For many, the holidays symbolize a time of sharing and caring. Food is the lowest common denominator, joining family and friends together around the table and providing a sense of community. The act of cooking and eating together gives us the chance to feast and reflect on all that we are grateful for. However, this season I would encourage you to take a different track and think about where that food came from and the direction in which sustainable agriculture is heading.
Understanding Different Farming Methodologies
As I always like to define the term Sustainability,
the long-term ecological balance and management of Earth, its climate, and natural resources; intended to avoid the depletion of our resources while ensuring a healthy quality of life for future generations.
Many of the urban farming methods gaining traction today utilize soilless farming techniques. Soilless farming is another term for growing crops without soil using nutrient-rich water with seed starter plugs. The starter plugs are typically pot soil grow medium in a cylindrical-cone shape in which we place our seeds and where a plant is grown. There are many soilless farming techniques, the term hydroponics being the most closely related defining soilless farming. Aeroponics is another form of plant cultivation by suspending plants in the air and misting the root zones with nutrient-rich water. Aquaponics is the practice of combining hydroponics with fish farming - converting fish waste into nutrient-rich water. Deep-water culture (DWC) is a widely used hydroponic method. Many aquaponic farms favor DWC. It uses floatings rafts submerging plant roots in nutrient-rich oxygenated water 8 to 12 inches deep.
With a better understanding of agriculture terms, let's explore the three types of farming gaining traction today. Vertical farming is the practice of growing crops vertically in a controlled environment to optimize plant growth using soilless farming techniques. Very similar to vertical farming, container or shipping container farming is the process of growing plants, often crops, inside a shipping container. Soil-based urban farms are often associated with community gardens or rooftop farms. It's the practice of growing plants in a city or densely populated area, whether it be in a subdivision, master plan community, township, or municipality.
Urban Farming - Comparing 3 Different Methods
Today we are at a turning point, with many pursuing the opportunity for a select few to define the future of agriculture. Before we start to overproduce and consume, I would suggest critically looking at the gains and losses of each method. With many competing concepts presented, let's analyze some of the popular practices.
1. Vertical Indoor Farming
Vertical indoor farms are an intriguing concept. Abandoned industrial or commercial retail centers in urban or rural areas converted into indoor growing facilities. These farms are typically soilless using techniques are used like aeroponics or deep-water culture. Plants shown stacked on top of each to maximize growing space to meet demand and reach economies of scale. LED grow lights on 16-24-hour time intervals decrease a plant's growth cycle, artificially mimicking the electromagnetic spectrum and photons from our Sun hanging over each vertical row. Robotic and automation system's substituting carbines, tillers, seed dispensers, and labor. Well, or most likely public utility water feeding plants macro-nutrients helping to increase the plant's biomass. In terms of feeding the world mass amounts of food, vertical indoor farms, without question, will fill the need. But, do we qualify this as a form of sustainable agriculture?
Vertical indoor farms in their current state are heavily reliant on utilities. They include limited to no natural light or rainfall, arguably making them 100% reliant on public utilities. The LED grow lights are more expensive but use less energy and have longer shelf lives. Maintaining and running these lights become costly to the business and detrimental to the environment natural resources used to keep them on. These high-powered typically, multispectral (RGB) lights also present harmful effects to those exposed to them for long durations causing blindness, eye fatigue, and various forms of cancers over time. Even with the incorporation of renewable energy to power these farms, we are restricting the cheapest, most powerful source to create and sustain life in our solar system, the Sun. The same notion goes for water. Without water capture technologies (atmospheric and rainwater) or a well to tap into, the costs and amount of water to supply vertical farms do not seem environmentally responsible. Even with the application of hydroponics, which is known to decreases water usage over traditional soil-based farms.
We must gain more than we lose, and an enclosed environment absent from rainfall and natural sunlight in an urban setting does not seem to define sustainable agriculture. Luckily, these farms can control their climate and monitor their utility usage. But the costs to lease or own their properties become expensive. These farms are impressive structures with great intentions to supply the world with a large amount of food per square footage. With a relatively high capital expense requiring a highly-skilled workforce to maintain, are vertical indoor farms sustainable or merely a trend with an industrialized approach to combat the growing demand for food?
2. Shipping Container Farming
It's one of agriculture's more unique strategies. A concept to reuse shipping containers to grow food fits seamlessly inside our existing distribution systems, whether by rail, truck, or shipping. There are no land commitments, and these containers can be placed and shipped nearly anywhere in the world. Without disturbing the plant's growth cycle inside the shipping containers, it is an excellent approach to combat issues where food scarcity and deserts are prevalent. These systems offer a turn-key solution for its owner and operators controlling the indoor environment and plant feed timings. So what are the pitfalls?
In its current design, they are nearly identical to vertical farms. The majority of these systems do not receive natural sunlight or water. Where they differ from vertical indoor farms is their land-free, mobility features. The small growing capacities often have trouble meeting the demand for retailers like grocers. To reach economies of scale, owners must match the price and demand by operating a fleet, not a single shipping container. For relocation, requiring a crane and semi-truck, and this location must connect to utilities like electricity and water. With the incorporation of water and energy capture technologies, these turn-key shipping containers seem to be a great addition to sustainable agriculture.
3. Soil-Based Urban Farming
Soil-based farms are the most traditional method of agriculture. Many purest believe this is the only sustainable agriculture practice. Mostly displayed in the form of community gardens and rooftop farms, they can utilize the energy from the Sun to engage photosynthesis and collect rainwater for irrigation. On paper, the purest seem correct, but for the sake of argument, let's dig deeper.
Their shortcomings are in their advantages. They suffer from high urban utility bills for water and electricity, plus exposure to harmful environmental conditions like damages from air pollutants, disease, flooding, wildfires, water runoff, high winds, and limited sunlight. Fortunately, regenerative farming techniques can help solve these challenges like capturing carbon, limit water runoff, restore the soil, and decrease water usage. But, without the ability to control the environment, farms are at the mercy of a changing climate and erratic weather patterns. And, the implementation of a soil-based urban farm consequently raises the value of its land and its surroundings. If these farmers opt-in to lease their land, farmers are presented with a challenge to renew their lease if they are unable to reach a return on their initial investment. Without the ability to relocate, they compromise their irrigation and drainage systems to all their efforts tilling and maintaining their land.
Conclusion
These three concepts all share exceptional contributions to the advancement of sustainable agriculture. Without question, vertical farming can supply the world with mass amounts of food, but that does not seem to be our problem. 40% (62 million tons) of our food is uneaten, with Americans spending $218 billion or 1.3% of the US GDP on growing, processing, and disposing of food never eaten. Soil-based urban farms and shipping container farming can address what vertical farms cannot, directly serve the needs of their immediate communities. But both cannot reach economies of scale, and soil-based urban farming is in a fixed location, unable to control its environment.
It would be great to see restaurants shift from sourcing products from 3rd party distributors to a more taverna style setup with onsite edible landscapes for herbs, fruits, and vegetables. Have urban farms incorporate vertical farming techniques with more adaptive, climate-enclosed greenhouses. Where these farms can capture the wind, photons from our Sun, and freshwater from our water cycle, whether it be soilless or soil-based. No matter the circumstance, sustainable agriculture should be weighed by minimal usage of resources while maximizing the resiliency of the farms and communities they serve. Only by adopting this mentality can we truly call ourselves a sustainable society #gainmoreuseless.
So what's next? Are we developing these new sustainable practices in real life?
Located 45-minutes outside Houston, Texas, in a town called Hockley, a climate-enclosed aquaponic farm captures the rays from our Sun to produce living lettuce and other vegetables and herbs. The farm delivers food to its plants by converting fish waste into nutrients. Sustainable Harvesters is pushing forward on its mission to contribute to the movement of sustainable agriculture, constantly finding new methods to harvest food, water, waste, and energy. If you're in the area, stop by to try their hallmark living lettuce and other living vegetables known to last 3-4 weeks in your fridge. Otherwise, find them at one of your local farmer's markets or restaurants. Want to learn more about aquaponics, sustainable agriculture, and future projects? Sign up for a Saturday farm tour to learn more! Stay tuned for Part II, detailing aquaponics Friday, December 25th.
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