The Sundance-winning documentary Fuel ends with a hopeful artist's rendering of the city of the near future, a clean, green metropolis that produces its own power by the wind and sun, and feeds itself from transparent skyscrapers that are planted up and down with hydroponic vegetables. Such vertical farms have captivated designers and gained wide traction on the Internet (here's one new innovative concept). They may seem the stuff of science fiction, but one of the pioneers of the concept, Dickson Despommier of Columbia University, told The Daily Green that we can expect to see the first built vertical farm "within a year." (One may even soon arrive in Las Vegas.)
"It allows cities to become small ecosystems with primary productivity at its base," Despommier told TDG. "It closes all the loops that opened-ended agriculture leaves open. There's no runoff, and there's continuous production year round," he added.
Since the world is becoming increasingly urbanized, planners have asked if we can bring food production directly to the people, cutting out the environmental impact of food miles. Plus, food consumed immediately after harvest has the freshest taste and the highest nutrient content. Designs like Chris Jacob's groundbreaking vertical farm would also allow city dwellers direct experience with how their food is produced, closing the cycle of alienation from natural processes that has crept into modern life.