This Farm of the Future Uses No Soil and 95% Less Water

As urban populations continue to rise, innovators are looking beyond traditional farming as a way to feed everyone while having less impact on our land and water resources. Vertical farming is one solution that's been implemented around the world. Vertical farms produce crops in stacked layers, often in controlled environments such as those built by AeroFarms in Newark, New Jersey. AeroFarms grows a variety of leafy salad greens using a process called "aeroponics," which relies on air and mist. AeroFarms' crops are grown entirely indoors using a reusable cloth medium made from recycled plastics. In the absence of sun exposure, the company uses LED lights that expose plants to only certain types of spectrum. AeroFarms claims it uses 95% less water than a traditional farm thanks to its specially designed root misting system. And it is now building out a new 70,000 square foot facility in a former steel mill. Once completed, it's expected to grow 2 million pounds of greens per year, making it the largest indoor vertical farm in the world.


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[Euporia]

Its basically like a automatic wheat farm in mincraft

[muhammadharis]

They have not explained important points like is it cheaper, energy consumption etc.

[gillesbkf]

How much does this consume electricity? If the amount of MWatts consumed are less than the energy required to run machines on the field + transport them, it’s obviously the future farming method.

[MakeSushi]

I hope they use solar panels on the roof to lower that electrical cost

[magzire]

I have exact same setup for growing weed

[SnowmansApartment]

The US are so weird.. Always comparing things with football fields..

[StressLessCamping]

I can’t stop thinking of growing food in all the abandoned malls around the US. I also love the idea of doing this in schools.

[kuyaleinad]

I'm aware it's still in its infancy but would this be the best solution?

The crops they grow can easily be grown at home. Even if you live in a flat, you can easily grow a pot of spinach in your porch or just as decoration in your living room :/

I think by the type of food they grow, the solution isn't viable :/ Those type of food doesn't even require a lot of land in its own right.

I do agree they need to develop this but they need to build it to suit the following crops:

-Wheat
-Rice
-Potatoes
-Cotton
-Coffee
-Soya
-Corn

These 7 plants will contribute more than 70% of our arable land used. They're also the one that uses the most pesticides and most of them use a lot of water too.

The salad plants they grow at the moment are at low demand and a couple of internet searches will mean you can grow them indoors by yourself :/

But I guess they have to start somewhere :/ Lets see how they go. Growing those 7 crops indoors would be very difficult.

(Edit: I'm aware that not anybody can grow salad plants and that you can't rely on a pot of spinach. My main point on that bit was to emphasise the ease of growing those types of plants)

[kutter_ttl]

All of those dead malls in the US, I wonder if they could be repurposed into vertical farms?

[souravzzz]

This is nothing new, weed farmers have been doing this shit for years.

[r.t.]

This is amazing! They also have farms popping up in warehouses with soil and the products are certified organic…. Healthy…. And less prone to bugs and molds as conventional farming…. They also don’t get ravaged by weather as the growing environment is controlled… its amazing!!

[bookwyrmn]

This would be a perfect new industry for Detroit. They have tons of empty warehouses, a population willing to learn to have steady work and a throving city again. I read about this awhile back, and it still is amazing.

[Critic]

They should try it in desert 🌵 countries....saving 95% of water is great 👍🏻!

[witherredaway]

me who has played countless hours of minecraft survival and made vertical farms: lmao

[AAvfx]

*This method is being used worldwide nowadays to grow endangered plants species*

[thedevilsadvocate]

Anytime someone only shows the pro's I am immediately skeptical. Show me the pro's and the con's. Then we can talk about the future.

[LanxOfficial]

Me: Coming to the comments for genuine advice & opinions about vertical farming
Everyone else: MINEECRAFFFTTTT

[Snailman]

theoretically, if you use 95% less water, zero soil requirements, all stacked up, all you need is space, electricity, and capital. I say we put them in old blockbusters.

[alexberry]

I love how a good chunk of comments are about us playing god, we aren’t playing god 😂 this isn’t creating, its harboring. We take already existing life and cater to it. If we were playing god we could just say fuck it and spawn food from thin air. Open your brain to new ideas, it’s how we got this far. It’s how you all can share your close minded opinion on the internet like this.

[ethanphilpot]

It's stuff like this that make me optimistic about the future