Name You Need to Know in 2011: Urban Farming - Michael Noer
Name You Need to Know in 2011: Urban Farming

    
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Personally I think Urban Farming is a concept that is going to get a lot of play next year.  The idea is to farm in skyscrapers, located in cities.  These plants would be grown in hydroponic or aeroponic (tres cool) manner and would utilize recycled "grey" water.  Obviously there are some big benefits to this sort of farming -- in particular reduced carbon emissions from transporting food-stuffs from distant fields and a secondary effect of allowing some farmland to return to a "natural" forest state, acting as a carbon sink.  The hold-up is cost, especially real estate cost, and some untested engineering. Dickson Despommier, a longtime Columbia University professor who is the author of The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century thinks the concept will be initially viable in rich, arid places like Dubai and Saudi Arabia.
What do you think?  Is "Urban Farming" farming a Name You Need to Know in 2011?  What are other names we should know about in agriculture next year?
Be a part of our revolutionary effort to crowd-source the January issue of Forbes Magazine by submitting your ideas here.


