On: Is Vertical Farming Really the Future of Agricultu...

[mac01021]

Would land and shipping both be cheap if we ceased to externalize a lot of the cost of each?

Both land use [1] and shipping [2] contribute significant fractions of our society's carbon budget.

[1] http://science.sciencemag.org/content/285/5427/574

[2] https://www.transportenvironment.org/press/shipping-emission...

That said, I'm not so sure about 2-story, LED-lit warehouses for growing food either...

[stale2002 → mac01021]

Yes, it would still be cheap in comparison.

You are correct that there are externalities. But even if we priced in thise externalities, it would most currently NOT 100X the price (which is what would be required to make vertical farming cost competitive).

I would be extremely surprised if those externalities even came close to 2Xing the price of "normal" farming.

[foobar1962 → mac01021]

> Would land and shipping both be cheap if we ceased to externalize a lot of the cost of each?

No.

But neither would the energy and equipment used to do this vertical farming either.

IMHO it's only a "thing" because it can be presented as a disrupting-startup-venture to attract capital. Like those "farm-in-a-box" things.

[azernik → foobar1962]

That energy and equipment is priced a lot better than land use, on average.