How vertical farming transforms urban spaces and breathes new life into empty offices
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In cities across the globe, office vacancies are at an all-time high. In the United States alone, more than 20 percent of office spaces sit empty, a consequence of the shift to remote and hybrid work. While real estate developers scramble to repurpose these Read More...
This gigantic vertical greenhouse uses 100% natural light
Vertical farming is an amazing solution that allows us to grow fresh produce using a fraction of the water and land that traditional agriculture requires. That said, most vertical farms need a lot of heating and artificial light. The use of 100 percent natural light is what sets Shockingly Read More...
Vertical farming is bringing local produce to California’s densest cities
We’ve written extensively about vertical farming as a solution to make fresh food more sustainable, efficient, and localized. Now, sustainable agriculture company Plenty is hoping to expand the reach of vertical farming in California with two new sites in San Francisco and Compton. At their Read More...
Affordable housing and vertical farms: A match made in heaven?
We’ve written about vertical farms and affordable housing extensively at The Optimist Daily, but never have we seen these two concepts combined. Until now, that is. This is the exact combination we’re going to witness in Westbrook, Maine, where a multistory greenhouse is being constructed Read More...
One of Europe’s largest vertical farms harvests its first crops
Vertical farming is often associated with the future of agriculture. But an increasing number of large scale projects across the world are proof that that future is quickly morphing into the present. The most recent proof of this phenomenon is the first-phase completion of one of Europe’s Read More...
This vertical farm wants to improve agriculture by growing food for cattle
Producing food for cows requires an enormous amount of land. In fact, the US uses 780 million acres — or 41 percent of its land — to grow animal feed, either on pastures or through growing crops. And as demand for animal food continues to grow, the availability of arable land decreases. In some Read More...
Futuristic city is designed with an eye for sustainability and resilience
If you’re curious about what green urban planning may look like in the future, Barcelona-based architecture firm Guallart Architects has recently unveiled a neighborhood design for a new city in China, called Xiong’an New Area, that’s expected to serve as a model of sustainability - powered Read More...
Future of food: The world’s biggest rooftop urban farm is now bearing fruit
In the summer of 2019, we published a story about a rooftop urban farm being constructed in Paris that was set to be the biggest in the world. Now, nearly a year later, the world’s largest urban rooftop farm has started to bear fruit. Strawberries, to be precise: small, intensely flavored and Read More...
The future of food is vertical, and maybe even printed
3D printing food and growing vegetables vertically may sound like something out of a sci-fi novel, but these are technologies we have at our fingertips right now, and they are the future of our food systems. This week, we share a two-part blog about the innovative future of food and how technology Read More...