Everyone loves a good TED Talk!
By 2050, the global population is projected to reach 9.8 billion. How are we going to feed everyone? In this TED Talk, investment-banker-turned-farmer Stuart Oda points to indoor vertical farming: growing food on tiered racks in a controlled, climate-proof environment, as a possible solution. Oda argues that compared to traditional land-based farming, vertical farming can maintain better safety standards, save money, use less water, and help us provide food for future generations.
On the downside, food grown in this way can be incredibly energy-intensive. Also, these farms can only produce a small variety of vegetables commercially and the overall cost of the production still is quite high. To address these issues, some of the biggest and most sophisticated farms are making significant investments, starting with energy efficiency. In order to reduce the high energy usage, there are efforts to develop higher-efficiency LEDs, to develop lasers optimized for plant growth and to use fiber-optic cables to channel sunlight directly into an indoor vertical farm during the day to reduce the need for artificial lighting. The most exciting part of vertical farming is that it can actually be integrated seamlessly into the cityscape to help repurpose idle, underutilized and unused urban infrastructure.