Vertical farms? You may ask what is that? Are those the tomatoes that are hanging from people’s porches? Well not exactly Vertical farming is the stacking of multiple greenhouses on top of each other to create a more efficient and organized farming area. What happens if we need that space for a big corporation or a community park that is what some people may argue? Well what is better for the community as a whole than to have a farm that can give a community tons of fresh crops or something that might be destroyed in some time. This concept comes from a professor at Colombia University by the name of Dr. Dickson Despommier. People see this as something that might cost a lot of money and will provide no output the short run. Is Vertical farming for the bad or the good? I believe that vertical farms would be very beneficial to any community.
Dr. Dickson Despommier is the biggest proponent of Vertical Farming and is also an ecology professor at Colombia University. Dr. Dickson Despommier describes his idea “A Vertical farm, many stories high, will be situated in the heart of the world's urban centers.”(Ted Talk). According to his ted talk and his book The Vertical Farm: Feeding ourselves and the world in the 21st century, this relatively new concept of vertical farming has the potential to rebuild the world in many ways and improve the world for everybody. For example, a Vertical Farm can provide fresher produce for its community because it’s grown locally, not shipped from outside sources. Additionally, Vertical Farming is designed to use much less land and water than traditional farms as well, due to the fact the water to be used will be reclaimed water, lowering the impact on the environment. (Despommier & ted talk)
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Works Cited
"2013 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics by World Hunger Education Service." 2013 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics by World Hunger Education Service. 29 Oct. 2013 .
Bailey, Gilbert Ellis. Vertical farming. Baltimore: Lord Baltimore P, 1915.
Despommier, Dickson D. The vertical farm: Feeding ourselves and the world in the 21st century. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2010.
"The Vertical Farm Project - Agriculture for the 21st Century and Beyond | www.verticalfarm.com." The Vertical Farm Project - Agriculture for the 21st Century and Beyond | www.verticalfarm.com. 29 Oct. 2013 .
"TEDxWindyCity -- Dickson Despommier -- The Vertical Farm." YouTube. 03 Nov. 2010. YouTube. 31 Oct. 2013 .
To begin, he introduces the idea that the food production farms aren’t these "happy farms" society makes us believe they are. For instance, the author Michael Pollan explains how farms began to expand causing corn to produce rapidly, leaving massive quantities of
As Jensen points out, farming and industry accounts for the vast majority of total water usage in the world (477). The increasingly scarce resource is a necessary ingredient when growing food. Technology continuously improves to make it easier for farmers to grow crops while using less water. Scientists at the University of Georgia utilize what they term “variable rate irrigation” to let farmers automate the current systems of irrigation to water only the crops that need it (Gies). This is an example of retrofitting current farms, but there is a new way of farming coming to cities that reuses practically all of its water and stakes claim much less acreage in the process. The future of agriculture belongs to vertical and urban farming. These types of farms reduce the use of water, chemicals (such as pesticides, herbicides and fungicides), soil and space (The Economist). These farms are so cutting edge that they are mostly in the experimental stages. Firms like Famgro farms are testing “stackable” farming systems that can scale with demand, even further reducing waste. Famgro’s stackable farms are ideal for cityscapes where land is at a premium; furthermore, reaping the added benefit of being in close proximity to the customers that they serve. Customers will enjoy high quality, fresh produce at only a slightly
The 1920’s were the singularly most influential years of farming in our country. The loss of farms following the war, and new agricultural practices resulted in the dawn of modern agriculture in our country. The shift from small family to big corporation during this time is now the basis for how our society deals with food today. Traditional farming in the 1920’s underwent a series of massive transitions following WWI as the number of farms decreased and the size of farms increased.
Weeks, Jennifer. “Factory Farms.” CQ Researcher 17:2(2007). CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Glenwood High School Lib. Chatham, IL. 13 Feb 2008 .
By exploring the past and its threats to human populations, the global modern mythology of sustainable agriculture can begin to be narrowed down as to the how and why rural communities may or may not have benefited from agricultural sustainability. By describing the dynamic analysis in the livelihoods of developing countries, the historical changes that had occurred in rural communities, can be understood. Halberg and Müller stated that globally “The world’s population was about 7 billion in 2010 and is expected to grow much more. The expected growth is highest in parts of the world that are vulnerable to hunger and adverse climate condit...
Factory Farming is a very controversial topic. Factory Farming “is a large, industrial operation that raises large numbers of animals for food. Over 99% of farm animals in the U.S. are raised in factory farms, which focus on profit and efficiency at the expense of animal welfare”. While factory farming brings many problems such as food safety risks, abusing antibiotic, and replacing independent farmers. This type of farming helps increase food production, lowers business costs, encourages technological development, and ETC. Which in return helps the public in a greater good.
Although a lot of people think of factory farms as negative things for our environment and for the animals as well. I have shown you the positives to these farms and this way you can take a deeper look to them. Each farm is different in its own way because the farmer is the main boss person. Then the hired hands are just under the farmer and everyone does everything differently. So one farm might have a large amount of feed per day and another might have a small amount. It all depends on the farmer. I hope that you can take factory farms into a deeper meaning
Agriculture plays an enormous part in having a functioning society. The farming fields in the
"World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide." World Food Programme. WFP, 11 Jan. 2013. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.
The definition of conventional farming is “Intensive farming or intensive agriculture as an agricultural production system characterized by a low fallow ratio and the high use of inputs such as capital, labor, or heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers relative to land area.” Conventional farming is the method that a majority of farmers use. Although they have to use a lot more chemicals and fertilizers, conventional farming is cheaper than organic farming. Conventional farming has significantly higher crop yields than organic thus, producing more money, making it much more farmer friendly. Conventional farmers also use genetically engineered seeds that are sometimes referred to as “miracle seeds” because of their ability to fight against certain diseases or produce higher yields. The technical term for these seeds is HYV’s or high yield varieties (Qaim). Conventional farming also incorporates the use...
And, because food now comes at a low cost, it has become cheaper in quality and therefore potentially dangerous to the consumer’s health. These problems surrounding the ethics and the procedures of the instantaneous food system are left unchanged due to the obliviousness of the consumers and the dollar signs in the eyes of the government and big business. The problem begins with the mistreatment and exploitation of farmers. Farmers are essentially the backbone of the entire food system. Large-scale family farms account for 10% of all farms, but 75% of overall food production (CSS statistics).
As agriculture has become more intensive, farmers have become capable of producing higher yields using less labour and less land. Growth of the agriculture has not, however, been an unmixed blessing. It, like every other thing, has its pros and cons. Topsoil depletion, groundwater contamination, the decline of family farms, continued neglect of the living and working conditions for farm labourers, increasing costs of production, and the disintegration of economic and social conditions in rural communities. These are the cons of the new improved agriculture.
Logsdon, Gene. “What if Farming for Profit Really isn't Possible.” The Land Institute. Prairie Writers, 2013. Web. 30 Oct. 2013.
Agriculture is one of the most ancient forms of art and science that ties human development and well-being to natural resources and ecosystems. (Fritz J. Häni, 2007) Sustainable Agriculture is the production of food, fibre, plant and animal products using farming techniques that protect the environment, public health, human communities and animal welfare. (Sustainable Agriculture - The Basics, 2015) Sustainable agriculture is an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site – specific application that over the long term will:
Every time a person goes to the store and buys some food that food was grown by a farmer or contain ingredients from the farmer’s crops. A farmer is a good job because the work they do helps to provide the world with food. Without farmers many people would go hungry not knowing how to grow their own food. Without farmers many other products other than food would be gone. Farmers work hard long days and often go unnoticed; however, without them life would be much different.