Will skyscrapers with agricultural crops and farm animals be an integral part of the urban landscape of the cities in the future?
Yoram Ored, "Galileo" magazine
A very large part of humanity currently lives in cities, and the day will not be far when the majority will live in them. At the same time, the food or the raw materials for its production come from agricultural farms. And not only the food, but also other raw materials, such as cotton used to make clothes. This causes considerable expenses for the transportation of agricultural produce to the cities, as well as the occupation of huge areas, which come at the expense of natural landscapes.
Prof. Dixon Despommier (Despommier) from Columbia University, United States, and his students propose an idea that could possibly be used as an alternative. The core of the idea is to build agricultural farms at a height, and contrary to the current situation, precisely within the cities! The farms will be located in skyscrapers, which will be specially built for this purpose, and will reach a height of dozens of floors.
The idea has already been named: vertical farming. According to the proposal, the walls of each such skyscraper, which will be an agricultural farm, will be made of glass, which will allow the penetration of sunlight. Each floor of the skyscraper will have beds where agricultural vegetation will grow, like fields.
In these farms it will also be possible to raise farm animals. The energy for the farm's agricultural needs will be provided by a huge panel of solar cells that will be placed on top of the building (see: Judy and Aryeh Melamed-Katz, "The Solar Revolution", "Galileo" 107), as well as through incinerators that will utilize the organic waste that will be generated on the farm. Such a skyscraper farm will be equipped with a sophisticated irrigation system, and all water in the building will be recycled for reuse.
Despommier enumerates several advantages to his revolutionary proposal. One advantage is the possibility to produce crops all year round, in a controlled environment. Another advantage, according to him, is the ability to produce a completely organic crop, because the controlled environment will allow the removal of various pests. Another advantage is the possibility of placing the agricultural farm right in the area to which the agricultural produce will be supplied.
Thus, for example, it will be possible to build such an agricultural farm within the city of New York, to satisfy the agricultural needs of its residents. In this way, the cost of transporting agricultural products from agricultural areas outside the city into it will be saved. Among the advantages, Despommier also lists the very important advantage of being able to save on areas currently occupied by traditional agricultural farms.
Published in "Galileo" magazine
The 350th floor
10 תגובות
Sounds like a good solution, if you drop the hype and the designs it can also be very cheap, especially in Israel
"Not enough sun"
Since nowadays there is no electricity and therefore there are also no lamps that help the photosynthesis process, so we really need the sun to grow vegetables....
To the three commenters who responded after Shalom,
I will refer to the order of the authors:
The area needed to grow plants is much smaller than the area given to them in the classic open field. The amount of light used by the plants is very small and with the help of a smart and efficient use of radiation it will be possible (perhaps) to regulate and distribute the energy better and thus utilize the flow of energy per square meter better.
Insects and struggles are of course a matter that is taken into account and are bound by reality in certain cases. "Ecological balance" and human agriculture are contradictory concepts and there is no need to reach such a balance, as exists in nature. The agricultural structure is functional and has the goal of photosynthetic assimilation in crops for human consumption and -or others. As the agricultural field is far from ecological balance, so too such an operation will be far from balance but will nevertheless fulfill its agricultural functionality. I believe it's possible, although it's just a gut feeling.
stench? It seems to me that in a city that "stinks" of fresh vegetables and fruits it will be quite easily swallowed by the aromas of bus soot and other environmental pollutants. In any case, it seems to me that in a relatively sterile environment, the decomposting processes will be engineered so that their use (and the energy stored in them) will be long before the decay processes that cause this or that smell begin.
The negative sides are anthropotechnic sides. The city can now become a huge metropolis with an even greater population density than it is today. This situation is clearly unnatural for all animals, including humans. On the other hand, everyone eats the soup they cook for themselves. Literally.
It will smell and depreciate...
Another problem is pollinating insects for example, I suppose it is possible to establish beehives but the problem is not only that, it will be necessary to establish a complete and balanced ecosystem and this is already a more complicated project because if you want to give up certain parts of it (such as harmful insects) you have to find a different balance.
In organic cultivation, a certain amount of pests and harmful insects are taken into account, but the balance is maintained by maintaining the health of the plants and encouraging natural enemies.
Agricultural crops need a large area of sun
And in a skyscraper, each floor blocks the sun from the floors below it
Yes. It seems to me that it is efficient and smart and will allow the creation of agricultural crops with the comfort of city life. To the height of greenhouses and to the depth of automatic parking lots that at the push of a button serve you the car you parked in the morning. In this way, it is possible to create many more green areas within the city and enrich agricultural areas again with a large variety of species. Also, the idea of reusing a smart water system and using the organic material left to regulate the temperature of the building are definitely a big plus added to many other pluses.
This is what we lack in the world, cows killing themselves from skyscrapers
It doesn't taste good to be a city slicker, I'm moving to a village
But a completely organic crop is a great idea
Another advantage is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (giving) that can be utilized as part of energy production.