Editor’s Note: This article serves as a wish list. Its sole purpose is to entice and inspire. It was first published on February, 7, 2015.
Big news: A new vertical farm just opened in Pasadena, CA, the current epicenter of vertical farming on the West Coast.
No! Not really.
But it could happen. All we need is visionary leaders and lots of will, and this idea can be a reality soon in Pasadena. The newly acquired 177 building (formerly known as the AT&T building) on Colorado and Marengo, could be the perfect place for such a progressive idea.
Why vertical farming?
With an expected increase in population to 9.1 billion people within the year 2050, feeding all the people around the globe is a cause for major concern. Food production needs to increase by 70%. This would mean having higher crop yields and expansion of the area cultivated.
Land use and housing
Land that’s available for cultivation is not evenly distributed, while others are suitable for cultivating only a few crops. Thus architects are increasingly designing buildings where one can grow crops on all the edges surrounding the building. This gives more area for cultivation and helps solve the expansion crisis.
How?
- The vertical farms can be integrated with residential buildings.
- Farms are set up on the external periphery of the buildings.
- This provides a clean environment for the residents to live in.
Vertical farming vs. outdoor farming
Vertical farming should not replace all outdoor farming as the only solution to the ills of the world. But it’s a start, a smart start.
- Cities are the main reason we are in such a bad state of affairs with respect to rapid climate change and its deleterious effects on traditional agriculture.
- In 2011, the United States lost some 110 billion dollars worth of grain crops due to a protracted drought throughout the American Midwest. The state of California is currently a victim of severe drought. This is affecting virtually every US citizen, with significantly higher food prices and may even affect food availability, as well.
- Cities only occupy some 2-3 % of the Earth’s landmass, but emit over 70% of the atmospheric carbon dioxide. Nearly 50% of us now live in cities.
Building eco-cities one by one
Generating just 10% of our farm production within the world’s cities just might be enough needed to slow down our runaway climate regime and give us some much needed time to figure out ways of dealing with climate challenges impacting our quality of life on Planet Earth.
Pasadena, an eco-city
With new changes coming to City Hall in May, Pasadena is in a unique position to be a leader eco-city on the west coast. We can see this happening on rooftops of buildings overlooking Colorado Boulevard and various buildings in the city.
Can you see it? The new leadership has an opportunity to work with businesses, and capitalize on Pasadena’s brand to guide us in the direction of living sustainably. Will the new mayor, along with city council, maintain Pasadena on its progressive path?
View the following TEDxYouth video for more information on vertical gardens:
*Chris Wood and Wafic Khalil contributed to this article.
This article mentions the drought, but apparently doesn’t realize the folly of creating food gardens in a desert.
What Pasadena should really do to become sustainable is to drastically cut unnecessary water usage on artificial landscaping by embracing the water-wise native plants of Southern California!
This would reserve much needed water for growing food in the parched Central Valley, while restoring habitat and a sense of place to our community. An added benefit is that native plants have many uses as food and medicine!
I’m excited by the prospect of vertical farming, but is Southern California, with our constant shortage of water, a viable place for more agriculture projects? Isn’t quarter the Central Valley under utilized because of drought?