vertical farming
“IS IT ALWAYS THE RIGHT CHOICE?
EVERY FARMER HAS A UNIQUE
SITUATION AND UNIQUE GOALS. WHILE
STACKED PRODUCTION ALMOST
NEVER PANS OUT IN THE LONG RUN,
THERE IS A PLACE FOR HORIZONTAL
PLANES IN THE FARMING INDUSTRY.”
Combine these facts, and you’ve got a situation in which
the law of diminishing returns is evident. As you build a hori-
zontal plane operation higher, for every dollar invested, the
return on investment shrinks. You can see this by examining
the typical productivity. Net margin decreases by tier, finally
dipping below the market standard. You might still be making
a margin at this point, but if faced with pricing pressure from
your competitors, you will lose—you will not have the room in
your margin to lower prices.
FACTOR #4:
ENVIRONMENT AND PLANT HEALTH
Heat is removed more easily through vertical space.
Lighting interacts with plane orientation and affects
airflow. Historically, lights have been attached to the
growing plane itself. While overall revenue increases
as tiers are added to a system, associated costs grow
as well. Often, costs grow at higher rates per tier than
revenue. This limits airflow, which is needed to remove
heat produced by lights, remove humidity, and circu-
late gases such as CO 2 .
An alternative way to arrange lights is by placing
them in the center of a chimney. This facilitates
instead of blocking airflow. Air can be moved less
aggressively than in horizontal plane production,
which requires more intensive equipment and
ventilation systems.
VERTICAL PLANES FACILITATE AIRFLOW
Airflow is responsible for heat removal, humidity
removal, and CO 2 penetration to the canopy. An
efficient farm layout should facilitate air flow, not work
against it. The higher we go, the more plant production
problems occur. Pest issues tend to be worse (heat and
humidity are typically higher) in the upper growing
space, and treating those problems is inconvenient.
Moreover, removing heat from stacked techniques is
more difficult, which exacerbates the problem.
Farmers from South Dakota to South Africa are
finding that vertical plane production increases
profits while reducing costs. The technique
consistently offers better space-use efficiency (and
therefore, productivity), labor costs, profitability, and
plant-friendly environments. But is it always the
right choice? Every farmer has a unique situation
and unique goals. While stacked production almost
never pans out in the long run, there is a place for
horizontal planes in the farming industry. Sometimes,
real estate is cheap. Sometimes, the market demands
large-statured crops or root crops that aren’t suited to
vertical plane production. In cases like these, farmers
must weigh all the variables to choose the production
method that can offer long-term success.
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