垂直农业成为当地种植农产品的可行来源

In East of Eden, Adam Trask invests his fortune in the dream of transporting fresh produce from the fertile Salinas Valley across the continent during the winter months. Delays in crossing the Rockies resulted in railcars full of rotting lettuce arriving in New York, costing Adam a chunk of his wealth and making him the laughingstock of Salinas, Calif.

Transporting fresh produce has become safer and more reliable in the century since this scene took place. Now we can get not only fresh fruits and vegetables from across the country but also bananas from Ecuador, avocados from Mexico, 和来自秘鲁的洋葱. This convenience, however, comes at the expense of the environment, which is affected by the worldwide distribution of what was once grown locally, 人们又开始寻找当地的选择.

“There's an enormous amount of transportation and heavy labor from the center of the United States or the Central Valley of California, where the majority of crops are grown, 到美国两岸的人口中心,” said Matt Williams, 哈斯凯尔利弗莫尔地区总监, Calif., office. “It doesn't make sense to grow food where it's farthest away from the people who are going to be eating it.”

With population growth and environmental awareness creating greater demand for locally grown foods, 垂直农业正在成为一种可行和可持续的选择.

一想到农业，就会联想到一望无际的田野. In vertical farming, the fields are floor-to-ceiling vertical walls of cells holding plants. Instead of soil, 植物生长在有机细胞中，这些细胞通过气耕法得到营养, 水和营养物质通过喷雾输送, or hydroponically, 植物生长在营养丰富的水中.

“你不一定要有巨大的, multimillion-square-foot facilities; you could have hundreds of small vertical farms that can serve city blocks versus an entire city,” Williams said. “垂直农业在城市中心效果很好. 你可以在几百平方英尺的土地上种植一英亩的农产品, 所以你不一定需要有那么大的足迹. With advances in technology, 这个过程变得越自动化, 在室内种植效率越高.”

The appeal of vertical farming, beyond providing local produce, is that it could increase food production to meet the needs of the growing global population, which is expected to top 9 billion by 2050. 目前，美国有超过 2,000 vertical farms，包括小型和大型种植者. 这种做法也在亚洲蔓延开来, Europe, and the Middle East, 在哪里，水资源短缺是寻找可耕地的一大挑战. The global vertical farming market, currently at $781 million, is expected to reach $1.5 billion in the next 10 years，年复合增长率(CAGR)为6%.85%.

垂直农业还解决了生长季节的问题, 为种植食物提供一个可控的环境.

“During the growing process, 你可以控制食物生长的环境,” Williams said. “你正在使用专门的灯，这样农产品就可以一天24小时生长. 你不必完全依赖太阳. You can reduce the amount of water loss and use of pesticides because the growing area is enclosed.”

Startup costs for vertical farms are not insignificant and vary by growing method and size of the operation. Some companies use proprietary technology that must be able incorporated into the building’s design. In such cases, choosing an architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) partner with extensive design-build experience in the manufacturing space, such as 澳门足彩app, 能否证明投资回报最大化的无价之宝.

“As you're going through the design process and trying to figure out the technology and what type of space is needed, understanding the capital requirements for the project is crucial to making sure you’re spending their investors’ money wisely,” Williams said. “通过我们的设计和施工背景, 澳门足彩app is able to provide cost feedback in the early phases to help provide a certainty of outcome and understanding of what it's going to take financially to build these projects.”

而垂直农场空间具有独特的设计方面, 它与其他类型的食品生产设施非常相似.

“When building a vertical farm, you have to make the best use of space that can provide the highest yield while optimizing people and product flow within the facility,” Williams said. “A lot of the knowledge we have from work in other food-manufacturing markets is applicable with vertical farming. 他们有特殊的技术，需要设施的支持, 不管是结构上的支持还是公用事业系统的支持, water-distribution systems, 施肥系统或电气要求. There's a lot of synergy between our typical food manufacturing and indoor farming.”

Vertical farms are starting to supply fresh produce to Michelin-starred restaurants, farmer’s markets, and grocery stores. Consumers in New York will still be able to buy fresh strawberries in the middle of January, but now they’ll be grown down the block instead of shipped from thousands of miles away.

“这是一个不断增长的市场，而且呈上升趋势，”威廉姆斯说. “If even 25% of the produce for a major population center is grown locally, it's pretty impactful, and it's a step in the right direction. 它不一定会取代所有的传统农业, 但随着人口的持续增长，它肯定会产生影响.”