In your opinion, can vertical farming become the agriculture of the future in sustainable, green, smart, food self-sufficient cities?

In your opinion, in the context of the ongoing process of global warming, is vertical farming becoming an excellent alternative or complement to traditional agriculture?

With a rapidly growing global population, concerns and questions about the ability to feed the ever-increasing number of people living on planet Earth have been around for many years, but still remain. With a growing population, the scale of civilisation's processing of environmental matter, the scale of industrialisation, the consumption of renewable and increasingly also non-renewable raw materials, the increasing scale of waste generation, environmental pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, etc., the possibilities of feeding the world's population in the future will diminish rather than increase. In addition, the negative effects of the development of civilisation, including above all the accelerating process of global warming, may develop at an even faster rate. Therefore, it is necessary to urgently shift the development of civilisation towards sustainability, to significantly increase the scale of implementation of sustainable development goals, to carry out a green transformation of the economy, including a green transformation of agriculture, and to create new forms of sustainable organic farming, which will be more resistant to negative biotic and abiotic external factors, including, above all, limited resources of agricultural land and the successively increasing negative impact of the progressing process of global warming, including increasingly frequent periods of drought, soil barrenness, plagues of pests and various diseases affecting agricultural crops, etc., which will have a negative impact on the development of civilisation.

Therefore, combining the seemingly contradictory goals of increasing the production of food for people with a reduction in the agricultural areas on which agriculture is practised according to the traditional production formula, stopping deforestation turned into aforestation, increasing the production of crops for human rather than livestock consumption, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the scale of pro-environmental agriculture, etc., it is precisely the development of vertical farming that can help in this process of green transformation of agriculture.

Vertical farming, also referred to by such terms as vertical farming, vertical farms, consists of growing crops in a vertical formula, in which individual plants are placed one above the other on multi-level platforms. This results in a more efficient use of space, practically multiplying the cultivation area. In addition, vertical cultivation can be established and cultivated anywhere, even in the centre of a large city. Vertical cultivation can be established both in specially designed halls and by adapting existing buildings. Crops such as lettuce, strawberries, herbs and mushrooms, for example, are grown in vertical racks, towers with troughs or purpose-built systems with continuous irrigation and additional artificial lighting.

In view of the above, vertical farming is becoming an excellent alternative to traditional agriculture. The vertical positioning of plants allows a very good use of space, as a result of which significant yields can be obtained from a small area. Vertical farming uses up to 10 times less water compared to traditional agriculture. In addition, vertical farming does not use pesticides and other chemical plant protection products, as the plants are grown in closed, air-conditioned rooms with artificial lighting.

These can even be created in multi-storey buildings in cities or in halls located on the outskirts of cities. This also saves on transport and increases the food self-sufficiency of cities. The problem of droughts occurring more and more frequently in areas of fields cultivated under traditional agriculture does not apply to vertical farming. Therefore, vertical agriculture can be an excellent complement and can also partially replace traditional agriculture in the context of the progressive process of global warming. Therefore, in the context of a progressive global warming process, vertical farming can be an excellent complement to traditionally practised sustainable organic farming. In addition, vertical farming, due to the absence of pesticides and other chemical plant protection products, can also be carried out according to the basic principles that apply to organic farming.

In view of the above, I address the following question to the esteemed community of scientists and researchers:

In your opinion, can vertical farming become the agriculture of the future in sustainable, green, smart, food self-sufficient cities?

In your opinion, in the context of the ongoing process of global warming, is vertical farming becoming an excellent alternative or complement to traditional agriculture?

Is vertical farming becoming an excellent alternative or complement to traditional agriculture?

And what is your opinion on this?

What is your opinion on this subject?

Please respond,

I invite you all to discuss,

Thank you very much,

Hoping to hear your opinions, to know your personal opinion, to have an honest approach to discussing scientific issues and not ChatGPT-generated ready-made answers, I deliberately used the phrase "in your opinion" in the question.

The above text is entirely my own work written by me on the basis of my research.

I have not used other sources or automatic text generation systems such as ChatGPT in writing this text.

Copyright by Dariusz Prokopowicz

Best wishes,

Dariusz Prokopowicz