve never heard of permaculture - I would love to find out about that!
Look up some videos on it, Vertical Farming is cool but permaculture farming can solve like 80% of humanity's problems rn lol it just needs more attention.
Great video! Thanks a lot! I especially liked the nod to meat industry as well as dairy and other animal products. These are the most important factors to tackle. If you can make a vertical farm growing soybeans for plantbased meat alternatives instead of raising cattle, pigs and so on - this would be a true game changer!
When you are calculating the impact of Vertical farming did you take into account the land that would be freed up and could therefore be rewilded?
Yes, the direct emissions are higher from these vertical farms but what about the emissions sucked out of the atmosphere by the land that you no longer need for farming that could be rewilded or the forests that won't be chopped down due to needing to increase food production?
Exa cognition did a great series of videos on how vertical farming works now and how it will start to include more plants than just leafy greens in the future. I highly recommend it.
In terms of land space, I'm pretty sure that suburbia and zoning laws that ban mixed-use are much bigger problems than horizontal farming.
I literally just leaned about this last month and wanted to know more! This is awesome!!
👍🏿👍🏿
hahah what a lucky coincidence!!
@@OurChangingClimate my lucky day haha you're really on the ball :D
Potted plant, special LED on top. Is literally hat this is. The concept has been around for ages....
@@Alexander_Kale yeah but I was more talking about the columns of plants with nutrient irrigation rather than the shelves either way it's a cool idea. To bad it isn't always as efficient as it looks
I actually bought a hydroponic system this week. The plan is to grow lettuce and perhaps other greens, as well as herbs. The reason I decided to try it is simply that I love growing my own food, but for 6 moths of the year I cannot harvest anything in my garden. The hydroponic system doesn't take up much space, I can fit it on a counter in the kitchen. The grow lights are a must because it's dark for around 18 hours a day in the winter. It says I will be able to harvest in 5 weeks. And setting it up was super easy, actually hardest part was coming up with a way to hang the lights. I really think hydroponics is useful and sustainable for people to have in their own homes - fresh herbs year around (a must in a vegan diet, imo) and as apartments get smaller and smaller, it is a space saving and time saving way to grow a bit of your own food. Instead of paying 4$ for a basil plant in the supermarket that will inevitably die after a week - not sustainable for the environment nor my wallet
I told my grandmother who is really into farming about this, she found it quite interesting.
You made some great points. But indoor vertical hydroponics IS the future and will evolve considerably driving down costs. It's worth it to our remaining natural area! Solar lined buildings will mitigate energy consumption, we will no longer be dependent on the weather, we will need only a fraction of fresh water, and I love the thought of not being exposed to chemicals from our food.
Good shit, I've wanted a short objective overview of the sustainability of these farms to be on the internets for a while now. All I kept seeing were hyped up intrview commercials by reporters from news sites I'd never trust to begin with, with the exception of maybe a few videos. In any case this is the best one I've found so far, thank you! While I do think that the upsides of this emerging field are nothing short of amazing, I'm tired of having the downsides be only briefly mentioned or left out entirely.
You should be interested in solar energy then because it's going to change everything. It's now at 3 cents per kwh and could drop by 72% in the next 10 years.
I'm in to vertical farming but not growing vegetables like leafy greens I grow peppers and chilli's! I love this video becasue every bosts about the benefits but since I have done it for a while I can see the drawbacks first hand. You have hit the nail on the head and definitely shown both sides of the argument which I love!
As far as cost in concerned, that will change over time. I remember when a LED watch was THOUSANDS of dollars and now you can get them out of a bubble gum machine. Cost changes as innovation makes it happen. Much of it may be Prohibitive now, but the cost will lower each year as new ideas and and new products are introduced. I see new ways of making energy and products every day.
Yep these things have to bee seen in the long term spectrum.
Good video but the video author failed in addressing the full potential of aerofarms
I really love and appreciate your videos! I hope that these types of videos will become more common on RUclips, even if the algorithm doesn’t like them. It educates a lot of people! 😊
Good points however the pros of vertical Farming long outweighs the cons. The main downside of indoor farming is the high energy usage which can be replaced with solar.
Huh, that's a very different looking vertical farm than the one from the bee documentary. That one was just super tall tomato vines in a greenhouse.
And that guy didn't have any high tech stuff, just some motorized rope system to move easily and effortlessly up and down.
I feel about this video the same i feel about your video on nuclear energy... they both seem a bit biased towards the negatives.
I discovered your channel a few months ago and it has become one of my favorite! Currently a business student with a background in operations and I love how detailed your videos are. Thank you for your work!
we vertical "farm" animals :(
Excellent point. That type is despicable.
Firstly, let me take the time to say THANK YOU for being the first RUclipsr I've seen to actually take a critical look at vertical farms. I have no doubt they will one day be part of the solution, but people trying to make it an agricultural moonshot are being foolish, imo.
However I noticed that your graph for CO2 generated by crops was per kg. Normally, that would seem the best measure, but with food crops, surely total CO2 would've been a better graph to measure by? You'll get no argument from me that meat, dairy production etc is number one, but if significantly more lettuce is grown than milk bottles sold (and it's probably not, sure) then making lettuce more efficient isn't quite the same as tinkering at the edges.
Great video, again!
Your videos are never disappointing and always provide useful information. But what about putting all the references of the data you collect and use in order to make the video? I'd love to read the papers
There's a link all the way at the bottom with all the things I read to make the video!! (Same thing for all my videos) Enjoy!
@@OurChangingClimate I know but those are not papers, are they? I did not click on them singularly, but they seem more newspapers and stuff like that (from the source cited next to the title).
I'm also disappointed about the lack of primary source information.
This was really fascinating. I do believe in innovation in agriculture, though am usually more for the democratisation of it, so smaller farms, more urban production, not relying on mega corporations for all our food production and especially not going for methods that make it more energy intensive. I do like that there is so much innovation and it's great learning more about all this, the comments are very insightful.
Could you please make another video about nuclear energy? It could provide enough clean baseload energy for projects like this to be feasible.
Your videos are informative, balanced and well made. I like that you address a broad range of topics and don’t shy away from controversial subjects. Few do so these days!
Brilliant channel.
So how do we reduce meat consumption? Educating people about the downsides does not seem to be enough. Should we make it more expensive so that only the rich can afford it? Just forbiddind it won't work either. Does someone have a Solution?
You should look up the true cost of a Big Mac
Every video you make I learn so much about a new topic in such a professional and high quality manner. I am still here wondering why RUclips is sleeping on this goldmine of a channel...
for the algorithm:
“Minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Pokemon cards" "card unboxing" "charizard" "they don't want you to know" "Flat earth" "round earth" "triangle earth" "earth is not earth" "what even is earth if not earth omg government is lying to you" "minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Halo" "Devil may cry" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” “Cocomelon” “t series” “Minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Pokemon cards" "card unboxing" "charizard" "they don't want you to know" "Flat earth" "round earth" "triangle earth" "earth is not earth" "what even is earth if not earth omg government is lying to you" "minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Halo" "Devil may cry" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” “Cocomelon” “t series”
hahaha I wonder if this works 🤔
Dude, you're awesome.
@@OurChangingClimate idk but if this blows up, you know who to thank ;)
@@OurChangingClimate I often hear it does. BTW, since it decides of so much, I renamed the Algodrithm :)
Could you copy paste this on my videos too plz? haha
A really good video on the classic attempt at solving a systemic problem with innovation rather than adressing the actual cause underlying the problem.
People should just grow stuff on their own property.
Its cheap, and rewarding.
(As long as you dont over think it, and give up)
Exactly, with a lot of practice I'm now able to keep my house plants alive four more than a year, so I can definitely grow my own food ;)
Yeah, just plant some vegetables in your apartment, it's so easy geez.
Where should I grow my food in a densely populated city?
Good informational video, even though I don't agree with some of the downsides proposed:
1. The industry is stil very young, which means that a lot of potential is still to be achieved. Naturally, this will most probably be seen in new technology (growth systems for other types of crops/vegetables) and cost efficiency;
2. What does beef emissions has to do with vertical farming? Are you proposing that people should not invest their time in vertical farming because of cattle? Really don't get the connection. Also, if the power source for vertical farms comes from renewable energy, surely the footprint would be greatly reduced;
3. Yes, vertical farms are more capital intensive, and the produce is more expensive. But for a reason! To be fair, you should've compared the net profit/Kg of lettuce. Keep in mind that you have a lot of government help to farms, a lot of pesticides and fertilizer being ineficciently used and farmers margins are completly obliterated by big supermarket chains. This would, in principle, happen less with vertical farms, which can be more decentralized.
4. Getting back with the beef situation, we also see that vertical farms are helping the cattle industry by providing fodder grown vertically to cows, pigs and poultry, albeit only being good as "proof-of-concept" base.
This just shows the potential that vertical farming along with sustainable practices and sources can achieve, all of which outpasse current farming by a landslide IMO
Thank you, I now realise why vertical farming has not been adopted on large yet.
Perhaps if, fusion power plants where here or renewables with batteries where used to power the facilities, it would lower the operating costs.
I do think the 95% reuse of water is brilliant, considering the predicted fresh water shortage facing the planet in the coming decades.
Just want to also add, Curiosity Stream is brilliant and amazing value for money. The content is plenty and the documentaries are great quality.
I have not tried Nebula but indeed it is included with my subscription.
Thank you Charlie.
Some of the points you bring up in this video seem a little short sighted. The mars analogy isnt warranted becuase colonizing mars isnt just about escaping climate change. Emerging tech like this is often expensive, we need to work on efficiency and broadening there use.
When I first heard of vertical farming, the idea made a lot of sense. In a way apartment buildings combat urban sprawl by placing people in a 3d dimensional space (stacked on top of each other) instead of a 2D dimensional space (rows and columns, like a subdivision.) vertical farming could be considered the same approach, but applied to agriculture. Regarding sunlight, I've seen technology using mirrors that can take natural sunlight deep into the center of an office building; while that can reduce electricity use, it does forego the "seasonal independence" described in the video. Where I take issue with the examples provided is the use of A.I and robotics that seem... excessive. Living in a rural suburb, I've seen how the local farms operate, and the labour is usually done by large farm machinery or low-wage immigrant workers (I'm Canadian btw.) Does a robotic arm perform that much better than a minimum wage worker? Does the additional cost of rare-earth metals, equipment and maintenance get justified by the value provided by "cutting-edge" equipment? How much is necessary compared to "tech-hype?"
When researching the topic in design school for my city (Vancouver BC) the main obstacles for vertical farming were zoning laws and land availability. Ideally these vertical farms would exist in urban centres where they could address the larger need for produce, however the land in these areas usually costs more than land outside urban limits. Oustide urban limits one would encounter bylaws limiting the height of a building, effectively capping the potential farming space. Compared to other cities, such as Boston and Seattle, local legislation was outdated and provided little assistance to those looking into sustainable urban farming solutions.
Yeah, it will be hard to find property especially in cities like Vancouver where property prices are outrageously high rn, but I feel more optimistic with cities like Detroit that have nothing but empty warehouses and where fresh fruit and vegetables are a rare occurrence for residents with a tighter budget.
In my opinion, you have a few flaws in your conclusion.
First, you conclude we should eat less meat instead of investing in vertical farms. I would say you can do both.
Second, you went very fast over the many benefits. And didn't weigh them against the negatives. To name just a few, insect who die due to pesticides is huge and should be limited. Water use is a big issue in many areas and will get worse over time. Predictable food production is also needed to truly eliminate hunger.
Third, you did not take into account it is still an upcoming technology, like saying after the first solar panel made we should not invest in it because it will never generate enough energy.
I think the main reason, why all vertical farming companies are failing now, is that its not energetic viable. Photosynthesis is very inefficient. It can only catch at best 0,1% of the incoming light.
Some ideas to mitigate some of these complications with vertical farming:
-Couple these farms to renewable energy plants to run them and the surrounding community with clean energy.
-Redesign the hydroponics systems and everything else about the buildings to use as low impact materials as possible.
-Design these farm buildings to be greenhouses to use natural light when possible
-have double clear walls to the building with retracting blinds to maximize artificial light use.
-target areas that have particular difficulty with food access and engage with the local community to design, build , and staff these farms and associated power plants (climate-permitting, some vertical farms may need a lot less energetic input).
So my butt feeling was right :D i am getting really good at guessing what is enviromentally friendly :D oops i forgot that butt feeling is a finnish thing and not English :D it means the same as gut feeling :D
thanks, i'll add that to my vocabulary
@@MarkWTK :D
@@MarkWTK just to clarify in finland we say
Pers tuntuma
And it translates to butt feeling :D
@@oplkfdhgk my butt is feeling itchy right now, i wonder what that could mean?
It's not about what is enviromentally friendly but what will be. Those lights are powered by the grid and it's getting cleaner.
I just found your channel and it’s super uplifting to see a RUclipsr tackling environmental issues like this. Definitely turning the bell on for you! Gonna check out your stuff on Nebula too when I get the chance.
What if all turn vegetarians and ban meat industry. Why no one is talking about this?
Vertical farming is also a good answer for islands. They doesn't have much space for growing and so food is already expansive environnementally and econnomically.
You're my hero. Thanks for the content
Before villainizing beef production you should investigate regenerative agriculture. Mob grazed ruminants are an integral part of this system
Great video in an endless series of why any hot topic climate change “solution” won’t work
If it's the technology that's making it prohibitively expensive, it's worth considering how that tech will invariably get cheaper and more efficient over time. Just look at LED technology. Ten years ago that was a major pain point, but the lighting tech has advanced substantially. That didn't just happen for the purpose of vertical farming; it happened because of every sector that needed better lighting solutions. I can see vertical farming becoming financially and ecologically sustainable in the next 10-15 years as we convert to more renewables. And tech advancements happen - regardless of whether those advancements come from within the farming industry or elsewhere.
This video also doesn't seem to consider the harmful effects of soil depletion, runoff, deforestation, and habitat destruction associated with traditional farming practices.
Tbh I find the obsession with vertical farms to be part of a greater dystopian ideology that wants to eliminate essentially all forms of traditional human life styles in favour of automation.
nothing about vertical farming appears dystopian to me.
if you see something desirable in field work I think that's entirely cultural conditioning, e.g. you are appealing to what seems more natural or traditional to you, but there's no reason to stick with that in order to be able to live a healthy and fulfilled life as a human being.
@@holleey yeah sure, except when you eliminate the vast majority of jobs and the working class continues to languish in a system that has replaces them with robots and a few technicians.
@@cadian101st then the majority of the population - e.g. the working class - would no longer be subjected to the illusion of having a decent life selling their time, and a revolution would be inevitable.
the collapse of the current economic model - and with that a disruption of the employee employer relationship - has to comer sooner or later anyway.
when we have access to technology that provides in abundance then there's no reason for people to still be required to sell their time in order to make a living.
@@cadian101st do you know what believed would eliminate vast majority of jobs? The first industrial revolution. People thought the same way it would take away jobs from working class which it did but a long with it created new jobs, better paying jobs. Forcing people more to be skillful. I think as a society our goal shouldn’t creat jobs just the sake of having but creating quality jobs with security, safety and benefits.
Vertical Farms and similar inventions might not always be 100% beneficial (especially in their early stages), but I think, generally, automation helps to adress many problems in terms of production efficiency. It all depends on how exactly this technological innovation is applied, whether it helps to adress social or environmental problems.
Your videos are interesting and also technically awesome!
Thanks a lot for sharing.
Thats why im open to try lab-grown meat, even tho its lab grown as long as its proven safe and delicious to eat, then why not?
Our local supermarket just introduced a small vertical farm in the store itself! I think it's a pr-stunt but I like that it tried on a small scale and visible for the public.
Use metric not square feet and toes to measure things please. It's outdated and science is done in metric.
Enjoy all your videos.
So basically this was just a click bait title for a Nebula ad.
Great video, definitely worth my time
We're still at the very beginning of vertical farming, so I would be interested to see a time-cost analysis for these farms.
On top of that come other questions:
2. is there low carbon vertical farms? What drives this factor up?
3. does it need ground space or can it be mounted on top of groceries?
4. Can we get just-in-time lettuce to reduce packaging?
5. How does vertical farming and traditional farming compare to ground hydroponics and other alternatives where lower electricity consumption and infrastructure is possible? And with home-based (or small associations) solutions that would be more labour intensive in term of costs and carbon emissions?
Big comment, hope it brings ideas and interest to the topic and your videos!!
To achieve low carbon you just need to use clean energy like solar.
@@johntheux9238Electricity is probably one of the main elements indeed. What would be the footprint of solar installations to cover its energy need?
@@jeanhaizmann1814 That's if you only use the roof, but most cities are on the shores so you can use floating solar.
That silver bullet graphic is really sexy, and nice joke about Mars.
Seems that old Tech like permaculture and agroforestry are way better,. As always, the industrial replacement comes with tons of resource extraction and wasted energy (manufacturing solar panels to make electricity to then shine on your plants, instead of just putting your plants out in the sun, ridiculous).
As much as as I love permaculture and agroforestry, I do have reservations about them being the only solution. Unless you are planting with mostly native plants and encouraging native wildlife (not discouraging them from getting into your harvests), these forms of agriculture do still face the problem of taking up horizontal space that could be put to conservation efforts. Industrial farming definitely needs to change, but if everyone of our soon-to-be 9 billion population lived off of permaculture farms, what space would be left for native ecosystems, I wonder? *
I would think a mixed solution of vertical farms and permaculture could theoretically upend conventional farming practices while leaving space for rewilding and conservation. As other comments have pointed our, the cons pointed out in the video can be fixed with technological advance.
*I recognize that native plants and non-natives can be planted together in recombinant ecology, but there is always an opportunity cost of the benefit of a native plant when a non-native plant is put in. Native plants have the benefit of symbiotic relationships with native bees, for example, while a non-native plant might rely on the foreign honeybee, which may contribute to the extinction the native bees.
Those arent good enough, they have very similar environmental effects.
We just need to improve these systems instad of bashing them
Solar is now at 3 cents per kwh and should get 72% cheaper within 10 years. And since most cities are on the shores you can use floating solar and have as much energy as you want.
Leafy greens only use 1/30 sunlight and vegetables 1/10 so even with rooftop solar you can have many levels.
I did a lot of research into making more efficient lighting for vertical farms by using light emitting capacitors instead of LEDs. The advantage is in the fact they don't produce heat at the bulb but instead at the ballast. You can then harvest the waste heat very conveniently.
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lol lol
This was really interesting. They're researching vertical farming in Singapore too, since it's very land scarce
Ending hunger also won't happen in a capitalist system.
Great video that tells us what is the most important thing to focus on: ending animal product consumption.
eeeeeee
haha Jonathan I have no idea how you always are like the first person to watch every single one of my videos. It's v impressive
@@OurChangingClimate you’re probably one the only channels in which my notifications actually function properly, so I try to take advantage of that lol. But I do look forward to your videos. They’re always well made!
@@jonathanwilson5355 ayyy, I appreciate it :) it's always a pleasure seeing ya in the comments section
Your videos are truly amazing! You’re doing such a great job to show both the cons and pros!
“Minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Pokemon cards" "card unboxing" "charizard" "they don't want you to know" "Flat earth" "round earth" "triangle earth" "earth is not earth" "what even is earth if not earth omg government is lying to you" "minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Halo" "Devil may cry" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” “Cocomelon” “t series” “Minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Pokemon cards" "card unboxing" "charizard" "they don't want you to know" "Flat earth" "round earth" "triangle earth" "earth is not earth" "what even is earth if not earth omg government is lying to you" "minecraft" "asmr" "pewdiepie" "music" "fortnite" "markiplier" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” "Runescape" "World of Warcraft" "Shadowlands" "Dream" "MrBeast" "Warzone" "FaZe Clan" "100 Thieves" "Call of Duty" "Pokemon" "Halo" "Devil may cry" “RUclips is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” “Cocomelon” “t series”
I don't get why people naively believe that (yet to be created) technology will save us. It is already right here. Oh well.
This video is on point Charlie... as always ;) You are creating good content here. Thank you, it's very much appreciated.
It's not about technology but capitalism. Every problem is an opportunity to make money by finding a solution so capitalism is a self-governing system.
At 3:51-3:55 the narrator says that you can "theoreticaly grow plants right next to a supermarket." I just wanna point out that this is done already, i have seen a vertical growing closet at a big supermarket in Hannover, Germany. So they are already growing plants INSIDE a supermarket. In this case different herbs, including mint and basil.
Great video, most of the problems with these farms comes from how the electrical power is created for them which is not renewable. This same problem happens with Meat production besides the fact that beef requires a lot more than other types of meat. But there is no need to knock down meat to uplift plants
Great video. Just a small clarification. No one is trying to escape earth to mars. That's a complete misinterpretation of the goals of space explanation. Keep up the good work!
I've watched and read quite a bit about vertical farming and very few, including this one, (unless I missed it), gloss over the fact that these vertical farms are just producing low-calorie leafy greens. No one can be sustained on leafy greens. Until we can start producing grains, legumes, tubers and high calorie fruits through these methods, vertical farming will have next to no impact aside from providing fresh herbs and such to high end restaurants.
Great video :) I think based on what you said, vertical farming has a place in the future, but that future is quite far from reach as of yet. Another important economic and social consideration would definitely be the impact on traditional farmers all over the world, many of whom are already struggling to keep up with demand and climate change. So far it feels like a world with vertical farming as a common source of fresh food is just a pipe dream.
Looking forward to more great stuff from you!
It's actually not that far, solar energy now only cost 3 cents per kwh and should get 72% cheaper within 10 years.
I find the filter that flickers every other second throughout your videos a bit distracting. Once I notised it I can't stop thinking about it. I don't know if I'm the only one that gets distracted from the otherwise perfect animations and video content, but do please consider removing the filter or perhaps exchanging it for a static one! :)
One variation of vertical farming I came across was actually just made of old pop bottles and with earth in them and built vertically to avoid using too much water. It uses zero electricity and much less water than regular farming... even though it only grown foods like kale, it isn't actually expensive to run and I feel that variation of vertical farming would be useful in urban gardens and the like.
Honestly the thing that attracts me the most to the vertical farms idea is the lack of need for pesticides, I don't want my food sprayed with chemicals if it's possible
There are vertical farms that implement aquaponic farms as well so in addition to plants you get a great amount of fish as well and you save some money on nutrients for your plants...of course you have to feed the fish so...I would like a video that incorporates all kinds of vertical farms and their pros and cons if you have a time :)
Great as ever! Can you please tell us where do you get your video footage from to create your videos? Cheers
Most of these issues seem to only be for industry level farming. But as more people start quarantine gardening, rural areas with small spaces to farm, may be the best market
Great Video, but I think you missed a few important points that I would like to talk about.
- Where do the carbon emissions of vertical farms come from? If its just the electricity, which often relies on oil, then the problem is not the vertical farm. In a study, people calculated how much electricity germany would have, if every house had a solar roof. It was 3x what germany needs right now.
- Vertical farms can replace traditional farms. This would give us more rural space or space to reforest
But tbh, just get rid of animal meat first, i totally agree
I've heard of some office buildings shutting down completely because of the COVID stay at home orders. With some jobs permanently staying at home, I feel that some of those once office buildings could be used for vertical farming. This would be very practical in dense cities like Los Angeles
I think that vertical farms could be a viable solution in certain places especially to lower shipping costs/carbon emissions specifically in cities. Plus lowering the use of pesticide and weedicide use is a HUGELY important factor. Traditional farming as it stands may be lower in carbon emissions, but the environmental damage caused by chemical use is absolutely atrocious. These pollute the waterways, the soil, the entire ecosystem, and it also hurts the human who are exposed to it. So I would suggest maybe doing a follow-up video on this topic in the future once the vertical farming industry is more developed.
I really liked the fact that you did both the pros and cons. Rare these days. I container grow veggies in my driveway and we've had upwards of 30 tomatoes and 15 peppers plus berries, herbs, corn and all kinds of other things all in containers. I really enjoy the alternative forms of gardening coming out now that save water and save the dirt from getting stripped! I've also tried small scale aquaponics, that was fun and successful until the humidity forced us to take it out of the garage XD
Vertical farms are drastically important.
1) A lot of the cost is R&D in AI, robotics, and making each oz of lettuce produced as efficient as possible. Once those benefits start slowing down, R&D will reduce, and will drastically decrease the costs.
2) The 2nd largest bit of the cost is in the lighting, power and robotics equipment. Again, these costs are decreasing very quickly. LED lighting (especially custom lights used in these kinds of farms) have halved several times over the past 15 years that vertical farms started as a pet project in old Mitsubishi HDD plants in Japan. As green tech continually gets cheaper, these farms will quickly make their budgets work better. Right now it is a 4x production per acre and a 2-3x cost for the food produced, which means that tipping point is very close and likely just a few short years away. In fact, if you remove R&D costs, we are likely already there.
3) The US (and China) with lots of quiet rural space is perhaps not the best candedate for vertical farms. The original development with these systems is from densely packed geographically limited areas like Japan where the land savings alone make the whole effort worth pursuing from day 1 compared to importing food or wasting rural land that could now be used for more profitable crops (ie, they may loose money growing lettuce this way, but the freed up land to use on more profitable crops more than makes up the difference). Africa can also greatly benefit from this as many of their farming problems have to do with wild animals that can devistate a harvest (not a lot of roaming elephants trampling down corn fields in Indiana lol). Sadly, the high up-front costs will prevent these from gaining traction in many developing nations that could best benefit from this... for now at least.
4) While the focus has been on small greens like lettuce and kale, most of the R&D efforts are on ground crops (roots and tubers) and small fruits (berries), as well and dwarf grain varieities. Once we can produce oats, rice and wheat in factory farms, it is going to change the world overnight. Corn will likely always be too tall to be a candidate though, so again... US not an ideal match for this tech.
5) The carbon equation is not complete until we see traditional farms convert to vertical farming and put trees and wildlife back onto the land... I have no idea how the numbers will play out, but my bet is that a farm that reduces it's land use and can successfully convert farm land back to woods will be a larger carbon sink than what vertical farms use in energy as our grid greens over time. Granted, if the farm land is never converted, then that becomes worse rather than better.
6) The future of populaiton growth. Again, these farms take up very little space, while having a much higher output, whihc is going to be key as we double the Earth's populaiton over the next few years. When there is no more pristine land to farm, traditional farming is going to get more expensive just as vertical farms are reducing in price. They will meet in the middle eventually, and vertical farms will provide all of the food that traditional farming cant.
7) Breaking from the traditional seeds. Everyone knows about monsanto and others who develop crops and pesticides that are compatible with eachother... problem is that pests are adapting to the pesticides, and the seeds and pesticides cannot keep up. We will need to move many of our crops indoors eventually for this reason alone... plus, as many of these vertical farms are creating their own modified plants, they are becoming less reliant on 'big farm' to provide seeds.
So yeah... it is not ready for mass deployment yet. But it is improving rapidly, and getting cheaper, and will be spreading to other crops in the next 5-10 years which is going to turn the world upside-down! Very important space to watch.
What options are available for using existing solar light that can be focused, redirected and dispersed to hydroponic facilities rather than using solar power to generate energy to generate light?
Great video! When I was studying architecture I got a bit sucked into the concept of vertical farms but I became increasingly skeptical about them as time wore on. This video kind of validates that skepticism, but I can't deny feeling a little disappointed that they are not really viable outside of some edge cases
Not if the cost of energy drops. Solar is now at 3 cents per kwh and is expected to be reduced by 72% within the next 10 years.
About sustainabiliy there is a couple of questions: assuming used light is in the all solar to be sustainable 1. Can one distribute the light vertically, either by mirrors/glass fibre or via conversion to electricity and back to led 2. Can one efficiently stack crops with different light intensity needs to overcome unequal light distributions 3 to what extent is sun light, as quanta per m2, then more efficiently used? 4 if that is not the case, what are you actually doing the freecoming space, instead?
Bonus question in what ways does your vf system actually differ from its the natural counterpart being a forrest, with tall and small trees, bushes, etc.?
Green leafs only need 1/30 the sun energy and vegetables only 1/10.
But cereals need direct sunlight to grow.
What I take from this is that we should abolish the meat industry, considering how most crops are used to feed animals.