Landscapes are urbanizing at an unprecedented rate. All too commonly, forests, brush lands and agricultural spaces are sacrificed to satisfy the ever growing demand for resources and residential/commercial space. It is estimated that 43 years from now - in the year 2050 - nearly 80% of the worlds population will live in an urban center. It is also estimated that in that time, global population will increase by approximately three billion.

This poses a very sobering question: How will we be able to grow enough food to sustain the hunger needs of a population this large? With 80% of the world’s suitable farming land in use today, traditional options seem rather bleak. If we continue to follow the status quo, kiss the luxury of a grocery store on your street corner goodbye.Grim realities such as these remind me of the ideas presented in Hobbes’ “Leviathan.” I imagine people would lose their conveniences, food supply-chains would shut down, and the law that governs us today would no longer be applicable. Society would turn into Hobbes’ “state of nature.” Wars over food would ensue and people would be forced to kill in order to eat. Cannibalism anyone? I hear ass meat isn’t bad!

Dr. Dickson Despommier from Columbia University’s Environmental Health Science Department believes a potential answer is Vertical Farming.

So what is Vertical Farming? It’s like it sounds: You farm vertically in a building contained within an urban center. Vertical Farms will incorporate cutting edge technologies in order to produce year-round crops and a safe and steady food supply. Other benefits of Vertical Farming include protection of our valuable crops from insects, floods, drought, storms and all the effects of global warming that are beginning to manifest.

Simply put, initiatives like this need to be recognized, researched, and implemented immediately. Otherwise, 50 years from now, the world will go hungry.

For more information click here.

More advantages of vertical farming are listed after the jump.

Image: “Tour Vivante” by Soa Architects

-Year-round crop production; 1 indoor acre is equivalent to 4-6 outdoor acres or more, depending upon the crop (e.g., strawberries: 1 indoor acre = 30 outdoor acres)

-No weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests

-All VF food is grown organically: no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers

-VF virtually eliminates agricultural runoff by recycling black water

-VF returns farmland to nature, restoring ecosystem functions and services

-VF greatly reduces the incidence of many infectious diseases that are acquired at the agricultural interface

-VF converts black and gray water into potable water by collecting the water of evapotranspiration

-VF adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible parts of plants and animals

-VF dramatically reduces fossil fuel use (no tractors, plows, shipping.)

-VF converts abandoned urban properties into food production centers

-VF creates sustainable environments for urban centers

-VF creates new employment opportunities

-We cannot go to the moon, Mars, or beyond without first learning to farm indoors on earth

-VF may prove to be useful for integrating into refugee camps

-VF offers the promise of measurable economic improvement for tropical and subtropical LDCs. If this should prove to be the case, then VF may be a catalyst in helping to reduce or even reverse the population growth of LDCs as they adopt urban agriculture as a strategy for sustainable food production.

-VF could reduce the incidence of armed conflict over natural resources, such as water and land for agriculture