In How to Feed the World in 2050, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN states that we’ll need to increase food production by 70% while farmable land is only expected to expand by about 5%.

How will we deal with this OMG problem? What will our food systems look like in 30 years? On the pathway to get there, where are we now?

In preparation to solve these challenges, there is a community of people working on creating strategies and technologies that will allow us to produce enough food to meet our needs.

Vertical farming has become a primary area of study and innovation. Here are a few key insights to get a sense of where we’re at and where we may be heading.

The Vertical Farming Landscape

The opportunities are significant

The benefits of vertical farming are impressive:

Ideal for urban spaces : 1 acre of a vertical farm is equal to 10–20 acres of traditional soil-based farming.

: 1 acre of a vertical farm is equal to 10–20 acres of traditional soil-based farming. Less waste: 90% of crops planted are harvested.

90% of crops planted are harvested. Less water : Use of aquaponics and aeroponics growing methods requires 70–95% less fresh water.

: Use of aquaponics and aeroponics growing methods requires 70–95% less fresh water. Less energy for transportation : Perfectly suited for growing locally in urban areas, eliminating the need for long-distance transport.

: Perfectly suited for growing locally in urban areas, eliminating the need for long-distance transport. Safer and limited agricultural runoff: Controlled environment alleviates the need for using pesticides and herbicides.

A range of small to large-scale projects are underway

Agrilution is developing a smart garden for the home. Local Roots and Freight Farms retrofit shipping containers into hydroponic grow systems for small commercial operations and educational projects. And Plantagon has plans for a proposed ‘plantscraper’ — a high rise vertical farm that could one day become the new city norm.

For large-scale projects, production costs are currently high

A 2013 study on the economics of vertical farming found that with more research and collaboration costs could come down and opportunities would open up. They also stated that strong potential markets for high-rise style vertical farms include resource-constrained countries and big, wealthy cities.

Feeding 9 Billion

In his latest book, What’s the Future and Why It’s up to Us, Tim O’Reilly suggests the following when thinking about the future:

“… find seeds of that future, study them, and ask yourself how things will be different when they are the new normal. What happens if this trend keeps going?”

When thinking about how we’ll feed the world’s megacities in 2050, could verticle farming and some of today’s projects be the seeds of that future?

Systemic change doesn’t happen overnight but projects like VertiCrop, which turned a Vancouver rooftop parking structure into a vertical farm, are revealing as stepping stones on the pathway to ‘plantscrapers.’

And with autonomous vehicles coming to a city near you, might there be more opportunity there?