Chapter 8 Vertical farming

by Thorsten Kraska

Week 8 on vertical farming and plant factories will continue the discussion on protected cultivation and greenhouse production systems in terms of higher specialization and automatisation. Vertical Farms gained more and more interest in recent years. At least Dickson Despommier’s book “The Vertical Farm. Feeding the World in the 21st Century” (2011) became a landmark for a controvers discussion. In the class we will try to separate facts from wishful thinking. For week 8 take a look at the presentation on vertical farms

8.1 Materials

  • You will find the materials in eCampus

8.2 Instructions

  • Each student should find at least one video on vertical farming which is focusing on a specific aspect of vertical farming like (1) which plant can be grown, (2) what can be achieved with VF, (3) how are VF organized, (4) what are limitations, (5) are VF economic, (6) what do you find most interesting about VF.
  • From each video try to select a scenes or scenes which should not be longer than about 2 minutes.
  • During class we will take a look at the videos and try to analyze them to come to a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Challenges) evaluation.
  • In the following input I will then focus on the outcome of the SWOT analysis and will use the presentation to comment on these aspects.
  • After my input we will try to get a “state of art” on where VF stands at the moment

8.3 Literature for discussion

In the paper discussion we will discuss “On the verge of the market – Plant factories for the automated and standardized production of biopharmaceuticals” (you will find a copy in eCampus). This paper is on newest discussion on so-called plant factories and how they could be used to produce high-value compounds. With this last aspect we will finish the section of protected cultivation and end with future scenarios in horticultural production systems

8.4 Term paper topics

  • Bring in your own topic. You could suggest your own topic concerning vertical farming or plant factories.
  • Vertical farms – could they supply the world with food? A critical discussion of aims & wishes, reality and future of vertical farms
  • High values products from Plant Factories