Sustainable Ideas...

Imagine a skyscraper that looms above New York or Shanghai and is filled, not with offices or condos, but with acres of fresh fruits and vegetables ready to feed hungry pedestrians hurrying past on the streets below.

That’s the idea behind Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier’s “Vertical Farm” project. Despommier came up with the idea in 1999 in one of his courses and the idea is now catching on, a few architects are interested and, as The New York Times reported, Scott Stringer, a Manhattan borough president, is looking into it too.

Stringer is currently sketching a pilot farm for New York City and is plotting ways to get the $20 to $30 million that Despommier estimates it would take to build a prototype, not to mention the millions more to build an actual 30-tower farm.

Of course, not everybody is on board with Despommier’s dream. Jerry Kaufman, professor of urban planning at the University of Wisconsin, Madison suggests a six-story farm instead of a 30-story version. Armando Carbonell, chairman of the department of planning and urban form at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, MA is concerned about the economic realities. “Would a tomato in lower Manhattan be able to outbid an investment banker for space in a high-rise?” he wondered to the New York Times. “My bet is that the investment banker would pay more.” And, of course, there are the concerns over how to keep the farm running smoothly, energy efficient, and producing food that’s safe to eat. It’s no small project, but then, Despommier has never claimed that its anything less than fantastic.

For more: See photos of skyscraper farms the Times article. Check out Despommier’s web site to learn about his project and see more Vertical Farm designs. Read about the off-grid downtown vertical farm for Seattle.

What do you think—are vertical farms in the future? How much of your produce would you want to get from your local vertical farm, if one was nearby?

Photo from the Vertical Farm web site.