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Vertical farming arose out of a class project,
something very humble in its beginnings,
and it started as a rooftop gardening project that I started with my students about 8 years ago.
And it has grown into something now quite out of my control.
It has blossomed into a concept which suggests strongly,
that if we could grow our food inside tall buildings,
we'd save a lot of space outdoors and we could replant trees, for instance,
and restart some of the eco systems we've damaged by farming.
We could also supply a healthier food supply for people living in urban centers.
And we could address some problems that we can't address right now,
such as teenage obesity, type II diabetes for instance in the United States,
and in other places just the availability of fresh water and good food.
But let's take one acre of land indoors.
In New York City, a square city block is about equivalent to an acre of land.
Let's take a ten foot floor building, as an example.
Let's say that we can grow wheat.
And let's say that the average height of the wheat is about a foot and a half.
How many layers of wheat can you get inside one room?
The answer is about three or four.
That's three or four acres of wheat.
Compared to one acre outside.
Well that's something, but we can get continuous production inside also.
We don't have any seasons, we don't have any crop-related losses
from weather events, we don't have any insect pests.
So you can now see the advantage of farming indoors,
versus outdoors would be. Given land back, equivalent of what you're farming indoors,
will have a remarkable effect on eco systems as they recover.
The Food and Agriculture Organization, or the WHO,
clearly states it as state of the world's food insecurity,
everytime they publish their annual report.
There isn't a single country that they leave out of that report.
So when you're facing issues like this with a growing population in the world,
tensions with regards to resources,
I dont know how else we can proceed, but up.
There's no other where to go.