Green roof design is becoming popular all over the world, but this vertical garden conceptual model – part of the Fast Forward exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) – takes the concepts of aquaponics, locally-grown produce, and urban farming to new heights by stuffing all those things into a single, “green” skyscraper.
Vertical farming, which some experts claim uses just 1/6 of the resources required by conventional “flat” farming to produce a given quantity of produce, is considered a critical next step in both agriculture and city planning of the future. Critical because, by the year 2050, the world’s population is expected to reach a staggering 9 billion humans – and feeding all those people will require the production of almost 70% more food than the planet currently capable of producing.
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s not going to be easy to will 70% more farmland and fresh water into existence, so something is going to have to give- and that something could very well be the traditional American farm (which, arguably, is already a thing of the past, anyway).
Above, you can check out my quick-and-dirty phone video of the vertical garden model at Chicago’s MSI, and get a sense of how the waste water from the fish tanks fertilize the higher level vegetables in the proposed large-scale aquaponic system, then let us know what you think of the exhibit’s chances of opening up people’s minds to the new idea in the comments, below. Enjoy!
Vertical Garden Concept | the Culturist
Source | Images: Culturist, and original content from EcoLocalizer.
