The hidden footprint of low-carbon indoor farming

A new study challenges the universal land-saving claims of vertical farming, finding that there is no one size fits all approach for land use, food security and sustainable agriculture.

Controlled indoor cultivation without daylight comes of age

Interest in vertical farming is growing worldwide. This method of cultivation offers great advantages: local, fresh production that is possible at any location in a very sustainable way. On the negative side are the high ...

Video: The farm of the future?

There's a new trend in agriculture called vertical farming. As humans learned to farm, we arranged plants outside in horizontal fields, and invented irrigation and fertilizer to grow bumper crops.

As arable land disappears, here come the vertical farmers

As cities expand, eating up swathes of countryside in the process, agricultural pioneers are finding new ways to grow the fresh produce we need, in containers, empty buildings and any other spare space they can find to create ...

Vertical farms offer a bright future for hungry cities

The 21st century has seen rapid urbanisation and the global population is now expected to grow to more than 8.3 billion by 2050. Currently, 800m hectares – 38% of the earth's land surface – is farmed and we'll soon need ...

Food in the sky? Highrise farming idea gains ground

Imagine stepping out of your highrise apartment into a sunny, plant-lined corridor, biting into an apple grown in the orchard on the fourth floor as you bid "good morning" to the farmer off to milk his cows on the fifth.

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