Can vertical farms feed the UK sustainable? A new study weighing climate costs and benefits

Vertical agriculture provides an opportunity that affects the need to secure food production in the face of climate change, but can you really provide a sustainable alternative to crops planted in the field? A new study led by Sari University found that although vertical farms significantly increase lettuce revenues and use much less water, carbon fingerprint still goes beyond the traditional agriculture of lettuce – which increases important questions about how food security is balanced with environmental responsibility.

the TicketPublished in Food and energy securityIt is believed to be the first to explain soil emissions from field agriculture, compared to crops planted in a commercial vertical farm in the United Kingdom

With a look at lettuce production, the researchers analyzed two farms in the United Kingdom-one of them on mineral soil and the other on peat-based soils and farm in Spain, which together provides most lettuce in the United Kingdom. Then compare this with the vertical farm.

The results showed that the vertical farms can provide more than 20 times the return from the field farms – about 97 kg per square meter compared to only 3.3 kg. The use of water is also about eight times compared to Spanish land farms, where irrigation requirements are high (0.9 cubic meters/kg in vertical farms compared to up to 7.3 cubic meters/kilograms in Spain).

However, greenhouse gas emissions are still higher with vertical implants. Even when the renewable electricity is operated, the vertical lettuce produced about 0.93 kilograms of greenhouse gases per kilogram, compared to 0.57 kg for field farms in the United Kingdom.

“Vertical agriculture has the ability to transform food security in the United Kingdom, especially as climate change and seasonal dehydration pressure on traditional agriculture,” said Michael Gargaro, a senior studies researcher at the Center for Environment and Sustainability at Sari University, and the leader of the study in the study.

“Our research shows that although technology can bring in much higher returns and reduce water use, it currently comes at a higher carbon cost. The challenge now is to make vertical agriculture more efficient in energy and its best integration with renewable systems, so that it can become a really sustainable solution.”

A large part of the carbon effect has been linked to the high energy requirements of the vertical systems and fiber fiber plots – tiny blocks made of jute legs that are used to support and develop plants instead of soil. The researchers have found that the transformation into alternative materials, such as COIR, can cut the Earth’s imprint for vertical farms by more than 95 % – which leads to clear opportunities to reduce their environmental cost.

“With about 95 % of the lettuce imported from Spain during the winter months, progress in the new agricultural technology has made the supply secure for preparations, but like a month. Agriculture, the vertical farms must reduce their use of energy and rethink the materials that depend on them,” said Dr. Zoe M. Harris, Director of the Environment and Sustainability Center at Sari University, co -director of the Sustainability Institute and the co -author of the study.

The research highlights that although vertical agriculture is not after the most sustainable option to produce lettuce, innovations in energy and materials can make it a decisive part of future food security in the United Kingdom, especially since climate change and water scarcity threaten traditional growth areas such as Spain.