Can indoor farms reach skyscraper height?

Carlo Ratti, an architect who runs MIT's Senseable City Lab, is proposing a 51-story skyscraper for China's technology hub of Shenzhen with a large-scale vertical hydroponic farm inside that can produce crops like salad greens, berries and tomatoes to feed up to 40,000 people per year.

The proposed tower, which would include other amenities like office space, a supermarket and a food court, is being shortlisted for Chinese hypermarket chain Wumart's new headquarters.

It's one of a number of ideas to expand vertical farms, as breakthroughs in hydroponic and aeroponic technology allow for these indoor facilities to produce crops with higher yields using less land and water. 

Vertical farms are intended to grow crops more efficiently — stacking them in trays or vertical planters in indoor climate-controlled conditions, and using algorithms and other technology to optimize light and growing conditions, often in urban environments. 

In Britain, Shockingly Fresh expects to grow about 2 million heads of leafy greens a year on its first vertical farm.

And AeroFarms in Newark, New Jersey — billed as the world's largest vertical farm when it opened in 2016 — grows about 2 million pounds of food each year on its 70,000-square-foot facility.

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Source: Channel News Asia