The solution to securing future food supply may be found in 30 story high greenhouses. Aside from potentially providing food for the world’s growing population, Vertical farming may also help save the environment. It is a great example of what technological innovation and intelligent solutions can accomplish.

World hunger is a pressing issue and as the world’s population continues to grow the burden will not ease. Researchers estimate that 80% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050, which will increase to 3 billion people. The natural question is of course: how will we feed all these people when we are already struggling?

Since we seem to have reached maximum capacity in conventional farming (or close to it) and farming land is growing increasingly scarce, the answer may lie in technological innovation. One recent development is the Vertical Farm, or ‘Farmscrapers’, a concept where high-rise buildings are constructed to hold extensive agricultural facilities.

Last year, Swedish innovation company Plantagon International took first place in Globe Forum’s ‘Innovation Idol’ for their Plantagon Greenhouse, beating over 100 international contributions.

The idea of vertical farming is to build tall buildings out of eco-friendly material and provide each floor with its own water and air supply. By the use of intelligent technology, sensors can detect and track how much water every single plant uses, or how much nutrients it has absorbed. Also, by analyzing the gas content of the air, the system will be able to tell when a plant is ready to be picked.

And the potential is great; a Scientific American article states that one-square-block building of 30 floors would produce the same amount of food as 2,400 conventional outdoor acres. And because of its urban position, less food would be wasted during the transport. Vertical farming would also significantly decrease the use of fossil fuels, US farming today accounts for 20% of the total gasoline and diesel consumption, and that’s without transports.

All and all, Farmscrapers are an ingenious innovation. It increases farming output and, decreases wasted food, energy consumption, water use and greenhouse gas emissions and solves the problem of coming up with arable land the size of Brazil that doesn’t exist. It is also an excellent example of what smart technology can accomplish for the environment, almost surprising that it hasn’t been done already.