Of course being dirty has nothing to do with global warming or the environment, but that type of analysis is much more complicated than "looks clean!"
1) Growing density - you use a lot less square footage by growing up!
2) Can grow anywhere - you control a ton of the variables due to setup indoors away from weather conditions, indoor lights, control of water and nutrients, etc.
3) The ability to very carefully fine tune the end product due to a large number of controllable inputs into the growing process (rather than spreading nutrients and water over large acres of land)
Yes, but all of that square footage is inside the building, which cost money to construct and operate, in addition to capital costs of constructing the multi-tiered farm and wiring it with LEDs
> 2) Can grow anywhere
Yes...anywhere...inside a heated building. Even if the LEDs used provide some degree of heating, some sort of HVAC to regulate temperatures must still be employed. I'd imagine you wouldn't use an unheated warehouse in Canada during winter.
> 3) The ability to very carefully fine tune the end product due to a large number of controllable inputs into the growing process
Probably the only real advantage. It also makes ramping up to demand somewhat easier, since the growth time is shorter.
However, make no mistake - so far these are low calorie greens at a luxury price.
Smaller scales make the math worse, not better.
> Also, I am growing radish and salad in the attic right now where there is no extra heating or light so point 2 is also not necessarily true.
I'm assuming the attic is attached to a heated building of some sort? Not sure why you're trying so hard to come up with arguments for this hydroponic stuff.
People are well aware of the advantages and it's mostly going to be used to grow high-value cash crops like spices (saffron?) and cannabis.
Operating a modern western farm requires all of that too. Do you think farmland has no capital costs? What about all the farm machinery?
> Yes...anywhere...inside a heated building. Even if the LEDs used provide some degree of heating, some sort of HVAC to regulate temperatures must still be employed. I'd imagine you wouldn't use an unheated warehouse in Canada during winter.
This seems like a rather strange argument. You can grow crops indoors in antartica if it comes to that. Beind able to grow crops anywhere you like rather than having to hunt for ideal land is an incredible benfit. Considering that a lot of the fertile topsoil in the midwest is being lost, this seems like a great way to ensure that food supplies are not jeapordized.
> However, make no mistake - so far these are low calorie greens at a luxury price.
For now, because farms and farm produce is heavily subsidized. If we were to apply similar subisidies to indoor farms + continue to increase the efficiency, we could possily produce at similar costs as well.
Similarly also plastic packaging has minor footprint compared to the overall production of the vegetable. So, if the food waste is reduced even a little bit with plastic packaging, it is enviromentally better to wrap the veggies in plastic.
It might be better to increase the carbon footprint slightly, reduce carbon footprint elsewhere, so that water can be managed smarter.