Due to the economy and low demand for new office space, it's expected that construction of all of the planned office buildings on the World Trade Center site won't be completed until around 2040... a long way in the future.

I propose that one of those building spaces be used instead to create the world's first vertical farm.
-- goldbb, Apr 20 2009

Wikipedia's description of Vertical Farms http://en.wikipedia...ki/Vertical_farming
[goldbb, Apr 20 2009]

Vertical Farm Concrete_20Cow
Wikipedia indicates someone beat me to the idea by 4 years, though. [Zimmy, Apr 20 2009]

Mushroom pot farm http://www.telegrap...overed-in-Rome.html
farm in an old mine [popbottle, Dec 25 2013]

cool, but smack dab in the middle of a bunch of high-rises wouldn't be my first choice for a place to put a farm.
-- FlyingToaster, Apr 20 2009


+ it saves on food transportation costs, though.
-- Zimmy, Apr 20 2009


Smack in the middle of a bunch of high rises might be the best place to put a farm, though! :)

After all, what downsides are there, other than the high cost of urban real estate?

The only one I can think of is that the lowest few floors don't recieve very much natural sunlight, due to the surrounding tall buildings, and thus would require uneconomical amounts of artificial light to grow plants.

That can be solved either by using more energy efficient forms of artificial light, such as LEDs, or simply by using the lowest floors of the building for offices. (Or growing mushrooms)
-- goldbb, Apr 20 2009


The lowest floors could be offices, like you said, and also produce retail, or even aquaculture (shrimp, tilapia, catfish, etc.)
-- Zimmy, Apr 20 2009


Hanging Gardens would give the city a smack of Babylon
-- loonquawl, Apr 21 2009


Maybe growing opium would allow Afghan farmers to grow something else ...
-- Aristotle, Apr 21 2009


\Smack of Babylon\ is a great name for something Loonquawl

also an 80 story farm would be cool especially if there were cows and sheep grazing and no barrier on the edge of each deck

we should make one deck a too short landing strip for crop dusting planes
-- vfrackis, Apr 21 2009


I likes! +

My understanding is that the majority of organic produce is grown in Silent Running-like greenhouses. One avoids the need for herbicide and pesticide by doing it all indoors. New Yorkers love that organic produce. I think growing it in the city would be great.

Doing this is a mixed use facility would also help with CO2 - greenhouses often require this to be augmented because the plants are hungry. One could vent the building thru the greenhouses, using the CO2 generated by the human occupants. Sometimes the greenhouses might smell like someone's shampoo or stir fry but that is living in the city. The plants don't mind.
-- bungston, Dec 26 2013


Has anyone done a conveyor belt vertical farm? Plant the seeds at the bottom, and let it germinate in the section that's in shadow. By the time the seed pokes above the growth media, it's into the portion of the belt that gets sun. At the top of the structure, the belt leans bends back over the roof of the building (the actual growth trays can pivot), so the last few weeks or month of growth and harvest is all done horizontally from the roof.
-- MechE, Dec 26 2013


Every time I see this I read it as WTF farm.

That would be a fine name. It would help attract tourists to view your specialty vegetables and other cultivated oddities.
-- bungston, Dec 28 2013


Having recently been immersed in Minecraft it seems to me that this concept would make a fine Minecraft endeavor.
-- bungston, Dec 28 2013


Growing crops in a urban setting is a horrible idea. Not only is it a waste of expensive real estate, all sorts of pollutants, particularly heavy metals from automobiles, will be incorporated into the food.
-- Cuit_au_Four, Dec 28 2013



random, halfbakery