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The article uses the term "Controlled Environment Agriculture" (CEA), which seems like a better descriptor than vertical farming, which is pretty narrow in scop

The article uses the term "Controlled Environment Agriculture" (CEA), which seems like a better descriptor than vertical farming, which is pretty narrow in scope and a bit solarpunk in vision. The nice thing about the term Controlled Environment Agriculture is that it can cover a wide spectrum of enhanced farming techniques, including a plain old greenhouse. Then it becomes a question of which type of CEA is most appropriate for an area. Even the most crowded cities tend to have areas of much lower density nearby that make the high-rise farm idea not a good use of resources. But boring old warehouse space used to create a controlled or semi-controlled growing environment might work in some cases, especially for higher value, fussy plants. Probably will never make sense for things like iceberg lettuce.

RosanaAnaDana 3y ago
It's funny you brought up lettuce because for my thinking, head lettuce and salad greens are likely the only thing vertical farming would make sense for. The plants themselves are compact and mostly green bags of water. The big costs are cleaning, processing, transport, and refrigeratoration. There is almost no manual labor involved.The life cycle is extremely short. The demand is extremely high. Lettuce might be the only vegetable that vertical farming makes sense for, but it would need to be able to cover the cost of expensive light-industrial space very close to market. Ultimately plants are solar panels and even in vertical farming it's space you are paying for. Even if you can plant 10 layers deep, youre dealing with maybe having to pay >10x per SQ ft for space in a location close enough to be relevant.
- klyrs 3y ago
  I agree with the sentiment on lettuce. It should effectively be grown in-store. I'd say that a few other leafy greens fit the bill -- cilantro, basil, spinach, kale. There was a startup operating in my area doing just that, that recently went under. They were focused on higher-price herbs, and I think a major mistake in their model was in using valuable retail space for the hydroponic setups. A couple of stacked containers in the parking lot should be much cheaper, and produce enough volume to be competitive on lower $/kg crops like lettuce and spinach.

RosanaAnaDana 3y ago

It's funny you brought up lettuce because for my thinking, head lettuce and salad greens are likely the only thing vertical farming would make sense for. The plants themselves are compact and mostly green bags of water. The big costs are cleaning, processing, transport, and refrigeratoration. There is almost no manual labor involved.The life cycle is extremely short. The demand is extremely high. Lettuce might be the only vegetable that vertical farming makes sense for, but it would need to be able to cover the cost of expensive light-industrial space very close to market. Ultimately plants are solar panels and even in vertical farming it's space you are paying for. Even if you can plant 10 layers deep, youre dealing with maybe having to pay >10x per SQ ft for space in a location close enough to be relevant.

klyrs 3y ago
I agree with the sentiment on lettuce. It should effectively be grown in-store. I'd say that a few other leafy greens fit the bill -- cilantro, basil, spinach, kale. There was a startup operating in my area doing just that, that recently went under. They were focused on higher-price herbs, and I think a major mistake in their model was in using valuable retail space for the hydroponic setups. A couple of stacked containers in the parking lot should be much cheaper, and produce enough volume to be competitive on lower $/kg crops like lettuce and spinach.