Pyramid Farm is a Vision of Vertical Agriculture

[The Vegan Marxist]

http://www.zeitnews.org/images/stories/pyrfarm-lead01.jpg

Pyramid Farm is a Vision of Vertical Agriculture
by Alexandra Kain, 02/07/11

The Pyramid Farm is an incredible concept for the future of agriculture envisioned by professors Eric Ellingsen and Dickson Despommier. The design is based on the growing belief (is it fact yet?) that vertical farming will soon become a necessary lifeline in cities throughout the world. The human population is growing exponentially and increasingly more urban while the global food supply is decreasing.

Despommier speculates that if nothing is done to advance current farming techniques, 3 billion people could face starvation by 2060. The Pyramid Farm offers a solution in the form of a complete self-sufficient ecosystem that covers everything from food production to waste management.

The Vertical Farm Project (http://www.verticalfarm.com/), grown out of one of Despommiers class projects at Columbia University, features urban farming concepts and resources in hopes of securing the world’s food supply by design. His vertical farms are intended to be complete ecosystems, capable of producing even fish and poultry while reusing internal waste.

The Pyramid Farm, among others, would include a heating and pressurization system separating sewage into water and carbon to fuel machinery and lighting. He estimates that the greenhouses can be made to use only 10 percent of the water and five percent of the land needed by farm fields.

Beyond creating a sustainable and local source for food, Despommier envisions a healing process for today’s horizontal farms. Native plant life will be replaced and allowed to grow wild and replenish the depleted soil for future generations. For more information, listen to Despommier’s vertical farming podcast (http://earthsky.org/food/feeding-future-cities-with-vertical-farms) from the Earth Sky network.

http://inhabitat.com/pyramid-farm-vertical-agriculture-for-2060/

[pranabjyoti]

Actually, this kind of technologies are the future. We, are just one species out of millions in the world and as a single species, we have occupied too much space which at the end destroying our environment and at end will destroy us too. We should give back the rightful share of mother earth to other species, not for their but for our own well being. At present, agriculture is the most land consuming production process and by this kind of methods, land will be obsolete for agriculture and we can give that back to other species.

[Metacomet]

I'd love to see such things in the future, and hope I do infact live to see such advances.

But I do have serious doubts as to whether we are forward thinking enough to do such things to be completely honest about it. Too many entrenched interests and NIMBY to get something like this done.

[pranabjyoti]

I'd love to see such things in the future, and hope I do infact live to see such advances.

But I do have serious doubts as to whether we are forward thinking enough to do such things to be completely honest about it. Too many entrenched interests and NIMBY to get something like this done.
Comrade, in my opinion, it's our duty to materialize such technologies otherwise materialization of socialism is just impossible. Socialism is future and that means it needs new and improved technologies and products to come into being.

[Metacomet]

Comrade, in my opinion, it's our duty to materialize such technologies otherwise materialization of socialism is just impossible. Socialism is future and that means it needs new and improved technologies and products to come into being.


At some point (Far in the future most likely) I think MOST of the world will live in cities in some form or another, and I think (or hope, maybe it's a pipe dream) we will live in some form of self-sustained "Arcologies" that provide their own food supplies (maybe some form of cloned meat/proteins and grown vegetables/fruits) people would live and work in these environments.

Wish I was good at math/science, try to work towards such things. :D

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Actually if I remember correctly the number of people living in urban areas recently outstripped the number of people living in rural areas.

Of course, city planning has yet to catch up with this fact.

[Metacomet]

Actually if I remember correctly the number of people living in urban areas recently outstripped the number of people living in rural areas.

Of course, city planning has yet to catch up with this fact.


I've heard that too, but I'm talking like 80-90%

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Great idea in theory. But anything like this being pursued without sufficient testing would be a white elephant.

Would make Cuba's Organiponicos more productive for the space used, however it clearly requires a lot of work to set up, and could be a boondoggle if the right technological conditions don't prevail (like a business opening a chain of electric vehicle recharge stations when most cars on the road are still combustion ... you at least want to plan around the fact you might not make any profit/surplus labour for a looong time).

[Revy]

Why a pyramid? Just because it looks cool?

I like this design (http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-las-vegas-vertical-farm-1.2b.html) much better. And it's not trying so hard to look like the Louvre.

Solar panels power the building's indoor farms....

http://www.countingcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/design-concept-of-vertical-farming_5810.jpg
http://www.countingcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/vertical-farming_5810.jpg

[ckaihatsu]

caption from the photo:




Revenue from the 30 story Vertical Farm would approach $40 Annually

http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-las-vegas-vertical-farm-1.2b.html


I'm in...!


x D


And, then, after veggies, it'll be decanting humans, Matrix-style...!


x D

[Revy]

caption from the photo:




I'm in...!


x D


And, then, after veggies, it'll be decanting humans, Matrix-style...!


x D
lol
I think they mean $40 million.

[ckaihatsu]

lol
I think they mean $40 million.


Hmmmmmm, too rich for *my* blood -- they had me at 40 bucks...!


= D

[pranabjyoti]

At some point (Far in the future most likely) I think MOST of the world will live in cities in some form or another, and I think (or hope, maybe it's a pipe dream) we will live in some form of self-sustained "Arcologies" that provide their own food supplies (maybe some form of cloned meat/proteins and grown vegetables/fruits) people would live and work in these environments.

Wish I was good at math/science, try to work towards such things. :D
With knowledge of Maths/science, you can do just paperwork. To materialize it, you need funding i.e. capital. Men with good idea rarely have that in sufficient amount.:(

[pranabjyoti]

Why a pyramid? Just because it looks cool?

I like this design (http://www.nextenergynews.com/news1/next-energy-news-las-vegas-vertical-farm-1.2b.html) much better. And it's not trying so hard to look like the Louvre.

Solar panels power the building's indoor farms....

http://www.countingcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/design-concept-of-vertical-farming_5810.jpg
http://www.countingcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/vertical-farming_5810.jpg
I want to know the price of veg grown in this kind of facilities. Mainly whether lower or higher than conventional agriculture. As per the news, the facility would be operating within mid 2010. It's February 2011, has it started functioning?

[La Comédie Noire]

If I could give humanity a virtual high five I would. :)

[StalinFanboy]

vertical farming is the shit

[Zav]

We could build these everywhere...
OR
We could use our resources properly and not have to.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

We could build these everywhere...
OR
We could use our resources properly and not have to.

Vertical agriculture can be integrated much more closely with urban areas - this would reduce the amount of land used as well as reduce the travel time and distance from farm to plate.

I don't know about you, but that sounds to me like a far better use of resources than the current situation where food is grown in massive monoculture thousands of kilometres from where it's actually eaten.

[Red_Struggle]

This looks very promising, but the price tag of 40 million pretty much ensures we won't see this under capitalism for a loooong time.

[pranabjyoti]

This looks very promising, but the price tag of 40 million pretty much ensures we won't see this under capitalism for a loooong time.
It's not a price tag, but rather a business tag. It would take just 6 million to run the establishment, while it will give a business of 40 million.
I am curious about one fact. If carbon-di-oxide is introduced in comparatively high pressure in those enclosed farming compartments, what will happen. Will those plants soak the gas and produce more. And thus like a two edge sword, it will reduce greenhouse gas and produce more food simultaneously?
Can anybody give any link to any such experiment?

[Delenda Carthago]

Considering that this would allow even farmers with small amount of land to expand, it could be a very good tool for revolutionary forces to work on.

[pranabjyoti]

Considering that this would allow even farmers with small amount of land to expand, it could be a very good tool for revolutionary forces to work on.
Well, maybe small amount of land, BUT BIG AMOUNT OF CAPITAL. In my opinion, it's the starting point of a major breakthrough after the invention of agriculture.