Solving the global food crisis: vertical aeroponic farm grows food out of thin air

01:14 February 17, 2009 PST

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Eric Vergne's Dystopian Farm concept

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Aeroponic plant growth basically suspends the plant in midair, while a mist of water combined with nutrients is sprayed over the root structure. As such, it requires vastly less water than hydroponic or soil growth, and also significantly less of the nutrient substances. Plant growth is excellent, waste is minimal and the planting and harvesting processes are exceptionally simple.

Because the roots aren't constantly surrounded by dirt or water, the plant's environment is much easier to control. Different nutrient solutions can be substituted at will with no wastage, and the entire nutrition and water programme can be managed with absolute control. Plants can be kept separate to control diseases and pests, and different optimal environments can be created for the roots and "above-ground" sections of each plant.

The results? Up to 98% less water usage, 60% less fertiliser, big, healthy plant growth and no need for pesticides. Impressive.

NASA has been examining aeroponics as a promising candidate for a "space food" program suitable for food production on other planets or long space journeys - but its more immediate Earthbound applications may prove far more urgent.

Vertical farm concept for Manhattan

Eric Vergne's Dystopian Farm concept is a design study examining how an advanced aeroponic farming system could operate in a vertical, urban environment.

Its shape, inspired by the cell structure of ferns, might be a bit out there, but the structure is designed to provide a large, dense and efficient space in which aeroponic industry can produce a large volume of food all year round.

The building contains growing space, residential space and a series of markets which can sell the fresh produce with virtually no transport costs. Adjustable lighting takes care of the different needs of each stage of plant growth, from initial flowering to cloning and vegetative growth, and the building's spine-like curvature renders it strong and earthquake-resistant to let it reach higher.

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User Comments (2)

I think the major point of this design exercise is to educate people about the potential for 'urban farming'. I think its often overlooked that our cities could be more than simply heat islands. Simply considering the surface area wasted for aesthetics or for no other reason than its the way its always been. While reading this article I began to imagine a city that was built where pedestrian traffic walked across the roofs of buildings covered in agriculture and greenspace. Pedestrians would travel down to access rail or surface streets and their desired destination.

The one thing that bothered me about this article was that aeroponic farming is touted as such an efficient way of growing. This neglects the fact it is much more complicated than pushing a seed into dirt and occasionally watering it. Aeroponic is more work... the yield may be greater but the integrated systems that need to be in working order for the plants NOT TO DIE is immense. Would the energy cost of such a system outweigh the benefits? It might but you would have to consider the longevity of the structure, and energy costs to run such a system, nevermind the material and manufacturing/environmental costs. I would think that many smaller self contained systems would be more cost efficient to take advantage of existing structures. Don't get me wrong, I think these are great ideas... lets get farming into the city!

TheDuke

- February 17, 2009 @ 06:02 pm PST

Its almost like we are adopting the ways of the alien race in "The War of The Worlds"... I like it...

@tgmeob: The obvious advantage of Aeroponics is that the variety of plants that can be cultured is immense and they tend to be healthier due to the good supply of oxygen to their roots.. in the industrial scale it might actually be easier to use Aeroponics... additionally as opposed to the traditional methods, our requirement of water will be reduced as we will not need to wash the vegetables thoroughly... plus the chances of infection from dirt will be reduced and the whole setup may be even rendered automatic.

What I do object to is that if such towers are to provide food to so many, these will tend to be soft targets for anti-social elements or even natural outbreaks and we might need to scatter the facilities to reduce thier vulnerability...

Sougata Pahari

- July 29, 2009 @ 08:07 am PDT