The world population is growing rapidly - but the way we're currently producing food is not sustainable.
If we keep going, there will be a shortage of food sooner or later!
Most people will be living in crammed urban areas and space will be limited - there's not enough land to build more fields or farms.
So what do you do if horizontal space is running short? You build vertically!
That's exactly the concept of vertical farming, a futuristic twist to traditional agriculture.
It's a new area of business and many different start ups have come up with strategies to use vertical space for their farms.
An example for one type of vertical farms are Aerofarms - this company uses old warehouses to grow crops with no soil and 95% less water.
It may sound crazy or idealistic, but it's already happening: these farms are producing food indoors in an environmentally friendly way.
Instead of soil, the crops are growing on a reusable cloth made from recycled plastic.
Instead of sun, they are placed under specific LED lights.
And instead of watering them, the company has come up with a special ventilating system to mist the plants with water instead - which uses 95% less water than traditional farming methods.
It's an environmentally-friendly, efficient, completely indoor farm of the future:
The largest vertical indoor farm is located in New Jersey - with over 7,000 sq m (70,000 sq ft) of floor space!
They focus on fast-growing greens, herbs and salad vegetables, since they're easier and quicker to grow in an indoor space compared to other produce like root vegetables.
There are also no pesticides used and the plants grow even quicker than in regular fields or greenhouses.
The only downside of this concept is that the vertical farms has to have constant access to electricity to imitate the sunlight - but it could still be very cost-efficient in areas that are crammed, where the ground is useless for farming or where solar energy could be used.
A very different approach to vertical farming are actual vertical skyscrapers.
Also called farmscrapers, these tall buildings could be ten or twenty stories high, growing different crops and even combining the space with a marketplace for the produce.
A new concept for one of these vertical farm-skyscrapers has just been awarded: the design magazine eVolo holds an annual competition for the most innovative skyscraper designs.
This year's first place winner is the Mashambas Skyscraper - a vertical farm tower specifically designed to fight famine in rural Africa.
It consists of different layers which can be disassembled individually, and the whole tower could even be moved if different communities need it in another area.
It's not even only a farm, it's an all-in-one food- education- and healthcare system:
While produce is grown on the upper floors, below that would be a healthcare station, kindergarden, and even a docking port for drones so that food can be delivered to isolated villages.
The tower was designed by polish architects Mateusz Frankowski and Pawel Lipiński, whose goal would be to give impoverished towns in rural africa an opportunity to fight hunger.
"The main objective of the project is to bring this green revolution to the poorest people. Giving training, fertilizer, and seeds to the small farmers can give them an opportunity to produce as much produce per acre as huge modern farms. When farmers improve their harvests, they pull themselves out of poverty. They also start producing surplus food for their neighbors. When farmers prosper, they eradicate poverty and hunger in their communities. Today hunger and poverty may be only African matter, but the world’s population will likely reach nine billion by 2050. Scientists warn that this would result in global food shortage. Africa’s fertile farmland could not only feed its own growing population, it could also feed the whole world."-Architects Mateusz Frankowski and Pawel Lipiński
Let's hope that eco-friendly farms like these could help fight world hunger and revolutionize the way we use agriculture!
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