Truth be told, we’re running out of land. Between farmland we already use being overworked and seeing a huge reduction in it’s efficiency, and the amount of land that is simply unfarmable, we are already facing problems. As our cities get more populated and rise ever higher, the demand for products rises as well and that includes food. At our present rate of growth, we’re going to run out of usable land and personally, I would hate to see even more forest land cleared for our own selfish overuse.

Introducing a new idea to solve this problem: Vertical Farming. Actually, the idea itself isn’t new, but we finally have the resources and the need to make use of the concept. There is quite a bit of good press surrounding this concept and how it can be used and there is a website dedicated to the idea: verticalfarm.com. On the site there is a ton of information on the topic as well as designs as well as press and lots of figures and statistics.

In Practice

All of this is a great idea and a wonderful concept, but as anyone in the design or architecture world knows, it’s impossible to fully understand how well it works expect in practice. To that end, I have good news: one of these vertical farms is being built as we speak in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 30-story agricultural skyscraper will include over 100 crops including miniature banana trees and strawberries. According to Nevada officials, the farm could produce $25 million in products and provide enough food for 72,000 people a year! Most of this food is going to local casinos thereby reducing food miles.

All of this is good press for a city known for excess and good news for anyone concerned for the environment. The $200 million project is supposed to be finished by 2010.

Read more here.