Having huge food farms of this size, which would be very costly (in terms of R&D and materials) is only going to be ever viable in places of intense urban density, like NYC or Tokyo. It will not a viable option for most of places, due to capital and operating costs. We should be thinking of ways to reduce consumption of energy through this whole process, and we need to have options that are available to the poor.

I have a friend in New Orleans who is renting an empty space in the Marigny, about a half mile from the French Quarter. He has started a business as an ‘urban farmer.’ He is growing organic vegetables within the city limits, and local people can walk or bike to his urban farm (not a community garden – this is a small business independently operated to make a profit) to buy produce. He also is planning to begin supplying local food stores (like the nearby upcoming New Orleans Food Coop, http://www.nolafoodcoop.org) with a big wagon on his bicycle. These are true ‘carbon footprint free vegetables.’

His farm has taken very little capital and time to start up. What it takes is a change of lifestyle and culture that although may be uncomfortable at first, it is necessary. We can’t wait 30 years for these mega farm buildings to become economically viable to large corporations to start addressing real issues with water and food scarcity. Imagine if there was millions of dollars of investment in developing smalls scale urban farms in empty spaces in cities in towns all over the country? We would solve our problem, and never have to depend on such wasteful schemes.

But, best of luck to those involved!

How can this concept be scaled up for large quantities of wheat and corn?