Vertical farming. I thought it'd be really sweet to have climate controlled, optimised growth cycles free from parasites in the centre of your city - removing t

Vertical farming. I thought it'd be really sweet to have climate controlled, optimised growth cycles free from parasites in the centre of your city - removing the requirements of seasonal variation, transportation and large swaths of land. Turns out that the energy requirements for growing even the simplest produce in this way dwarfs the requirements for the legacy dirt based alternatives - even factoring in transportation costs etc. I still think research in this area is needed - the ability to grow crops in this manner is helpful for a number of reasons (e.g. Antarctic winter research stays, Mars/moon colonies, possible near future environmental catastrophes), but I'm no longer dogmatic about getting everyone on board with the idea.