Aloha, food fans! The population on this planet has more than tripled over the last seventy years, and is projected to reach 10 billion folks by 2050, of which 80 percent will be living in urban areas. The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) projects that food production will have to increase by 70 percent over the same time frame to feed our world’s population.
Traditional farms are being pushed farther out from centers where people live and buy food. Traditional field farming already consumes more than 80 percent of earth’s arable (farmable) land, contributes 70 percent of the contamination to our fresh water, and consumes 70 percent of earth’s fresh water, of which 50-80 percent is lost to evaporation and runoff.
Anybody interested in vertical farming? Compared with traditional field farms, vertical farms use 75-95 percent less water, produce between 10-390 times more crop yield per square footprint (you read that right), and can produce crops in half the time.
As an example, Singapore imports over 90 percent of its food. Sound familiar? One enterprising engineer there developed an elegantly simple low carbon hydraulically-driven method of rotating trays of plants vertically around an A-shaped tower, like a Ferris wheel. Jack Ng’s design uses the energy equivalent of a 40-watt bulb per tower, and has won international recognition and awards.
In his inauguration speech after being sworn in for his second term this past December, our Governor Ige called for a sustainable and self-sufficient Hawaii “…whether we are talking about food or energy production.” Doubling local food production by 2030 is one of his administration’s goals, and Hawaii was the first state in the nation to enact legislation setting a 100 percent renewable energy goal.
Hawaii’s first indoor vertical farm was started in Kaka‘ako by Kerry Kakazu in 2014. His 800 sq.ft. MetroGrow Hawaii operation produces about 100 heads of lettuce a week and a couple dozen containers of microgreens for his clients, which include fifteen high-end restaurants, and medicinal plants for an herbology store. He recently renovated another 2,000sqft to expand his indoor vertical farming operation.
AeroFarms in Newark, NJ built their operation in a former paintball and laser tag arena, “…which boasts 30,000 square feet of growing space and some impressive spray paint work.”
Rather than sunlight, specialized LED lighting is used to grow the crops in stacks over thirty feet high. Instead of soil, the 250 kinds of greens are grown in reusable cloth made from recycled plastic, and use Ed Harwood’s aeroponic technology where the roots are misted with water and nutrients.
AeroFarms states this method allows them to use 95percent less water than traditional field farms, and that their yield is 390 times more crops per square foot. AeroFarms recently began growing in their ninth facility – a former 70,000sqft steel mill – to become the world’s largest indoor vertical farm.
Since 2009 the Paignton Zoo in the UK has used Verticrop’s hydroponic vertical farming system to grow food for their animals.
Their trays are suspended around towers which rotate and move on overhead tracks in a closed loop conveyor system. The top trays get the maximum sunlight, where the lower trays are exposed to different angles of the sun when rotating. Energy efficient LED lights are on standby to supplement waning natural light when necessary.
Back to Singapore, the third most densely populated country in the world.
The trays of plants at Sky Greens’ operation rotate vertically around each A-frame tower at 1mm per second, allowing all trays equal exposure to sun, with between four and ten revolutions per day depending on the tower heights.
This design allows for easier access to crops and harvesting than other vertical farming methods that I have found so far in my research.
All of these vertical farming methods are organic and use no pesticides or herbicides. They can reduce the “farm-to-fork” time to bring consumers fresher and more nutritious produce, and reduce the fossil fuel transportation costs. For more information, check out VerticalOnKauai.org.
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Susan Oakley is a resident of Kapaa.
All of the information included in this article was provided from the vertical farming website provided. No independent investigation or research appears to have been done by TGI.
Are we to believe that this represents the future of farming on rural Kauai?
Now, the site, and the article, claim that the farming methods are organic, yet no mention is made of the nutrient source or nutrient composition. This idea appears to be an elaboration on hydroponics, which is NOT an organic way of cultivating food.
Really TGI? How about some answers to obvious questions…
Aloha, Kaua‘iBoy..
Since TGI does not include links in their articles or letters to the editor, I created that website AFTER I wrote the article, so that the website contains the same information as the article, plus links to further information. This “interesting engineering” website lists thirteen types of vertical farming: https://interestingengineering.com/13-vertical-farming-innovations-that-could-revolutionize-agriculture
I could be mistaken, but my understanding of “organic” means that nutrients to plants are provided by plant- or animal-based fertilizer, not chemically concocted in agrochemical laboratories. I also liked this short YouTube interview where AeroFarms can tweak plants to make them them sweeter, crunchier, or more peppery, simply by differing stresses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxRhVRHvcZk
I don’t claim to be an expert of any type – just fascinated by innovations when land can be so expensive, and these vertical farms can grow on any land – like in the desert – not just arable land.
Much aloha .. Susan
Thank you, Susan
We should be looking at all types of agriculture for Kaua’i. We are a small island.
Nobody ever mentions the construction & maintenance costs or the environmental cost of producing the material used to build & operate these. The promoters of vertical gardening also have some odd beliefs about things like “arability” and “desert”. Yes you can construct a vegie tower in desert. But in the desert those will have to use serious air conditioning and dehumidifying half the year and supplemental heat 4 months a year. Those crops will have to be hauled long distances in refrigerated trucks to get to market.
The promoters of vertical gardening are selling the concept based on high end specialty crop production, under ideal conditions. That does nothing to improve the world’s food supply or stop loss of farmland to environmental degradation & “buildover”.
None of this is going to provide environmentally friendly food that is affordable by most consumers, especially anyone with low income. Remember the last time you didn’t make it to the farmers’ market and had to buy a shipped-in tomato at the grocery store? Remember how much it cost? A tomato from an industrial size vertical garden would probably be a tastier tomato, but it would cost even more.
Vertical gardens work very well in a back yard or tiny farm, provided you have enough water & sunlight. A few thousand years ago there was stacked / terraced gardening in the Middle East which was designed to maximize retention of water and nutrients; that worked, too. But the current large scale vertical garden belongs with a somewhat older idea that geodesic domes were going to revolutionize homes, gardening etc. Look around outside or via Google Earth. See all the geodomes in cities & in the countryside? No? It was a grand idealistic concept that didn’t pan out. Large scale vertical gardening is just as realistic as the geodome revolution.
Aloha, RevW..
Call me old-fashioned, but I think geodesic domes would be a GREAT idea for vertical farming here on Kaua‘i. Imagine driving past King K Elementary and seeing vertical gardening in a dome growing food for the students’ lunches! Hawaiʻi is one of eight states (plus Washington DC) that have successfully implemented the national “Farm to School” strategies, and interest is growing all over the country:
http://www.farmtoschool.org/Resources/State%20of%20the%20States%202019.pdf
• Of the 1,261 urban agriculture sites in Los Angeles county, 761 were school gardens, 382 were commercial operations, and 118 were community gardens.
http://seedstock.com/2013/08/16/ucla-student-researchers-complete-first-comprehensive-look-at-urban-agriculture-in-los-angeles-county
• Princeton University partnered with Hopewell Elementary School in New Jersey to help them develop their vertical farm-to-cafeteria lunch program. Last year the elementary school was recognized with the 2018 Best of New Jersey Farm to School Award by the New Jersey Department of Agriculture. The school also featured local farmers and chefs at its annual Farm to School Day, which showcased recipe demonstrations and taste tests.
https://traytalk.org/2018/11/12/vertical-hydroponic-farming-takes-elementary-school-to-new-heights
“The kids are involved in everything from planting to maintaining, to measuring PH levels, to harvesting and consumption in the cafeteria,” says Principal David Friedrich. The farm is currently growing various types of lettuce, spinach, basil, cilantro, dill, bok choy, several varieties of strawberries and lunchbox peppers.
The vertical farm has become a center piece of the school’s plant-based curriculum that supports next gen science standards, says Helen Corveleyn, the school’s K-5 STEM facilitator.
“There are so many applications that fit in naturally, so it’s not creating a project for kids to do and look at it at one isolated time. It’s crossing over into all walks of science,” she says. Students learn about the engineering process, lighting and electromagnetic spectrum, human impact of food waste in addition to the obvious life science connections.
Wasn’t there a writer – Isaiah? – who said “…and a child shall lead them”…?
https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/Isaiah%2011:6
Aloha Susan. Please contact us about tropical vertical farming in Hawaii. Mahalo, http://www.ncdhi.com