The Rise of the Vertical Indoor Farm

The Rise of the Vertical Indoor Farm

A Green Thumb (drive)

“The technology it uses derives partly from systems designed to grow crops on the moon. The interior space is its own sealed-off world … Countless algorithm-driven computer commands combine to induce the greens to grow, night and day, so that a crop can go from seed to shoot to harvest in eighteen days. Every known influence on the plant’s wellbeing is measured, adjusted, remeasured. Tens of thousands of sensing devices monitor what’s going on.” Welcome to what could be the future of the world’s produce supply. And unlike today’s messy farms, it won’t require soil, sunlight, or nearly as much water. (Add in a couple quarts of coffee, and that’s basically the environment in which NextDraft grows.) The New Yorker’s Ian Frazier with a very interesting look at the folks who are growing crops in the city: The Vertical Farm.

+ If you can raise crops indoors in the city, then you can go fishing in a barn in Iowa. From MoJo: A Fish Out of Water. Can farmers in Iowa help save the world’s seafood supply?