Vertical farming taking off?

[Dave]

Cairo, Paris, Singapore - why can'r we have this in London?

Vertical forest buildings designed by Stefano Boeri set to center new Cairo Administrative district

Designed by Stefano Boeri, the new capital in Cairo will feature living vertical garden buildings that are energy efficient and green by design.

inhabitat.com

World's largest urban farm to open – on a Paris rooftop

The 14,000m² farm is set to open in the south-west of Paris early next year

www.theguardian.com

Singapore Aims to be the World's Greenest City

As Singapore expands, a novel approach preserves green space.

www.nationalgeographic.com

 

[.matthew.]

The most sustainable way to go vertical is with vertical greenhouses. These could even be built to occupy one edge of a larger residential complex.

You build these on the edge of a city facing sun up, and allow no other skyscrapers to block them. The windows themselves would allow enough light in to grow a sizeable amount of crops in beds. The water required could be taken from rainfall or the main grid if necessary. Now these wouldn't be as productive as the more intense ones, but would require virtually no maintenance or electricity which is key for long-term efficiency, even if they only supplement the local area's demand.

Or just go more giant countryside greenhouses which allow for better yeilds than open fields anyway.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Interesting piece about culturing microalgae here:

Microalgae: Future food for thought

They're responsible for more than 75 percent of the Earth's oxygen supply, but often get no credit for it.

phys.org

 

[.matthew.]

Ahh, algae as oxygen producers... legit excuse to cut down all the trees

 

[AlexH]

Ahh, algae as oxygen producers... legit excuse to cut down all the trees

In parts of the UK, tree-planting has been taking place on rare habitats that support important species. You couldn't make it up.

 

[RJM Corbet]

I like this idea of tree planting drones.

"... Ten drones, operated by two operators, can plant 400,000 trees a day ..."

There's still a bit of work to make that a reality, but the concept seems realistic?

Tree-planting drones could help restore world’s forests

British engineers have created a seed-planting drone which could help restore the world’s forests.

www.standard.co.uk

 

[Overread]

It might at least make tree planting "affordable". Since so many logging firms and government groups keep citing that its not economical to pay to plant trees. Meanwhile when you've got huge areas being felled daily in some large forested regions it at least gives some potential hope that some might start to replant the areas they've stripped.

Of course there's replanting and replanting. There's a huge difference between regimented rows of monoculture monoage forest and the varied species, age and distribution you get in a woodland.

 

[.matthew.]

Of course there's replanting and replanting. There's a huge difference between regimented rows of monoculture monoage forest and the varied species, age and distribution you get in a woodland.

Nothing to stop the drones scattershotting seeds from a healthy mix of flora is there?

 

[Overread]

Not at all, but mixed see planting is more expensive (typically, depends on the tree species of course) and can result in a lower yield per unit area, especially if they only want a certain species.

It also doesn't address ageing aspects. In a natural system you end up with trees of varying age and size depending on colonising patters as well as natural loss and replacement over time. A species and age varied forest is typically quite resilient because it isn't reliant on a single age or species. Meanwhile a planted forest might have all the trees of the same age and species. So any disease gets to run rampant with little chance of developing isolated pockets that might avoid infection - for example.

 

[.matthew.]

Depends if you're planting for reforestation or logging purposes.

There would be nothing to stop the drones first planting a bunch of varieties (just mixed bags of what you want), then just airdropping a bunch more over the following years until you have a mixed age, mixed species forest.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Sustainability by replenishment has a nice ring to it but the resources have reached a point where we are talking about replacing every fish or tree taken with three more fish or trees that can't be harvested for a long enough time that it wouldn't be considered profitable. On a good day, the operations that are practicing sustainability might be replacing one third of what is taken out, and only a fraction of that is left alone, the bulk of it usually being monoculture. Growing crops in contained vertical operations minimizes the destructive impacts of current industrial agricultural efforts. The run off water for outdoor operations is unchecked simply because it is impossible to contain it. Some cities are constructing large quantities of apartments haphazardly integrated with retail and business instead of individual houses in outlaying areas. Vertical farming operations could easily be included as part of the areas being devoted to apartment growth. the same way parking spaces are allocated.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Not vertical farming, but an article exploring how we could ramp up urban farming with what's already there:

Urban land could grow fruit and veg for 15 per cent of the population, research shows

Growing fruit and vegetables in just 10 per cent of a city's gardens and other urban green spaces could provide 15 per cent of the local population with their 'five a day', according to new research.

phys.org

 

[.matthew.]

It's been done but we could certainly do better with modern technology and GM crops.