List of Headings
- i Potential production capabilities of vertical farms
- ii Opposition to new ideas about food production
- iii A successful application of vertical farming technology
- iv The potential to provide urgent relief
- v The original inspiration for vertical farming
- vi Various environmental benefits of vertical farming
- vii An increasing problem for farmers worldwide
- viii A return to traditional farming methods
- ix A rising demand for food
Passage
Drag a heading to each paragraph.
1. Currently 24 percent of the world's 11.5 billion hectares of cultivated land has already undergone human-induced soil degradation, particularly through erosion.
2. The global population is expected to exceed nine billion by 2050—up a third from today's level—and studies suggest that food production will have to go up by 70 percent if we are to feed all of those new mouths.
3. A single 20-storey vertical farm could theoretically feed 50, 000 people, according to Despommier. And if the theory translates into reality as proposed, 160 skyscraper-sized vertical farms could feed the entire population of New York City, while 180 would be needed to feed London, 289 to feed Cairo and 302 to feed Kolkata.
4. Tokyo-based mushroom producer Hokuto Corporation is a model example of how a vertical farm can be profitable.
5. If you have three or four storeys of food already growing some place, they could become mobile units that could be picked up by helicopters and dropped into the middle of a crisis zone. The food would be ready to pick and eat. It could be designed to supply people with all the nutrition they need to make it through the crisis.
6. By significantly reducing the amount of land required for food production, vertical farms could help to enrich biodiversity. And according to Jeremijenko, this can, in turn, help to improve the productivity of conventional farms, as the health of agricultural land is often tied to the health of the surrounding ecosystems. Furthermore, vertical farming could dramatically cut the utilisation of fossil fuels, and also reduce geopolitical tensions in countries where poor farming conditions cause conflict and malnutrition.