The Case for the Vertical Farm: Part II
Eighteen months have passed since I first wrote about urbanized farming, during which time stresses on nature and cities have only increased. With a wide-ranging group of experts, I have begun to explore a compelling path to reversing both.
In 2022, I learned some staggering statistics about the environmental cost of feeding the world’s people, and shared them in a piece titled The Case for the Vertical Farm, which advocated for urbanized farming as a means of disencumbering enough farmland that—if appropriately “re-wilded”—could revert to its natural, carbon-balancing state. If we did, I wrote then, the Earth could once more handle our many abuses.
That’s because food—its production, processing and resale—takes a near-unparalleled toll on the planet and its climate, and by extension, our wellbeing.
Consider the following statistics on agriculture: