The world is changing rapidly these days. So might be our food and energy systems under new supply chains. Our recent work published in Nature Food looks at the direct (growing facility) and indirect (renewable energy generation) land use of indoor farming for nine regions across the globe.
Vertical farming is often touted as saving precious land. However, its high energy consumption calls for renewable energy, which, if provided via wind turbines and solar panels, results predominantly in a larger land use compared with other growing techniques.
We put the land use in context with the local geography, showing which farming technique is the most favourable for vegetable production in each region. Locations with abundant land for energy generation and limited farmland (such as Reykjavik and UAE) are ideal candidates for indoor farming.
Check out httpss://lnkd.in/g2whrtcH for a 10-slide summary of key points.
