What is vertical farming?
    • Vertical farming (also sometimes referred to as vertical gardening) is a farming 
     practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers. 
    • Vertical farming may be a quite promising future food source since the space can be 
     used quite efficient to produce large amounts of vegetables and fruits. 
    • However, apart from many other additional advantages, there are also some issues 
     related to vertical farming. 
    • In this presentation, the pros and cons of vertical farming are explained.
     Advantages of Vertical Farming
     • Stable crop yields
     • Protection from outside conditions
     • Crop yields all year long
     • Protection against pests
     • Less crop losses
     • Increase in profits
     • Protection from animals & invasive plant species
     • Ability to grow all kinds of plants
     • Savings in water
     • Vertical farming can be fully organic
     • Less crop imports needed
     • More efficient land use
     • Less habitat destruction
     • Energy generation through composting
    Stable crop yields
    • One important advantage of vertical farming is that it assures quite stable crop 
     yields.
    • If everything is set up perfectly, it is quite easy to predict how much vegetables and 
     fruits can be harvested in a given period of time. 
    • Thus, it is easy to make long-term contracts with grocery stores and suppliers since 
     their will be a stable supply of crops and income streams due to vertical gardening.
    Protection from outside conditions
    • Through vertical farming, the plants are also protected against all sorts of adverse 
     outside conditions. 
    • For instance, through outdoor farming, a high fraction of crops is lost every year due 
     to droughts, floods or storms. 
    • Through the use of vertical gardening, none of those extreme weather conditions will 
     matter since the inside conditions will not be altered due to those conditions, at least 
     if those vertical farming facilities are not damaged by those extreme weather events. 
    • Thus, if the vertical farming system had been constructed in a stable manner, there is 
     not too much to worry about adverse outside weather conditions.
    Crop yields all year long
     • Another important upside of vertical farming is that crops can be harvested all year 
      long. 
     • In contrast to outdoor farming where harvest time is only a few weeks or months, 
      crop yields from vertical gardening are much more stable. 
     • Thus, this stable crop yields all year long are quite convenient since they give farmers 
      the assurance that they will earn a constant income.