Ellen Macarthur Foundation. Rethink the future

ReDesign blog: a look at vertical farming

• by Cris Edgell/Rainey Endowed School
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• 1 Jun 2011
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At a time when a billion people go to sleep hungry every night can we really imagine a future where we can feed a predicted population of 9 billion in 2050? Welcome to Rainey Endowed School, Londonderry, the winners of the Northern Ireland ReDesign workshop who will be hosting the ReDesign blog for the next two weeks. They believe that vertical farms can provide the solution.

Homepage image: Vertical farm Type O, © Oliver Foster, http://www.verticalfarm.com

© SOA Architects

Exploitation, exploitation, exploitation; it’s the latest craze! As the ice at the arctic melts, it provides a great opportunity to ravish its oil reserves! And quickly, those raised bogs aren’t going to be around forever- get them cut before someone else does! Unfortunately this latest craze has been ongoing for quite some time… a few thousand years at least. It has disguised itself as progress, and some may argue it is the very essence of human nature.

Indeed maybe humans have outgrown the nature. By felling great swathes of forest, we can expand our agriculture. And by changing the composition of the atmosphere, we can crank up the heat. We can even fly to the moon; but can we live there? Sometimes it’s useful to stop for a moment and consider “What’s the point?”. Why expand agriculture- to feed a growing population? What good comes from a growing population? Expanding agriculture perhaps?

Anyway, welcome to our blog. With a general lack of debate surrounding the big issues of today and tomorrow, we decided to dedicate it to generating a bit of much needed conversation. To prompt this, we will explore seven big ideas for the future of sustainability (one each day). So here we go- idea number one:

Hydroponic Farming...

But what then for the 70% of England and Wales which is dedicated to farmland? Well, assuming we could grow all of our crops indoors, outdoor farming would still demand 44% of our land for grazing animals and other uses. The other 26% could be restored to natural wilderness, serving key roles such as flood prevention, reducing soil erosion, increasing tourism, increasing leisure space and providing habitat for native species forced into hiding by intensive farming practices.

Voila! But can this idea be widely accepted? The need for discussion has never been greater, so make your contribution to the discussion below!

Adam Stewart, Andrea Montgomery, James Rainey, Jessie Totten, Lois Kelso and Neil Rosborough (Rainey Endowed School)