permaculture

[Saor Stetler <saor@ycbtal.net>]

The Vertical Farm:

Reducing the impact of agriculture on ecosystem functions and services

http://www.verticalfarm.com/essay.htm

Abstract

<>The advent of agriculture ushered in an unprecedented increase in the 
human population and their domesticated animals. Farming catalyzed the 
transformation of hunter-gatherers into urban dwellers. Today, over 800 
million hectares is committed to agriculture, or about 38% of the total 
landmass of the earth. Farming has re-arranged the landscape in favor of 
cultivated fields and herds of cattle, and has occurred at the expense 
of natural ecozones, reducing most of them to fragmented, 
semi-functional units, while completely eliminating many others. 
Undeniably, a reliable food supply has allowed for a healthier life 
style for most of the civilized world, while the very act of farming has 
created new health hazards. The transmission of numerous infectious 
disease agents - influenza, rabies, yellow fever, dengue fever, malaria, 
trypanosomiasis, hookworm, schistosomiasis - occur with relentlessly 
devastating regularity at the tropical and sub-tropical agricultural 
interface. Emerging infections, many of which are viral zoonoses (e.g., 
Ebola, Lassa fever), rapidly adapt to the human host following 
encroachment into natural environments. Exposure to toxic levels of some 
classes of agrochemicals (pesticides, fungicides) and trauma are two 
other significant health risks associated with traditional agricultural 
practices. Over the next 50 years, the human population is expected to 
rise to at least 8.6 billion, requiring an additional 109 hectares to 
feed them using current technologies. That quantity of farmland is no 
longer available. Thus, alternative strategies for obtaining an abundant 
and varied food supply without encroachment into the few remaining 
functional ecosystems must be seriously entertained. If traditional 
farming could be replaced by constructing urban food production centers 
- vertical farms - then a long-term benefit would be the gradual repair 
of many of the world's damaged ecosystems through the systematic 
abandonment of farmland. In temperate and tropical zones, the re-growth 
of hardwood forests could play a significant role in carbon 
sequestration and may help reverse current trends in global climate 
change. Social benefits of vertical farming include the creation of a 
sustainable urban environment that encourages good health for all who 
choose to live there; new employment opportunities; fewer abandoned lots 
and buildings; cleaner air; and an abundant supply of safe drinking water.

An essay by Dickson Despommier
Department of Environmental Health Sciences
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University
60 Haven Ave, rm. 100
New York, New York 10032
ddd1@columbia.edu <mailto:ddd1@columbia.edu>