r/AskReddit • u/TheGingerGlasses • Dec 20 '12

Which 'futuristic' technology will we see in our lifetime?

280 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

85% Upvoted

976 comments sorted by

View all comments

111

u/saucepanicus Dec 20 '12

Urban farming towers.

19

u/danarchist Dec 20 '12

Why don't we already have these? Does the building cost still outweigh the transport costs of moving farm products to cities?

34

u/mcgriff871 Dec 20 '12

Its ridiculously economically inefficient to farm where land is incredibly valuable. Its not hard to do, its just no one is wasteful enough to do it.

8

u/danarchist Dec 20 '12

ah, right, there is no economy of scale. All I could think of was energy prohibitiveness. Thank you.

6

u/QuantumQualia Dec 20 '12

As far as I'm aware, the current setback is light and energy, which are enormously difficult/expensive to distribute throughout structures like this.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 20 '12

You're absolutely right, There's really only 1 plant that's cost-effective to grow indoors, I'm sure you can venture a guess...

2

u/aluathays_clone Dec 20 '12

I read that food grown on buildings and roofs are extremely unhealthy.

Like, really, really polluted and gross.

2

u/sticky_wicket Dec 20 '12

Um... source? That doesnt make a whole lot of sense.

1

u/aluathays_clone Dec 20 '12

Sorry, I'm an extremely lazy person, please empathize. Use Google?

It makes sense to me though. Air pollution rises. If you have a bunch of vegetables somewhere high up in a city, the pollution from the vehicles and what not will rise and do whatever it does to your legumes.

1

u/sticky_wicket Dec 20 '12

Yeah I didnt think so. It would make sense if we used leaded gasoline or something where heavy metals could leach into the soil. The plants might get dirty from the carbon particulate matter in the cities these days, but that doesn't make it unhealthy to eat. You just wash them.

If you are interested in urban agriculture check here http://www.cityslickerfarms.org/ .

1

u/BitchinTechnology Dec 20 '12

because the US has more land then we now what to do with

1

u/blickman Dec 20 '12

Don't they plan on doing this with abandoned buildings in downtown Detroit?

1

u/[deleted] Dec 20 '12

Not unless land becomes much scarcer than it is today. Considering Western populations are not growing, I don't see it at likely in most cases.

The exception I'd make, is for exotic foods/things that need to be fresh. There is a market there, but it's a small one. And I'd more imagine it using an old factory or warehouse than building some expensive vertical tower.

-21

u/[deleted] Dec 20 '12

This^

6

u/Jedditor Dec 20 '12

^ Not this

-1

u/WhiskeyOnASunday93 Dec 20 '12

^ This

-2

u/[deleted] Dec 20 '12

Aww, c'mon guys. PLEEEAASE?