WATCH NEXT 👉 Is vertical farming REALLY sustainable or just technological greenwashing: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gL95mNeCz7i2loU.html

many of these disadvantages seem more like challenges we've yet to make trivial, it is always good to know what limits the tech is currently experiencing

Good thing is that most of those disadvantages will be reduced over time: experienced workers, reliable and robust systems, and esp energy costs. That said, I didn't realize just how much farmland is used for wheat and corn and how it totally dwarfs almost every other type of produce. I do expect that corn farming will be reduced over time as more people use fake-meat products (a HUGE percentage of our corn is used for animal feed), but not sure how much of a dent that would make. However, to whatever extent we can grow other veggies vertically, that frees up farmland for wheat and such. Also, I expect that we'll genetically tweak our produce to make it easier to grow in vertical setups. Whether we'll be able to grow corn etc vertically, on an economically feasible scale, remains to be seen - though I did see that china/japan? did an experiment with growing rice in sorta-vertical system.

Thanks for doing this video. You covered areas that others are shy to talk about.

I've been following hydroponics for over two decades, and we are closer than ever to it being wide spread. I don't believe it is going to take off on large scale companies, but it will be most suited for small home operations, and will be come into it's true light when research is done to recycle waste flows through bugs and fungi, to turn waste into liquid fertilizer and back into plants. Also GMO's are going to be a huge game changer for hydroponics, the same way Golden Rice helped feed the world, I think Golden Rice V2 is going to allow for viable hydroponic productions. Subscribed to your channel, I've been farming for over a decade and have seen the trends come, from kale, to mushrooms, and now it's hydroponic's turn.

This was the channel I have been searching for . Really want to know as much as about vertical farming.

The points you give are valid. But would add a few more points. 1. Competition from “regular” glass greenhouses. They apply many of the same technologies, but on a economic scale. Beside that they have proven to be reliable producers. 2. There are very few city centers that are not within 2 to 3 hour drive of farmland. Where it is cheaper to produce. 3. Transport, even do you reduce the transport time/cost to the user. You have a increased time/cost of transport of employees and/or living cost. 4. Housing cost. When old factories/inner city buildings are being used, the adaption cost are high. In many cases it is best to build a custom facility. The building is part of the overall farm system (same as with glass greenhouses). I believe it has a future, but the hurdles are still very big. To often people compare it with regular farming while the modern Horticulture has moved into glass greenhouses. Kg/m2 per crop is already very high. When it comes to technology, to many Vertical farms seem to be trying to reinvent the wheel. There are many suppliers whom are already active. Priva, Hoogendoorn, Certhon, Kubo, Fluence, Hortilux, etc etc.

It's rare to find a healthy skepticism of vertical farming on the internet.

The largest obstacle to vertical farming is the considerable capital outlay necessitating a price that will deliver a return on investment. I am experimenting with a fodder-production system in a 6m x 3m tunnel using trays placed on an elevated platform using natural light as an alternate to a massively expensive system. After germinating the fodder trays in a dark cabinet they are placed in rows on either side of the tunnel fitting seven or eight trays to a side. Every day a new tray is added to either side while the eighth and most mature tray is removed as fodder. This produces two trays of fodder per day using a single tunnel which is perfect for a hobby-farm where the fodder is a supplemental feed. There is also an automatic sprinkler system keeping the trays moist. The downside is that there is a three to four month period in winter when growth is slowed down due to lower temperatures.

This channel will be another of the multiples others I will view for sustainable farming.

I was expecting this video to be made by some green technology hater and I was surprised that these disadvantages all make sense and it was made by someone with a lot of knowledge in the field. good video

Most of these disadvantages are linked pr tied to the geographical location of the vertical farm. In mild /tropical climate regions like African cities you can have an "outdoor vertical farm" and achieve a good yield, and eliminate most of the energy expenditure..

You can grow ANYTHING using vertical farming methods, from micro greens to trees, fish to sheep and cattle, whether it is economically viable is another matter and what might not work in one place might work in another. Every project is different and you can not compare a VF set up in New York to a VF in Delhi or Timbuctoo. Different costs, revenues, and resource availability.

Valuable information. Thanks.

thankyou forthevideo

Good information bro, nice channel, subed

So. We need a big campaign of breeding wheat/corn/soy etc. to be micro-sized. We need vertical-farms to have water towers with gravity feed if the power cuts. And ideally, you'd build a vertical farm on the sunny side of a building which would have mixed use (say, an office) so you can take advantage of the sunlight.

Some of these disadvantages are obsolete when considering that they shouldn't be necessary.. Especially tall crop growing.. A regular greenhouse system should suffice..

I think tall crops like wheat will become viable relatively soon. I suppose the reason it evolved to be tall is to be closer to the sun, but in a controlled environment it can have all the light it needs and also having tools as CRISPR available to us it's a matter of time before we'll have short wheat.

Built in some system redundancy, invest in solar power and battery storage system as an initial CAPEX investment ... these wont be issues but something needs to be optimised

Dude, you mentioned like 2 or 3 minor problems which in my opinion arent even real problems but rather stages of a growing industry. So more than half of the "problems" being addressed in the video are related to economics, some might as well would have just easily summarized it as one "problem" and not repeated themselves over and over again. The other "problem" was about the high consumption and vulnerability of the technology used by those vertical farms. In todays world this of course is a problem, not just in vertical farming, but all around the world and I wouldnt even say autonomic technology always needs to be part of something like this. Agricultural machines for the indoors could be developed, so that in case the automatic system fails you can manually water, ligth and harvest plants. After a few years experienced personel wont be an issue no more, time will solve this. And you also said big crops or else couldnt be grown in such a limited space, but there are multiple approaches to farming vertically and not just growing something on the wall or layered, on top of each other. Maybe the video could've been a comparison to usual farming, in order to show how bad or good this is and why vertical farming would be better in this case but wouldnt work well compared to normal farming here, because blabla

What’s your thought on the dehumidification. Doesn’t the HVAC use more power for the dehumidification.

And btw i love your accent , so cute !

This should be a backup option if something happens to the conventional farming

I think the difficulty of growing tall crops is overstated. You may have to have a dedicated space specifically for tall crops but 1000 acres is 1000 acres whether vertical or horizontal.

What an absolute gem of a channel. Does the main speaker in these videos answer the questions or is it a marketing manager?

I agree with you in some aspects. High initial cost and limited use of plants but when compared to land? Unreliable high-tech, and highly educated workforce; it is a watch and pumps; The Aztecs and Babylon were using this technology over 2k years ago. You are right about the fact that not all crops can be grown this way.

Por eso nosotros preferimos el modelo de sky greens de singapur por que usa algo de suelo, simulando la linea evolutiva de las plantas epifitas y por que usa luz del sol gratuita. En sky greens se puede incorporar luz led abajo como apoyo por que es mas sombrio. Es mejor el triangulo.

Thank you so much for the the video your videos are outstanding and understandable I have to make project on vertical farming and this video was helpful

Curious if geothermal greenhouses can improve the energy cost and sustainability aspect of vertical charming.

Para la polinizacion vertical deben ibcorporar aberturas en la parte superior y cebos naturales para atraer insectos, abejas. Hormonas...

In reality vertical farming will be practiced in combination with traditional farming.

I think spacex will be looking at this regardless of whether it's economically viable on earth. Hopefully they do enough research that it does become viable. But why can't you have bees and fans in a vertical farm to pollinate it?

What about tthe tower gardens?

even when all the electricity for the LED light would come from renewable sources, the question is how many square meters of photovoltaic panels do you need to produce the electricity required for 1 square meter of agricultural shelf in a vertical farm. the PV modules only have an efficiency of 15% . the share of visible light vs infrared radiation in natural sunlight is very much the same as for LED light. Finally you need more land for photovoltaic panels, than you gain by stapling farmland inside a vertical farming building. Natural soil is a free gift from nature as is natural sunlight , while all these shelve systems, plastic boxes, LED lights and pipe systems for the vertical farm need resources and energy to be produced.

One thing I can’t do in winter in Canada is grow vegetables, the ground is too hard because it’s frozen solid. So to maximize space I use vertical Grow Towers, made for $50 for 30 plants, so Two towers = $100 for 60 plants. Yields and speed of leafy greens is as per the claims. In Summer I grow in Raised Beds and and Vertical Hydroponics, so I know both systems. You have to convince my wife that growing Vertically in Winter in Canada is not economical, for Home growing you are 100% wrong. I have been hydroponic growing since 1980 and would not continue if it was a waste of time. We live on Two Acres, with Two greenhouses and are self sufficient. You need to try a little harder.

Fuck it, let's go full Soylent Green.

Is it possible for nutrient water and pipes be infested by some mold or whatever?

yo you are not just finnish student guide? this is awesome

There are many system integration providing the automation service...but may not be cheap still.

The main disadvantage has not been listed here: the difference between hidroponics and aquaponics. The former having a limited spectrum of nutrients, producing fake food, the later having all necessary minerals and plant nutritive process which produce high nutritive plants. Assuming that the major issue in our current agrotoxic system is the lack of nutrients creating a sick population it should be defined as the main problem in this technology.

Because of the double inefficiency of solar to electric then electric to light only a few % of sunlight that would be available in a field makes it to the plants, on top of that photosynthesis only captures a small % of light energy so I am wondering how much high calorie foods like a loaf of bread or a sack of potatoes would cost produced this way.

Indoor vertical farming will always be better than traditional farming. AppHarvest is a leader in this!!!

Can't we just illuminate vertical farms with sunlight? Like the Egyptians did with their temples using mirrors?

Jacque Fresco - Introduction to Sociocyberneering - Larry King (1974) Ideas about Earth's future

Still going to invest.

Im actually working on a design to fix the tall plant problem

South Koreans: Hold my beer Baam! Farm8

Make a video on aerophonic tower

Con respecto a la polinizacion, deben innovar y crear sistemas semi abiertos, semipermeables. Pero esto tambien puede resultar en un problema por las plagas. Sin embargo las plagas no se terminaran nunca. En Permacultura las tratamos como siempre ha sido en la historia... de manera natural.

I would argue creating high value jobs is an advantage. Currently we have to get help of seasonal workers from abroad for food security while lots of skilled SWE and robotics engineers are relegated to hobby projects in agriculture. Having high skill, distributed farms as career option may allow these people to move out of urban centers

you also need to cool the vertical farm because of the heat from the led

i don't think t is instead of conventional farming but in addition.

Bombeo de agua con bomba de ariete?

Simple solution would be to get rid of the control system and just have it open to the elements.

Perhaps a bit pessimistic, but when a single potato costs five dollars maybe it’ll be more feasible. The climate is changing, and the numbers are showing it’s going to get warmer, reducing farmland acreage worldwide, or is that too pessimistic also.

good thing its getting cheaper and easier and the energy crisis is ebbing slightly as renewables are becoming cheaper and more effecient

Why not have some bees make hony and pollinate in v farm?

08:15 high tech required HIGHLY educated Supervisor, but not (field) individual labour / workforces, b'cuz the pumping/automated irrigation & nutrition system virtually worked for you, even while people are absent (only initial plantation of young SPROUTS that's..) so (sufficient/guaranteed) power backup is really needed, as your statement/warning.

Also add maintenance and cleaning to disadvantages. The level of sterility needed is insane and the water usage needed for cleaning can offset the so called water saving in some types. If a pathogen gets into these places it can sometimes mean massive time consuming set backs. These vertical farms are only good in extreme places where you can't grow and where transportation is an issue. Everywhere else is a waste of time and resources.

Bombas de ariete en serie vertical? Una encima de otra? Se les pone un aro de goma plastica para que no haga ruido.

Why not have a big conveyor style vertical farm outside?

re: technology not being mature The automation technology certainly is capabile of handling it. I've been in automation since 1989. There may be some design hurdles, but to me, it's really not a technology issue.

03:15 mentioned the selective SIZEs of plants being grown INDOOR is LIMITED,such as tall legume, soybean or large CABBAGEs, long/big ROOTs' potatoes or carrots, etc are NOT possible to grow in these narrow (and shallow) lanes of hydroponics' liquid solutions/mixture.

As a carnivore I like the idea of freeing up land to raise more cattle

In the Netherlands the greenhouse growers are shutting down due the cost of energy. This is the consequence of cutting off cheap Russian gas. Almeria may also go down.

Could we put hives in the buildings and let the bees roam free and wear suits?

Skills needed? Ag sciences, engineering, data management... they're farmers with busibess management skills. Tall field crops? We've selectedly bred corn, Soy, etc. ... or take a shortcut with GMOs.

We have limited resources, and VF takes a lot of them being the concern, right? Electricity being the biggest one. So the way I look at, is we either use the electricity for things that directly help people, or we can blow it out on fiat currency that hasn't exactly yet proven itself yet. So if we stop using our precious resources on dumb stuff, we can make something like this work.

Disadvantages in all caps or just initial complaints that will get better in time. 🤔

No necesitamos tanta automatizacion. De igual forma muchos necesitan trabajo. Los humanos necesitamos hacer algo tambien. No podemos quedarnos de brazos cruzados frente a una pantalla. Que mejor que la culmine de la evolucion humana sea volver a la agricultura, actividad primaria. Tiene multiples beneficios para la salud tambien...

Growing plants in Greenhouses instead of buildings solves most of these problems.

6:20, just grow them in a hydroponic tower in a green house 😏

so many pain points... is this a hype or is it worth investment?

Hai sir you want to a ey glass

...how is polinating a problem? What's holding people back to just put up an apiary or two? 😅 It's a controlled, pestecide free enviroment, bees would absolutly love that shit.

Vertical Farming belongs in the Hands of the centralbank

I am getting the feeling you have never spent a quality amount of time on a traditional farm. "High Startup costs"? Do you know how much it costs to buy a farm, the farmland, the equipment, etc? The limitations are few on varieties. You can grow most cucurbits, brassicas, alliums, berries, leafy greens, nightshades, and so on; and verticle farming doesn't HAVE to be indoors, it can be, and presently is being, done outdoors. Energy usage is a moot point here, given the amount of energy (electric or fossil fuel) traditional farms use and the education level/manpower needed is certainly no different than that of a traditional farm. It is apparent you have minimal understanding of just how complex and multifaceted traditional farming is and many of your supposed "disadvantages" are no different than what is currently in play. The one enormous disadvantage of this style of farming will be the transition stage from the traditional farms But you do indeed have some points here and I respect that you are taking this no-nonsense "this is not a perfect system" approach.

All these can be solved. And you don’t need energy.

SCALABILITY is the main issue of this system

Soybeans are not a crop. They are an industrial product.

Sounds like you would be a real ball of laughs at a party. Is this supposed to be news? With any tech advancement obstacles had to be overcome. None of this will ultimately stop VF. In fact, necessity is the mother of invention and innovation is occurring at a rapid pace.

Its a mars thing to do

The energy requirements of vertical farming lead to significant land use to provide the energy. For every acre of crops grown via vertical farming, 5.4 acres of solar panels would be required to supply the energy via solar power. Thus in practice, vertical farming may require more land than traditional farming, not less.

Aren’t vertical farms most useful for growing fresh vegetables and berries close to consumers cutting transportation costs and time to market delivering them fresh.

Food is nutritional with SUNLIGHT, EARTH and BUGS !!!

This is like Minecraft

Not really brain science to have battery back up or a generator to run water pumps.

Tired old arguments - is this very old video

When permaculture speak... xD

The main problem with vertical farming is that the plants, veggies are not in the earth's ground where part of their alkaline growing environment is endowed with the earth's low sub-tone bass hummm : the 7.5hz Schumann Frequency that produces alkaline veggies that keep our bodies blood ph at 7.3hz- 7.4pH our whole life. When one gets old, we tend to get too acidic and sick and bad immune system . When water is above the ground in a tank, it becomes acidic, plants grown in the air will be the same, they may not have their needed Schumann freq. to be a alkaline food to eat. More acid food in the air. Water from the ground is at 7.0 to 7.5 pH. Water in tanks above the ground is 6.5pH in general tests. Just a thought for these millions of $$$ invested in this new type or farming to save real estate space.

Why are you so upset about it ,almost you are gonna cry cos people doing dirty vertical farming , no , no ,no negative ,negative 😅😅😅

Okay, none of these, so called, "Disadvantages", are really a problem, all of which are easily addressable. And why would any need highly educated skilled labour forces, NO YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO SO 😂😂😂😂, all of these so called issues are being addressed as we speak, and the non issue issues are being approached from a different perspective.

I hate old jealousy man.sorry.

the 7 points are stupid

We need to learn from the Israelies

What's with the one eye symbolism? Unsubscribe!

This is an annoyingly pessimistic video on the subject. larger crops can easily be grown at scale to compete with surface farming, automation should only be used where appropriate, water retaining root media exists in many forms making equipment reliability less urgent, methods exist that can handle scalable growth, vertical farming is currently hampered more by assumptions regarding methods than by real obstacles, & Vertical farming needs more variety in experimental methods to break these assumptions.

So your argument is cost and total nonsense... How do think plants grow - nutrients are provided. Not sure where to go with all of the misinformation you represent.

Problems resume: - scale - scale -scale ...