Any thoughts on the automated vertical farms that are starting to see good results?
There are also real possibilities of supply chain and infrastructure unreliability due to increasingly frequent extreme weather events, geopolitical tensions, etc.
What's most appropriate is likely highly context-dependent. I think a multi-pronged approach is best, and vertical farms could certainly play a role. Personally I see halting deforestation and fossil fuel use/extraction as the most urgent priority. I'm also a bit biased toward crop breeding/engineering for increased carbon uptake and soil sequestration (the lab I work in is pursuing this); it could help restore soil health while improving yield as well as resilience to environmental stressors.
I don't know much about the details of vertical farming, though. If you have anything to share, I'd love to check it out.
That's funny, because I do see vertical farming scaling to replace 100% of two-dimensional (read: "traditional") agriculture, and feeding billions. Every city of over a million should have at least 15 skyscrapers with at least 30 floors each growing staples.
Of course, we also need to switch to meat grown lab for > 75% of our meat demand and mostly stop producing cattle food with agriculture.
I’d guess even reclaiming land from the sea to add conventional farmland would be cheaper, if the numbers were run.
On Mars, maybe another story...
If you can point me to any resources you've found to support this, I'd be happy to read them and revise my view.
Besides the power/construction overhead, the infrastructure costs, and the lack of political will, many large coastal cities will likely see partial flooding and increasingly frequent weather events this century, while some are at risk of complete loss.
The meat issue is complex. Lab-grown meat is subject to many of the same power and infrastructure constraints as vertical farming; I don't see it scaling to sustainably meet (meat? ;) current demand. We need a massive reduction in meat consumption in the developed world, but we also need to be conscious of the fact that ruminants remain critical to many agricultural ecosystems. We should certainly stop razing the Amazon for cattle pasture, although that will require a dramatic shift in economic incentives.