The Future of Farming
Vertical Farming?
Agriculture
What is it? Agriculture is the science or practicing of farming, including the cultivation of soil for the growing of crops or the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products.
The History of Agriculture
In early human history people used to be nomadic which means that they move with the animals they hunt. The early people were always moving in small clans of 10 or 15 people. When agriculture was discovered people started domesticating goats and pigs for milk and food. People also started growing wheat and barley which grew naturally in the middle east.
Now in modem time
Today in agriculture farmers in the United states must raise enough food and enough live stock to feed 318 million people. Large machinery is used to cultivate massive fields for the growing of food. Lately there has been change in farming in the United States. Land prices have risen dramatically in the past years. Many U.S. farmers have to rent land in order to maintainer their operation afloat. For farmers who rent land they are more likely to loose money each with the added coast of land rental each year.
Crops
In 2013 the United States saw the lowest corn and soy bean yield. But in 2014 there was a new record set for highest corn and soy bean production by 3%. Now you would think with there being a high yield in corn and soy bean that most cash crop farmers would make more money, well there is still low crop prices throughout 2014-2015 averaged about $4.00 dollars a bushel. Witch is not very much for the farmer to profit from.
Fuel
So as you would think in order to run a traditional farm operation you need fuel to run the machines. In resent years we have seen rise in fuel prices such as diesel and gas. Farmers can expect to pay around $300,000 dollars only to get 100,000 gallons of fuel. Not to mention the environmental harm caused by burning fossil fuels on a regular daily basis. This why some Tractor manufactures are looking into making their machines more fuel efficient to save both fuel and to cut down on carbon emissions.
World population
As mentioned earlier the national and world population is only rising this means that more land would have to be used to both house and more people. On the other side there might be an early solution to this problem a repetitively new concept called vertical farming. Vertical farming is still in early testing but has yet be proven a feasible solution for farming.
Climate change
In recent years the world has begun to heat up causing changes in the world climate. Here in Wisconsin we are starting to have milder winters. These mild winters can harm crop production because the deep frost line helps kill parasites that are harmful to crops. High temperatures do help crops grow, but crops also need the correct amount of water to grow properly.
The Future of Vertical Farming: Sustainable Gardens, Sustainable Agriculture
Vertical farming
Vertical farming is new concept that moves all farm operations indoors. With vertical farming you can grow crops all year without having to worry about weather, insects, and fungus. With hydroponics you grow all the plants in water with artificial LED lights. Vertical farming still saves more water than traditional methods because the water is filtered and recycled. You can grow plants in 16 days while with other methods it would take 30 days to grow. The basic idea of vertical farming is to grow more plants in less space.
Waterproof T8 LED Grow Light Tubes For Vertical Farming
Vertical is they way to go.
In large cities they realized that they need to fit more people in less space so what they is go up instead of up. With a rising population you need to feed more in less space so what do you do, you look up for answers! This would mean that large scale farms could be in the middle of large of urban areas. With the farms being in urban the transport coast would go down and so would carbon emissions. Although vertical farming is still limited to leafy greens the future is still looking up or should i say vertical.