RE: Agricultural Land ranking by country - A fundamental statistic
One way to increase efficiency in land use would be to create urban farms in high rise buildings. Imagine a 20 floor high rise with a different crop on each floor.
Plant crops could be grown in a hydroponic system with their roots sitting in nutrient rich water that continuously flows over them. Photosynthesis could be achieved by solar powered lighting. The indoor system would eliminate the need for pesticides so all food could be grown organically. If this seems far fetched it shouldn't because legal cannabis producers in Canada are basically doing exactly that on a smaller scale.
To take this a step further the high rise could be located centrally in a city and host a grocery store on its main floor. That way food crops could be grown "in house" and then transported to the grocery store below without the need for supply chains and transportation. The system would be more efficient in countless ways and would significantly reduce carbon emissions.
Small cities could have one urban farm to support the population and large cities could have many strategically placed farms to make locally grown food accessible to everyone. The idea needs some tweaking I'm sure but this systems would solve a lot of issues.
sounds like a magnificent way to handle this problem, I hope we will see something like this all over the world during our lifespan
Right on! I've considered this as well. Could be aquaponics too, with fish say on every other floor (or however it works out for nutrient density). Catch rain from the roof, and gravity feed the water down the system. It's so feasible i can taste it. Could integrate composted/ pasteurized black and greywater for nutrients too. So many possibilities. Come on self-sufficient cities! Stewards of their own food supplies!
Yes I agree. I actually believe that there are places that use the system you mentioned - with fish living in indoor ponds. The fish waste adds nutrients to the water which gets cycled back to the plants. Its like a self sustaining ecosystem.
Yeah - self sustaining cities! I look forward to the day they become a reality