These Vertical Farmers Claim They’re Revitalizing Agriculture
And they’re growing underground
Dozens of feet below ground might not seem like the best place to cultivate plants, considering the lack of sunlight, but a small yet growing number of entrepreneurs are exploring subterranean sites for potential farms.
Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier kickstarted scientific, agricultural, technological, architectural, and even political interest in futuristic growing techniques with his 2010 book “The Vertical Farm.” In the years since, vertical farming, which increases growing efficiency by stacking rows of plants in greenhouses under LED lights, has flourished as an industry.
Many of the world’s major cities have their own iterations of vertical farms, and companies are sinking millions of dollars into research and development for large-scale hydroponic and aeroponic vertical farms that could produce far greater crop yields than traditional farming — year-round. Some projections value the industry at nearly $10 billion by 2025, up from only $400 million in 2013. To put that in perspective, the agriculture industry as a whole is estimated at a couple trillion dollars globally.
