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> I don't see them scaling to replace traditional ag That's funny, because I do see vertical farming scaling to replace 100% of two-dimensional (read: "traditi

> I don't see them scaling to replace traditional ag That's funny, because I do see vertical farming scaling to replace 100% of two-dimensional (read: "traditional") agriculture, and feeding billions. Every city of over a million should have at least 15 skyscrapers with at least 30 floors each growing staples. Of course, we also need to switch to meat grown lab for > 75% of our meat demand and mostly stop producing cattle food with agriculture.

onecommentman 6y ago
It might be a good idea to talk to any agricultural economist in any land grant university in the US before you invest your life savings on that being true in the US in the short/middle term. Or any US dirt farmer. Ag land is cheap in the US, as is water. Electricity and associated infrastructure is not, nor is building high-rise buildings. I’d guess even reclaiming land from the sea to add conventional farmland would be cheaper, if the numbers were run. On Mars, maybe another story...
walleeee 6y ago
> That's funny, because I do see vertical farming scaling to replace 100% of two-dimensional (read: "traditional") agriculture, and feeding billions. If you can point me to any resources you've found to support this, I'd be happy to read them and revise my view. Besides the power/construction overhead, the infrastructure costs, and the lack of political will, many large coastal cities will likely see partial flooding and increasingly frequent weather events this century, while some are at risk of complete loss. The meat issue is complex. Lab-grown meat is subject to many of the same power and infrastructure constraints as vertical farming; I don't see it scaling to sustainably meet (meat? ;) current demand. We need a massive reduction in meat consumption in the developed world, but we also need to be conscious of the fact that ruminants remain critical to many agricultural ecosystems. We should certainly stop razing the Amazon for cattle pasture, although that will require a dramatic shift in economic incentives.

onecommentman 6y ago

It might be a good idea to talk to any agricultural economist in any land grant university in the US before you invest your life savings on that being true in the US in the short/middle term. Or any US dirt farmer. Ag land is cheap in the US, as is water. Electricity and associated infrastructure is not, nor is building high-rise buildings. I’d guess even reclaiming land from the sea to add conventional farmland would be cheaper, if the numbers were run. On Mars, maybe another story...

walleeee 6y ago

> That's funny, because I do see vertical farming scaling to replace 100% of two-dimensional (read: "traditional") agriculture, and feeding billions. If you can point me to any resources you've found to support this, I'd be happy to read them and revise my view. Besides the power/construction overhead, the infrastructure costs, and the lack of political will, many large coastal cities will likely see partial flooding and increasingly frequent weather events this century, while some are at risk of complete loss. The meat issue is complex. Lab-grown meat is subject to many of the same power and infrastructure constraints as vertical farming; I don't see it scaling to sustainably meet (meat? ;) current demand. We need a massive reduction in meat consumption in the developed world, but we also need to be conscious of the fact that ruminants remain critical to many agricultural ecosystems. We should certainly stop razing the Amazon for cattle pasture, although that will require a dramatic shift in economic incentives.