“The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.”
Linus Pauling, American Chemist
The way our food, especially lettuce, is grown has been a buzzy topic this summer. With a Cyclospora outbreak affecting many areas of the U.S., people are paying more attention to where and how their vegetables are grown. Produce grown indoors isn’t completely free of health risks, but it is less vulnerable to contamination, so the risk of Cyclospora is lower than with lettuce grown in a field. If steering clear of weeks of miserable gastrointestinal distress isn’t enough to get you interested, there may be other benefits.
How farming contributes to climate change
Farming is vital to our food system, but it also contributes to climate change. How? Growing food on traditional farms uses lots of land, water, and fertilizer. It also causes soil erosion, which releases carbon dioxide. Once grown, food needs to be transported to where it will be sold, causing transportation emissions. All of these things are helping heat up our planet.
Unlike growing food on farms, controlled-environment agriculture refers to food grown indoors. Vertical farming entails stacking plants in multiple layers and using controlled temperature and lighting. A similar method involves growing vegetables in greenhouses with natural sunlight. Most of the time, these indoor techniques don’t use soil…a.k.a. hydroponic farming.
Benefits of vertical farming
There are some clear sustainability benefits to vertical farming. First off, it uses much less land than traditional agriculture. Crops are often grown in stacked layers in warehouses or shipping containers, so the same amount of food can grow in a fraction of the space. This also allows farmers to grow food closer to where it is needed, even urban settings, cutting shipping costs and emissions. On top of that, crops can grow year-round.
Further, there is no need for pesticides, which may make the produce safer to consume, while also reducing chemical runoff into our waterways. Speaking of water, hydroponic farms use over 90% less water than traditional farms by recycling what they use. Wow!
Climate change is already wreaking havoc on crops around the world. Droughts, floods, and heatwaves are all things traditional farmers have little control over, but they can impact yields. These situations are becoming more and more common as the the planet warms. So, one more benefit of indoor farming is not having to grapple with extreme weather events.
Downsides of vertical farming
Sounds amazing, right? There are definitely lots of benefits, but no solution is perfect. One big drawback of vertical farming is high energy use. Consistent temperatures and lighting create the magic, but these things require power. Energy use is expensive and also creates emissions. It can also lead to higher prices for consumers.
Another downside is that vertical farming doesn’t make sense for all types of crops. It’s a great way to grow lettuce and some other fruits and vegetables with short growing cycles, but not so much for grains like wheat and corn. These staple crops are crucial to keeping us all fed, and the economics of growing them inside just don’t make sense right now.
The bottom line
So, vertical farming may help us avoid some foodborne illnesses, but is it a silver bullet for reducing the climate impacts of farming? Maybe not yet, but it’s a promising piece of the puzzle. As technology improves and more of these farms adopt renewable energy, costs and emissions will come down. In a world facing a complex mix of climate change, population growth, and limited farmland, growing up might be a smart way forward.
Let’s do something about climate change. Learn about it. Talk about it. Help solve it.