Greenzone Online

In my last post regarding urban gardening I had considered, but eventually omitted, mentioning one long-shot possibility: vertical farming. It seemed too outlandish, too far reaching. “Maybe when pigs fly”, I thought.

Well Babe and his porcine ilk might be sprouting wings and taking to the skies sooner than anyone had thought. Dr. Dickson Despommier (professor of public health at Columbia University) has a plan to boost agriculture production by developing futuristic skyscrapers that are not only self-sustaining, but provide a healthy source of farm fresh produce to a city that needs all the ‘fresh’ it can get.

Dr. Despommier has recently won the attention and admiration of the Manhattan borough president and is trudging along with his plans for a $20 - $30 million prototype. But many critics say Dr. Despommier (who’s name a NYT article noted roughly translates to “of the apple trees”) has gone out on a limb… way out.

Here are some numbers Dr. Despommier and his design team have been bandying around. Judge for yourself whether or not the man has his head in the clouds:

200: The number in millions of dollars each tower would cost
50: The number of people in thousands each tower can potentially feed
30: The number of stories that will make up each ‘SkyFarm’
5: The average number of outdoor acres that equal to 1 indoor acre
3: The number of people in billions that indoor farming will help
0: The number of weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests
0: The number in pounds of herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers that will be used
0: The amount in pounds of carbon produced by tractors, plows, and shipping
0: The amount of agricultural runoff
0: The number of persons that can survive in space without mastering indoor farming

Apparently the only thing left to worry about is all of that falling poop from the flying pigs.