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Yes but then you have shipping constraints that results in refrigeration and pesticide practices which destroy the underlying nutrient content and flavor of the

Yes but then you have shipping constraints that results in refrigeration and pesticide practices which destroy the underlying nutrient content and flavor of the produce. Whereas with local vertical farms, you have Byzantine machinery that employs a lot of people and produces maximally-nutritious and flavorful produce that is always in season because it's grown locally and drone-deliverable via smartphone request. You could order a basket of fresh fruits and vegetables and have it get shipped to your backyard or window by drone.

bioemerl 3y ago
All of these constraints cost far less than the cost of bringing enough light and the materials required to build a vertical farm. The techno futurism of stuff like vertical farms is one that sounds great on paper, but fails hard due to practical limitations in the real world. Regular farms, even with required translation and other infrastructure, are both cheaper and more sustainable, barring the sun turning off.
- ThorsBane 3y ago
  You are wrong because without vertical farming humanity will not be able to scale to hundreds of billions of souls as easily. And vertical farming will be necessary on Moon and Mars and Venus and Europa and Pluto and beyond. And we have unlimited space and raw materials with which to assemble vertical farms in space.
  - bioemerl 3y ago
    We have many bigger issues than farm space that we need to solve before vertical farming makes sense, if this is your reasoning. Human population is already declining with no external factors like famine pushing us to do so. We aren't going to have significant populations on any planet that isn't earth for decades. I don't disagree with you that vertical farms may become useful some day in the long future, although maybe I'd argue we will move to fully artificial factory food before that happens.
    - ThorsBane 3y ago
      People who are healthy enough to live another 30 years will see people being born on Moon and Mars and food being grown in vertical farms on both Moon and Mars and in space. And then another 30 and we'll hit 100 billion. Then another 30 years and 100 trillion probably. This'll happen even if nobody explicitly tries to make it happen, just because the economics will work out.

bioemerl 3y ago

All of these constraints cost far less than the cost of bringing enough light and the materials required to build a vertical farm. The techno futurism of stuff like vertical farms is one that sounds great on paper, but fails hard due to practical limitations in the real world. Regular farms, even with required translation and other infrastructure, are both cheaper and more sustainable, barring the sun turning off.

ThorsBane 3y ago
You are wrong because without vertical farming humanity will not be able to scale to hundreds of billions of souls as easily. And vertical farming will be necessary on Moon and Mars and Venus and Europa and Pluto and beyond. And we have unlimited space and raw materials with which to assemble vertical farms in space.
- bioemerl 3y ago
  We have many bigger issues than farm space that we need to solve before vertical farming makes sense, if this is your reasoning. Human population is already declining with no external factors like famine pushing us to do so. We aren't going to have significant populations on any planet that isn't earth for decades. I don't disagree with you that vertical farms may become useful some day in the long future, although maybe I'd argue we will move to fully artificial factory food before that happens.
  - ThorsBane 3y ago
    People who are healthy enough to live another 30 years will see people being born on Moon and Mars and food being grown in vertical farms on both Moon and Mars and in space. And then another 30 and we'll hit 100 billion. Then another 30 years and 100 trillion probably. This'll happen even if nobody explicitly tries to make it happen, just because the economics will work out.