this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2023
168 points (100.0% liked)
Science
13035 readers
1 users here now
Studies, research findings, and interesting tidbits from the ever-expanding scientific world.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
Be sure to also check out these other Fediverse science communities:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
From what I understand vertical farming really only works out economically for high value crops. Using artificial light instead of the sun takes a lot of energy, and tall buildings are expensive and require maintenance. Algae tanks would also be SUPER heavy, which is a whole other problem.
It's not ready, yet. But it could get started in places baking in too much solar.
Buildings are still SUPER expensive, both up front and in an ongoing way. Personally I think it's a bit misguided to promote vertical farms when we are currently wasting so much space to create e.g. parking lots, or to grow corn to burn in cars.
Tall buildings are good for housing people though.
Use old mines and go down. π But yes, there are other land wastes we can go for right now.