Make Plans for a Vertical Garden Now

With more and more people becoming "locavores" at the same time farmland is disappearing from far too many communities, there may be a solution for foodservice operators and hotels with foodservice options themselves to satisfy this growing consumer demand.  Named one of the top 50 inventions for 2008, John Valcent's vertical farming system has been named as the 16th best invention of 2009 by Time Magazine. Valcent's innovative growing solutions even featured at the unveiling of the World's tallest building in Dubai.

Vertical farming is a  system that is designed to grow vegetables and other foods much more efficiently and with greater food value than in agricultural field condition and has the following characteristics:

* Produces approximately 20 times the normal production volume for field crops
* Requires 5% of the normal water requirements for field crops
* Can be built on non arable lands and close to major city markets
* Can work in a variety of environments: urban, suburban, countryside, desert etc.
* Does not use herbicides or pesticides
* Will have very significant operating and capital cost savings over field agriculture
* Will drastically reduce transportation costs to market resulting in further savings, higher quality and fresher foods on delivery, and less transportation pollution
* Will be easily scalable from small to very large food production situations

As such, this could make a TERRIFIC spring project for students in culinary arts and hospitality programs around the U.S.  In doing so, students could be challenged to increase the yields from vertical gardens while reducing the need for pesticides, herbicides, water, fertilizer, etc., needed for traditional ground level gardens.  To learn more check out the following:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/07/vertical-garden.php

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/student-designs-vertical-garden-rainwater-harvesting.php

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/vertical-farming-system.php

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1934027_1934003_1933961,00.html