The EPIC Failure of Vertical Farms - What Happened?

Vertical farming, once hailed as the answer to global hunger and sustainable agriculture, saw a massive influx of investment, surpassing 2 billion dollars in 2022. By 2023, the market had skyrocketed to over 5 billion dollars, marking a significant milestone in the journey towards urban food production. So why is this innovative tech FAILING. Join us as we explore the fall of vertical farming and the challenges it faces. Subscribe and hit the notification bell to stay tuned for more insights into the cutting-edge innovations shaping our world!

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00:00 - The Rise and Fall of Vertical Farms
00:51 - The Hype: Billions Invested and Unicorn Startups
02:15 - The Promises of Vertical Farming: High Yields and Sustainability
04:19 - The Reality Check: Why Vertical Farms Are Failing
06:24 - Understanding Vertical Farming Technology
07:45 - The Costly Truth Behind Vertical Farming
08:56 - Vertical Farms Biggest Achilles Heel
12:57 - Challenges and Opportunities

what we'll cover
two bit da vinci,vertical farm,rise and fall,Farming,Failure,Engineering Failure,Farming Fail,Vegetables,Lettuce,Hydroponics,aeroponics,Vertical,Farmland,Cost of Farming,City Farming,Crops,Billion Dollar Disaster,Groceries,Urban Farming,Organic Farming,Sustainable Farming,Saudi Arabia,NEOM,The Line,Germany,Aero Farms,Crop Yields,Seasonal Farming,Pestecide Free,Agricuture,vertical farming,vertical farming progress,vertical farming failure, Why Vertical Farms WORLDWIDE Are FAILING, The EPIC Failure of Vertical Farms - What Happened?

[wietzepost]

I come from the Dutch greenhouse industry. Dutch greenhouses produce about 10X of what is possible on the best open-air farms.
Such greenhouses are probably at the pinnacle of cost-effectiveness.
Besides, crops like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, melons, and pumpkins, are already grown vertically in these greenhouses. They grow vertically because it's relatively easy to lead their growth vertically.
Lettuces and other leafy greens and herbs can be automated a great deal on a horizontal plane. In low-light conditions, one can add lighting.
I think vertical farming is one step too far in automation and complications with humans. Perhaps further automation with AI and humanoid robots could be the path to success.
Fun fact: greenhouses grow the most pesticide-free produce. They do this by adding natural predators of pests into the greenhouses. Unfortunately, it's more difficult to control fungal pests, but it can be done.

[mrnobody]

Here in the Netherlands they introduce bees and other insects inside the hydroponic systems to hunt the pests that eat the plants. no insecticides are used.

[stinkymccheese]

Sounds like the issue is companies relying too heavily on outside investors coupled with piss poor planning at ground level.

[hfyaer]

I knew a rich guy who invested in that. I told him at the time that it was gonna fail because sun is free and LED is not. He told me that the crops were insect free and pesticide free so they could sell for a higher price... It failed.

[waisetsubunsho]

I got laid off a vertical farm project last month. I was the lead designer, but even though I was able to save millions of dollars on lighting and other parts of the system, the business side had no idea how to make this project profitable. We would have to sell at exorbitant prices to make it work.

[katanaridingremy]

I know homesteading and small community in the mountains of VA and Oregon and they use vertical farming. They aren't scienctist, they just used the free info on the net and make their food all year round. They mainly feed themselves, and sell some at farmers market. They use renewable energy and collected/recycled water to power equipment etc.

Now imagine an America where every neighborhood employed Vertical Farming to feed that neighborhood all year round instead of trying to make MBA's rich. There are food deserts all over urban areas that need leafy greens, mountain community that don't have greens all year unless they pickle it. There's a whole other aspect, the human aspect of vertical farming to address

[tomholroyd]

It is quite clear that soil bacteria are essential. At a recent talk at the NIH, a plant biologist asked, "How many other species contribute to growing an apple?" The expected answers were like, bees, and other pollinators. The correct answer is, "we don't know how many". The underground ecosystem is large.

[MattGarZero]

My D&D group had a recurring gag character who would try and sell you on his vertical farm idea whenever he showed up in a campaign.

[Enjoymentboy]

I have a friend who worked in one of these places. They specialized in leafy greens and were doing well. The entire place was wiped out with a fungus infestation that they couldn't get rid of. He said that in nature the insects would have kept it in check by eating it but indoors, with no bugs, it just ran wild. The whole building was infected and could no longer be used for farming. I think it's a warehouse now. the other thing he mentioned was that the lighting they used, while great for the plants, wreaked havoc on his moods and mental health. The spectrums used might be nutritious for plants but they can be very bad for people.

[richardipsen]

I was the lead designer in a vertical farming company in Canada. (once upon a time...)

We were focused on Cannabis Exclusively. The only crop with high enough end value to justify the labour and capex expenditure according to our math.

We were repeatedly asked to grow vegetables by investors and the like... The math never worked.

[theapocasmith]

Dude, my vertical farms are tested extensively in Minecraft before I ever realize that I won't build them IRL

[michaelsohocki]

Another point that should get put in here somewhere is that
1. national exchange with countries with cheaper labor and few safety / health regulations
2. agricultural exemption, which I'm pretty aure could not apply to a building (I had ag exempt land, was required to prove at least 10 acres of land and x number of "animal units" on a chart that's available on usda
3. farming subsidies of several levels. On the largest scale is corn and soybeans getting a check for real money from the government for selling their corn and soy at prices LOWER than the cost of GROWING them. Elsewhere there are special privileges available to farmers (lines of credit, a special grant money for farmers and ranchers that helps pay for or completely pays for fencing, or a greenhouse, among other directly related items). I also had an Ag/Timber card, that allowed me to buy many of my supplies for the farm tax free--animal feed, paint, building materials, etc)

Agriculture in the US is very far from a level playing field. Local / sustainable / organic farmers face much the same battle against the very established conventional machine, in that they are frequently too small to qualify for the price reductions or special treatment. Inner-city farms, small family farms, large "gardeners" cannot compete with this in many ways. I think growing in buildings in cities must suffer the same fate.

[bobthegoat]

What is most surprising to me is the fact that investors didn't see this coming. It's not rocket science to calculate profit. It shows that most rich people and investors are just humans with more money in their pockets.

[Kristoph--]

I tried a small vertical farm and cost me more than my conventional farm. Keeping the lights on buying the nutrients and water filters add up fast. But i transitioned to a vertical greenhouse farm instead and has worked well so far.

[dennyoconnor]

Been around farms and farming my whole life (not the only things I did in life, however). I knew from the very start of the news about vertical farming in the USA, that indoor farming costs too much in capital investment, overhead, and labor, to be profitable.
Having an old green house on the farm as a boy and being a biology major at the university, taught me that controlling Pests and disease in a closed system is close to impossible. You would think it to be the other way around but reality is the opposite.
Dr, O

[TheRenofox]

I'm considering indoor farming myself. My calculations are based on the price of electricity vs buying food from the store, but even then the profit would come solely from using the waste heat of the lamps to heat the house.

[WTH]

You overlooked a basic problem. By expanding too rapidly as investors chased instant profits, the supply swamped demand. Had the industry started small with few producers, matured best practices and skilled labor, then scaled up it would be more sustainable. Your point about location, arid regions vs wet ones, points this out clearly.
A comparable industry is the EV industry, built on excessively exuberant expectations, is nearing collapse as China floods the market with cheap unreliable cars, and people find the five year cost including $0 resale value, this niche market will also collapse then rebuild along much more sustainable practices.
There are numerous PhD thesis level topics for anyone interested.

[firefaiting]

vertical farming is done big time here in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is the biggest exporter of flowers. Most flowers don't grow on fields but inside of big greenhouses on multi level platforms that rotate each day so the flowers get enough light. Nothing in this cycle is done by humans, everything is done automatically, even the planting of bulbs is done by robots more and more. the only part where humans are still involved is picking and packing of the flowers after they've grown.

Many people talk about pests and funguses etc. It's true these are big things and can bankrupt an entire company. That's why there are many extremely strict hygienic rules. When u enter greenhouses you need special clothing (like those white cloth onesie suits) and there's multiple stages of disinfection of hands, arms and shoes. You CANNOT enter these facilities with food that carries the deceases, for example you can't enter tomato greenhouses with tomatoes/paprikas (even those insta soup packs are forbidden) and some other food that's that might contain deceases. It is also not possible to travel between different greenhouses in one facility.

The facilities also use things like doors, high and low pressure areas and vapor screens between parts to make it even more difficult for pests to spread.

[nicolej]

Those companies failed because the investors wanted a quick ROI which doesn't happen in farming. They did mono-cropping which isn't the answer either. There is greater success with diverse cropping whether it be earth, vertical, or hydroponic growing.

[mkuc]

This is so stupid. My god. I've been in horticulture for over 10 years. I've worked in every sector within in it and currently work at a botanical garden. This vertical farming circle jerk was some fantasy of a tech start up with too much money. Its not that vertical is inherently bad or that any of the technology is inherently bad, its just that balancing a system like this is very difficult and very labor intensive, not to mention expensive to light up. The promises always had way too much spin, 'farming of the future' absolute BS rhetoric from people who'd never grown a tomato in their lives.

Maybe next time speak to some old timers, or even better go to Holland and talk to the best indoor growers on the planet about your ideas before you go out making wild promises you can't keep.