Vertical farming is based on the premise that land is no longer available. Technology can be used to free up land from understanding where it is wasted. We wast

Vertical farming is based on the premise that land is no longer available. Technology can be used to free up land from understanding where it is wasted. We waste ~160 million acres for biofuels[1]. 60 million acres just in the US[2]. A small fraction of this land can be solar PV, or even zero[4]. You can drive about 150 times as far from a solar-powered electric car compared to using corn bioethanol[3]. Switching to EVs starts a virtuous cycle of (1) accelerating renewables (EVs are parked >90% of the time, have flexible demand, perfect for solar/wind), (2) freeing up 160 million acres of land and the associated water usage, fertilizer, etc (3) Freeing up water usage, 47.5 trillion gallons (just in US!), 40% of water withdrawals[5,6]. Availability of this 40% water allows us to farm a lot more land than whats possible currently. EVs + renewables will also free up 40% of global shipping, stop 10 million deaths from air pollution and save us trillions in fossil fuel subsidies [7,8,9]. --- [1] For bioethanol and biodiesel combined, total land use worldwide is at least 155.47 million acres: https://hungermath.wordpress.com/2015/10/29/how-much-farmland-is-used-for-biofuel/ https://hungermath.wordpress.com/2015/10/29/how-much-farmlan... [2] The US uses 60 million acres for biofuels (most of it for corn). That’s 25 million hectares. This is about the size of the United Kingdom: https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/biofuels/recordisplay.cfm?deid=353055 https://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/biofuels/recordisplay.cfm?deid=35... [3] https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/us-corn-biofuels https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/us-corn-biofuels [4] Solar land usage can be zero from agrivoltaics and from not using farm land at all, covering water bodies (lakes, reservoirs) or land along the highways. [5]https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=50698 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=50698 [6]According to the U.S. Geological Survey, electric power generators are the largest source of U.S. water withdrawals and account for about 40% of total water withdrawals in the United States: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=37453 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=37453 [7]https://qz.com/2113243/forty-percent-of-all-shipping-cargo-consists-of-fossil-fuels https://qz.com/2113243/forty-percent-of-all-shipping-cargo-c... [8]Air Pollution Kills 10 Million People a Year. Why Do We Accept That as Normal?: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/08/opinion/environment/air-pollution-deaths-climate-change.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/08/opinion/environment/air-p... [9]https://www.axios.com/2023/08/25/oil-government-subsidies https://www.axios.com/2023/08/25/oil-government-subsidies