At some point, vertical farming might make sense. But you'd put it in some cheap industrial land, not in a retail mall (unless it's purely a marketing thing - m

At some point, vertical farming might make sense. But you'd put it in some cheap industrial land, not in a retail mall (unless it's purely a marketing thing - maybe herbs), because of efficiency of scale. A lot of the issues can go away when you can run clean rooms, cheap real estate, and a specialised workforce (or robots?). If you put it in a retail space, will customers be able to wander in (dragging in bugs), or will it be a room in the back with dedicated technicians (kind of like a commercial kitchen). And since it's not made to order, why not centralise the business end like a lot of butchers do? Sure, some butchers might still do their own work in a retail space, but they have higher margins on their product. It also heavily depends on the region. The US has a lot of space for farmland. Maybe look at regions with a lot less arable land. Japan springs to mind. But even then, why would you move the factories into shopping malls? If farmland is at a huge premium, it seems unlikely retail space will be cheap.