Indoor farms for smart cities

Plantagon, an indoor farm that recently opened in Sweden, can produce a head of lettuce at about 0.9 liters of water, while for the equivalent weight in traditional farm with crops it can take as many as 128.7 liters. Indoor farming is the next big thing in agriculture and advanced food factories will be in a city's heart.

   Indoor farming has become far more popular in recent years. Technology has become even more precise, allowing large amounts of greens and fresh vegetables to be produced in urban environments with both minimal space and far smaller amounts of water or other resources.

   Combining agriculture and technology can limit travel time for food and the carbon footprint of preserving and transporting organic materials. Even the Oxygen produced by the crops is pumped into the building's air conditioning system. Some critics suggest that powering a hydroponic system is more wasteful than using the sun's energy to grow plants outdoors. However, Plantagon is solar powered.

   Applying existing technologies and developing new innovative ways to create efficient processes, systems, and solutions for a sustainable urban agriculture is the future. Combining the physical, biological, economic, and social conditions for successful and productive agriculture solutions in urban environments, is extremely important to cope with future challenges.

   As Plantagon mentions, we need this innovative solution because by 2050 up to 70% of the earth's population will reside in urban centers. Until then human population will increase by about 3 billion. Today, we use 80% of the arable land we have access to globally. By 2050, without significant change in food production, it is estimated that at least 10-15% of the global vegetable production must take place inside cities in order to maintain our current growth and consumption patterns.