Blue sky thinking: The 'skyscraper' farms that could be feeding millions by 2050



It may sound like a pie in the sky idea, but vertical farms containing enough food to feed four million people, could one day divert a potential world food shortage.



The huge 'living' skyscrapers have captured the imagination of architects in the U.S and Europe as food prices soar.



They are the brainchild of Dickson Despommier, a professor of public health at Columbia University.

The skyscraper concept is gaining more attention as world food prices soar. The designer claims one farm could produce 12 million lettuces a year

'We need to devote as much attention to vertical farming as we did to going to the moon,' the 68-year-old said.

'It will free the world from having to worry where our next meal will come from.'

The revolutionary scientist proposes gleaming 21 storey skyscrapers that could potentially be as productive as 588 acres of land and grow up to 12 million lettuces a year.



A computer generated image of whata vertical farm might look like

He said the farms, projected to cost £45m to build and £2.7m a year to run, would be both environmentally friendly and economically profitable.

Dr Despommier created his concept in 1999 with graduate students during a class on medical ecology.

With the world's population expected to increase to 3 billion by 2050 and almost 80 per cent of farming land in use, the idea has never been more relevant.

Despommieren has used the internet and a series of lectures to spread his concept.

However, despite the neat simplicity of his idea, Dr Despommier is treated with suspicion in academic circles.

'I'm viewed as kind of an outsider because it's kind of a crazy idea,' Dr Despommier says.

Not put off, Despommier, has pushed for city planners in America to take his project seriously.



'Vertical farming practised on a large scale in urban centres has great potential to supply enough food in a sustainable fashion to comfortably feed all of humankind for the foreseeable future,' he said.



'All of this may sound too good to be true but these are realistic and achievable goals, given the full development of a few new technologies.

'High-rise food-producing buildings will succeed only if they function by mimicking ecological process.



'Most important, there must be strong, government-supported economic incentives to the private sector, as well as to universities and local government to develop the concept,' the professor said.

Vertical farms could also work in pyramid form

Building these modern Hanging Gardens of Babylon may seem like something from a science fiction novel, but Despommier believes they are necessary for mankind's future.



'It's very idealistic and ivory tower and all of that. But there's a real desire to make this happen,' he said.

