Standing at the homestead looking out over the fields was once the typical way to observe farming. Now rather than looking outward, we can look upward at lush, leafy greenery as agricultural innovation stacks sustainability and food security in favor of the environment.

“Indoor farmers do not have to pray for rain, or sunshine, or moderate temperatures, or anything else related to the production of food crops, for that matter,” wrote Dickson Despommier in his 2010 book, “The Vertical Farm.” The concept was introduced much earlier but Despommier in 1999 was first to go from ideation to action.

During his tenure at Columbia University as a professor of environmental sciences, he challenged his graduate students to feed vast numbers of people using 5 acres of rooftop space. Over the span of nine years this challenge escalated to a 30-story building to feed 50,000 people.

These were the fundamental, humble beginnings of a blueprint for a commercial vertical farming establishment. The goal: sustainability and food security.

“Vertical farming has considerable potential for global food security. It is a viable solution for producing certain crops under unfavorable environmental conditions. It represents an efficient approach to growing more food with fewer resources and lower environmental impact,” Henda Mahmoudi, plant physiologist at the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, a not-for-profit research center in Dubai, tells KUST Review.

How does it all work?

Vertical farming is one method of indoor farming in which rows of crops are planted and stacked in different stages of growth and everything the plants need is controlled and monitored.

There are three types of vertical-farming solutions, and the choice you make for your farm will depend on the facility and the types of plants you intend to grow.

The first is aquaponics. This is a symbiotic, cyclical system for farming fish and plants in which the fish water is filtered and sent up to feed the plants. In turn, the plants oxygenate the water and send it back down to the fish. This system can grow hundreds of plants.

IMAGE: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

As seen from space

Technology isn’t just helping farmers till new ground indoors. It’s also helping them find suitable agricultural soil from space. Read more›››

“Remote sensing is a powerful tool for assessing soil properties and determining its suitability for agriculture,” says Diana Francis, head of the Environmental and Geophysical Sciences Lab at Khalifa University.

Remote sensing can assess such factors as pH, moisture, texture and salinity. Sensors can also detect signs associated with soil fertility.

“Using data from satellites enables large-scale, non-invasive soil analysis that can provide critical information for optimizing crop yields,” she says. “This data-driven approach provides highly accurate, location-specific guidance.”‹‹‹ Read less

It doesn’t have to be a large commercial establishment. “Aquaponics is for everyone,” says U.S.-based Symbiotic Aquaponic. “Our partners and clients include hobbyists, gardeners, survivalists, environmentalists, educators, schools, nonprofit organizations (and) colleges.”

Next is the aeroponic solution, whereby plant roots are fed via a mist of nutrients pumped from a solution. The plants appear to be hanging, but there’s a lot going on below.

The planting begins on foam. Once the roots grow downward, they push through a mesh lid into the “fog chamber” beneath. This is where the mist feeds the roots in intervals. Everything is timed so that the plants receive the right amount of nutrition for optimal growth.

The most common form of vertical farming systems is hydroponics, in which a pump circulates a nutrient-rich solution continuously through plant roots.

While these are all different techniques, the primary concept is the same — they are all projects of controlled-environment agriculture technology.

There can’t be only one

While farming is typically a climate-specific industry, AgTech startups offering vertical farming solutions are popping up all over the world.

Like Norway-based Avisomo.

With such optimal growth environments, “Their vegetables are tastier, prettier, more nutrient-packed, and their business model is more competitive than ever before. LED grow lights were the key,” Avisomo says.

The company offers systems equipped with AI and robotics.

Each plant is placed in growth stations and is moved around the facility depending on where it is in the growth stage. And each station has controls to monitor and adjust irrigation, nutrition and airflow depending on the plant. Avisomo also offers recipes developed in partnership with local farmers.

The company’s systems allow for extended automation in which a robot, which resembles a large Roomba, moves trolleys full of crops around the farm upon reception of a cloud command.

The perks

You might think that an indoor facility like this would be a massive water and energy sucker, but it’s quite the opposite. Smart energy and water systems and automation provide savings across the board.

More than 70 percent of global water resources are used by the agricultural industry, but within a controlled environment, cultivation of indoor vertical farming crops uses nearly 95 percent less water than conventional farming. And as plants evaporate about 85 percent of the water not used for nutrition, smart water harvesting in these environments uses dehumidifiers that collect the water in the air and reuse it.

All three solutions are soilless, offering further reduction in water use. No soil-born pests or diseases also mean no pesticides. And there’s no soil turnover to release carbon into the atmosphere either.

That’s a number that adds up. According to the U.S. Center for Food Safety, cultivated soils have lost between 50 and 70 percent of their original carbon stock to the atmosphere in the form of CO2.

Additionally, LEDs save energy and costs. These lights don’t give off heat like traditional bulbs, which in turn requires less energy and, subsequently, less cash spent on cooling systems. And they give off more light with less wattage but can be controlled, unlike sunlight, which can burn plants.

Bonus — indoor vertical-farm crops can be grown year-round.

It’s always harvesting season

At the indoor vertical farm, seasons are non-existent, thus crops are not at the mercy of changing weather, frozen ground, overly wet springs, soil conditions or superstorms.

Predictable harvesting makes it easier to secure buyers for products, ensuring produce reaches its destination well before the shelf life runs out. And crop growth is accelerated, increasing annual yields.

U.S.-based AeroFarms is one of the largest vertical farming companies in the world. Its systems use the aeroponic method and have traditional farming yields beat by a reported 390 times. At this rate, we might be more likely to feed a growing population that, according to the United Nations, is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050.

What’s the catch?

Along with the perks come challenges. While traditional farming depends on predictable weather, indoor vertical farms depend on technology. The irrigation system, for example, is crucial to crop outcomes, but what happens if it breaks down?

And one of the primary pitfalls of scaling up this vertical farming is that although the LEDs are cost-effective, they’re still more expensive than the sun, which shines for free.

The technology also needs to be adapted to allow more kinds of crops to thrive in this environment. Currently it caters to a limited number.

Tech driven vertical farming has also been criticized for its potential to affect the soil’s CO2 sequestration. If we move to indoor farming, how will the soil absorb the carbon without the plants to absorb and store it in the soil? This is a major kink, but it’s not necessarily a deal-breaker.

Other types of plants can replace farmed crops. Trees, for example, increase stored carbon volume and eliminate the need for soil tilling, which releases carbon from the soil back into the atmosphere.

Is it feasible on a large scale?

“The commercial availability of modular plant factories for installation of vertical farming systems in containers, trailers or cellars was met with great enthusiasm worldwide, marking the dawn of the ‘agri-tech’ era. However, investment costs and energy requirements of these units turned out to be high, and some of them were less versatile than originally anticipated, largely restricting the production portfolio to leafy greens. Under the impact of the recent soar in energy prices, some plant factories even went out of business,” says Elke Neumann, associate professor at United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) and director of ASPIRE Research Institute for Food Security in the Drylands (ARIFSID).

She says success will come with a cross-functional approach. “We need to bring down the energy consumption and the investment costs of these systems to make it more feasible.”

So the ARIFSID team is working toward these goals.

“In the UAE, water equals energy because ultimately, as long as you have enough energy, you can produce as much water as you like,” Neumann tells KUST Review.

How do we use less water, then?

In a warm country like the UAE, temperature tolerance of production systems can save water and energy. Crops that can produce yield at elevated temperatures require less water and energy for environmental control.

“Another thing that we need to address is the nutrient-supply side,” Neumann says.

The ARIFSID team works with aquaponics, combining fish farming and plant production.

Fish require a lot of feed so they can grow quickly, she says. “And like most farm animals they are not very good at utilizing the food. Maybe they utilize around 10 percent and the rest is going into their manure and they release it to the water.”

Credit: Fortune Business Insights

The water then needs to be changed, cleaned or recycled, so they use plants to clean it up.

The water is used as a nutrient solution for vertically grown plants. Once plant roots have extracted the water for nutritional elements, the clean water is returned to the fish.

But there’s more to it than this.

“We have to make sure that this works out economically and also ecologically, environmentally and also from a food-safety perspective. How safe is the food that is coming out of such a system if we’re using fish poop as a nutrient for plants? Fish can have a lot of parasites, so there is a lot that needs to be done,” Neumann says.

Additionally, the UAE is heavily invested in reaching climate neutrality. Part of this strategy includes contributing its Circular Economy 2021-2031 policy. UAEU University vertical farming initiatives align with this.

“To comply with the UAE’s circular economy strategy, strategies for embedding vertical farming systems into a circular food supply chain need to be developed,” Neumann says, “This is a considerable challenge in soilless production systems, given the integral role that soil plays in the global element cycles. Currently, most vertical farming systems still rely on continuous input of mineral fertilizers with a high carbon footprint.”

This research is supported by ASPIRE, the technology program management pillar of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council via the ASPIRE Virtual Research Institutes Program.

ARIFSID, UAEU, Khalifa University and additional stakeholders are developing “food production systems for the UAE that are not only technically but also agro-ecologically advanced and ready to be integrated into urban buildings, food supply cycles, and contemporary lifestyles,” Neumann says.

The ARIFSID team is also looking at developing the UAE’s indigenous agricultural resources to find new sources of food.

Is it enough?

Though vertical farms offer many positive outcomes for the environment, the consumer and the vertical farmer’s pocketbook, you need to have the funds to get your farm off the ground. And that’s not cheap.

Vertical farm set-up costs can be up to 10 times more expensive than greenhouses that range from U.S.$2,200 to U.S.$2,600 per square meter. So, with startup costs, you need to be looking at a long-term return on investment.

While you might think the use of autonomous technology would reduce labor costs, experts are required to tend to these crops, and these different sorts of farmhands are substantially more expensive to employ.

Regardless of those costs and challenges, however, vertical farms appear to be the agriculture of the future.

More like this: Feeding tomorrow