As global population growth accelerates, arable land shrinks, and climate change intensifies, traditional agricultural models face mounting challenges. Against this backdrop, vertical farming has emerged as an innovative agricultural method, offering solutions for food security and efficient resource use. It not only revolutionizes traditional farming but also represents a necessary adaptation for future agricultural development.
Concept and Evolution of Vertical Farming
Vertical farming refers to cultivating crops in vertically stacked layers within indoor facilities. The concept has deep historical roots: Francis Bacon introduced the idea of soilless plant cultivation in 1627, and in 1909, Life magazine illustrated an early vision of “vertical farms.” In 1915, American geologist Gilbert Ellis Bailey coined the term “vertical farming,” though it then referred to deep-soil farming for yield improvement.
Modern vertical farming began during World War II, when U.S. forces conducted hydroponic experiments to grow food on military bases. In 1999, Columbia University professor Dickson Despommier proposed the concept of “vertical farms” in urban skyscrapers, laying the foundation for the current model. Since then, with rapid technological advances, vertical farming has expanded globally. Companies like Plenty in the U.S. and Crop One in Canada have driven large-scale commercial projects, attracting significant investment.
Technologies and Cultivation Methods
Vertical farming relies heavily on advanced technologies to create optimal environments for crops. Environmental control systems precisely manage temperature, light, humidity, and air composition. Intelligent lighting systems simulate appropriate light spectra for different crop stages — for instance, providing more blue light during leafy vegetable growth and increasing red light during maturation to boost biomass accumulation.
Common cultivation methods include:
- Hydroponics: Plants grow in nutrient-rich water solutions without soil, using up to 70% less water than traditional farming. Controlled environments allow crops like lettuce to grow in 30–40 days instead of the typical 60–80.
- Aeroponics: Roots are suspended and misted with nutrient solutions, achieving the highest water and fertilizer savings with rapid growth and minimal pesticide use.
- Aquaponics: A symbiotic system where fish waste nourishes crops, creating a sustainable, closed-loop model.
Other innovations include hydraulic vertical farms like Sky Greens in Singapore and the application of nanotechnology and 3D printing for customized growth structures.
Advantages of Vertical Farming
Vertical farming offers significant advantages across multiple dimensions. By expanding land use into three dimensions, vertical farms maximize space efficiency — for instance, a nine-story lettuce facility in the Netherlands achieves 3000 m²of growing area on just 900 m²of land, making it ideal for densely populated regions like Japan and Singapore. Precision environmental control enables resource efficiency, reducing water consumption by about 90% compared to traditional farming methods, while clean energy sources such as solar panels power daily operations. Controlled indoor environments also ensure stable, year-round crop production, with Japan’s 300 indoor farms supplying over 550,000 tons of lettuce annually. Furthermore, by minimizing the use of pesticides and fertilizers, vertical farming produces healthier, eco-friendly crops that meet the growing consumer demand for high-quality, safe food.
Challenges Facing Vertical Farming
- High Costs: Building and operating vertical farms require massive investment in facilities, lighting, and climate control, leading to long payback periods of 5–10 years or more.
- Lack of Standards: The industry lacks unified technical standards for sensors, algorithms, and nutrient solutions, hindering interoperability and consistent product quality.
- Limited Crop Variety: Currently, vertical farms mainly grow leafy greens and herbs; staple crops like rice, wheat, and corn remain difficult to cultivate economically in vertical systems.
Vertical farming is thriving globally. The Asia-Pacific region leads due to high population density and limited land. Singapore’s Sky Greens launched the world’s first commercial vertical farm, while Japan boasts over 400 indoor farms. North America and Europe are also actively developing large-scale projects like AeroFarms in New Jersey and commercial farms in the UK. Looking ahead, new energy-saving technologies and renewable energy adoption will lower operational costs. Advances in genetic engineering and AI will optimize crop varieties and environmental control. Vertical farming will increasingly integrate with urban ecosystems, creating “agricultural skyscrapers” that combine food production with living and commercial spaces. Vertical farming is poised to play a critical role in ensuring global food security, sustainable resource use, and urban food supply, opening a greener, more efficient, and sustainable future for agriculture.
