Vertical Farming

Vertical farming can be defined as a method of growing crops in vertically stacked layers, often in controlled environments such as indoor warehouses or skyscrapers, utilizing soilless techniques like hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics. This technique was discovered by microbiologist Dickson Despommier, with an initial aim of providing sustenance for personal households or communities, rather than catering to wholesale production and distribution. 

However, as climate change interfered with traditional agricultural practices, vertical farming was implemented as a possible solution to sustain both arable land and water. Eden Green Technology explicitly states that vertical farming uses 98% less water and 99% less land while producing year-round harvests, in comparison to horizontal fields. Because the impacts of climate change include rapid deforestation and soil degradation, vertical farming can help recover a third of the arable land that the Earth has already lost. 

In the realm of vertical farming lie several types of methods that have different aims and purposes. For both farms and households to be provided with food, the "mixed-use skyscraper" method makes plants cultivated in open air so that anyone can utilize the crops for their own good. Other methods include Depommier’s skyscrapers, which are used on a commercial scale to combat climate change, and the use of shipping containers, which help grow more plants in a limited space.