Vertical Farming…not as crazy as I first thought?


For my urban politics class, Amy F.’s final speech surprised me. She talked about vertical farming as the wave of the future, and how we ought to start re-thinking our cities to make them more environmentally and socially more responsible. I had no idea where she had come up with this business about vertical farming, but it was an innovative idea, and her argument was coherent and articulate. And, it was compelling enough to make me investigate this vertical farming business a bit further.

Turns out, Amy’s idea isn’t totally out-of-the-blue: the Vertical Farm Project is already pioneering designs for urban food production to get into cities in a major way. No kidding.
One of the more influential books I read as a kid was called “Old MacDonald Had an Apartment House” and it was about the same sort of thing. Only in my childhood it was an apartment-house, and a children’s book, and today, we’re talking sky-scrapers Columbia University professors, and architectural drawings. I hope it won’t be too long before I am eating my vegetables from a vertical farm near me! Perhaps it will even be on Lake Michigan, and look a lot like the drawing featured here… Also, be sure to check out the Essays and the Presentations links on the site.

PS… the first set of designs for the vertical farm posted on the site are a building in the middle of Lake Michigan… it would certainly be great for Chicago’s aspirations for being the “greenest city in America” to take this on…