Sky Farms

[Carrah]

I am curious to know what people think of the Sky Farm concept. The intention of their design is to replace horizontal farming with more efficient vertical farming. (An example of a Sky Farm design can be found Here). Sky Farms are said to be more fuel and energy efficient, healthier, and less susceptible to crop failure. Crops are grown hydroponically and the farm can operate year round.

Thoughts?

[Xinefus]

Seems pretty appealing, only thing i'm thinking of is the fact that all those plants are gonna be suckin' up the smog of the city. sure it's good for the city, but what about that produce? heh

[karithlan]

Seems to me this would go hand in hand with areaponics. A friend of mine just got back from Disney World and they were showing how they had been working with Areaponics. He told me they had a twelve pound lemon just by having all the nutrients fed through the leaves and everything. Seems like this would just go hand in hand with sky farms. And, if it's in an enclosed space, you wouldn't have to worry about the external polutants from smog and from being close to a major city.

[Rosuav]

Looks pretty interesting. Obviously it has to be artificially lit, as there's no way that enough sunlight will get in there; so what's that mean in terms of energy use? "... companies are vying to reap the financial rewards that come from this increased efficiency" - there's time efficiency, and there's space efficiency, but is there cost efficiency? This will cost a LOT to install, and the ongoing costs won't be low. It's an excellent idea, but it would want to work out financially too.

[Rosuav]

Actually, one point about energy usage: Offsetting the increased production costs is a significant decrease in transport - no trucking food in from elsewhere. And with oil prices going the way they are, reducing petrol usage by increasing electricity usage is a good thing.

[Carrah]

Originally posted by Rosuav
Actually, one point about energy usage: Offsetting the increased production costs is a significant decrease in transport - no trucking food in from elsewhere. And with oil prices going the way they are, reducing petrol usage by increasing electricity usage is a good thing.

Yes, that is one of the reasons people are advocating this kind of initiative, and why the sky farm concept is chalked up as being more fuel efficient, not to mention the elimination of use of farming vehicles. I read somewhere, I forget where, that the cost would be a projected 80 million for the sky farm I linked to, but that the yearly revenue could be as much as 23 million. Also, due to the design of the sky farm, they would be able to command a greater return from the space they are using then a horizontal farm.