VERTICAL FARMING
Every time humanity faces a crisis that seems insurmountable innovation saves the day!
- Food production needs to increase by roughly 70% by 2050 to support the expected 10 billion world population
- We will need to produce more food in the next 30 years than in previous 10,000 years combined (Stuart Oda)
Arable land – is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.
- Arable land down 30% since 1970’s
- Arable land is expected to drop by another 60% from current number by 2050
Topsoil
Topsoil is the primary resource for plants to grow and crops to thrive.
“Since farmers began tilling the land in the Midwest 160 years ago, 57.6 billion metric tons of topsoil have eroded, according to a study published recently in Earth’s Future.”
More Than 50 Billion Tons of Topsoil Have Eroded in the Midwest | Smart News| Smithsonian Magazine
Farming Problems:
- Agriculture currently uses roughly 70% of the global freshwater supply (Irrigation)
- Only 1-3% of water on earth is freshwater
- Pesticides, fertilizers and other toxic farm chemicals can poison fresh water
- Tillage negatively impacts soil quality, it fractures the soil, disrupts soil structure, accelerates surface runoff and soil erosion.
- Farmers are dependent on Government subsidies that hurt the consumer by setting a price floor
Vertical Farming Benefits:
- No soil required (alleviates top soil problem)
- Requires 99% less water & fertilizer
- Can grow year round
- No pesticides
- Occupies 99% less space
- Can be placed in cities cutting the burden of long transportation
- Average distance of farm food transportation is 1500 miles
- 68% of people live in cities
- Fruits & vegetables lose up to 50% of nutrients from farm to store
- Less carbon emissions
Vertical Farming Companies:
- Elon Musk’s brother is a major pioneer in this industry! He founded a company called (Square Roots) which uses shipping containers for vertical farming.
- This is still a new industry and there is not a lot of separation amongst competitors as of now.
Estimated Industry Growth:
Obstacles:
- Energy usage is very high and cuts into profits.
Oh darn… If only there was a way to generate CHEAP, CLEAN, and HIGHLY POWERFUL energy.
Wait! We do have that, the politicians just haven’t acknowledged it yet…
Nuclear energy will make energy a fraction of what it currently costs when it’s fully embraced!
Another obstacle is that people will say “but the farmers, we can’t put the farmers out of work!” This argument is ridiculous, imagine somebody arguing construction equipment shouldn’t have been created because they would put construction workers out of work?
Besides, the price of food is much higher than it should be because the government pays farmers to destroy a certain amount of crops every year to keep a price floor so that the farmers can stay in business.
If you truly want to reduce poverty in America and the world it starts with making the necessities of life as cheap as possible via the supply side. Think about how cheap flat screen TV’s have gotten relative to when they first came out. We need to create that same situation with agriculture, and it will result in more purchasing power for everybody!
Sincerely,
Brandon
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