The 7 biggest disadvantages of vertical farming
Vertical indoor farming is often being argued to offer the next revolution is sustainable agriculture. While indeed there are many great benefits derived from vertical farming technologies, it is far from being perfect and in fact, there are still many great disadvantages to vertical farming that all of us need to be aware of if we are to discuss this exciting technology honestly.
1. High startup costs
The first big disadvantage of vertical farming is the high startup cost involved in setting up a vertical farming operation. As of now, most technologies and tools related to vertical farming are still rather new and thus – also expensive. This is because most companies producing vertical farming technologies – especially those building tools to be used by third parties – are not yet able to utilise economies of scale to bring down the costs of components, tools and manufacturing processes.
In addition to the technology being new, the global supply chain issues emphasised by the global Covid-19 pandemic, have increased the costs of many crucial components needed for controlling and automating vertical farms. Put together – all of this means that setting up a new vertical farming operation is still extremely expensive and this creates a high barrier of entry for new urban farmers. However, it should also be noted that, as with any new technology or technological invention, the components and manufacturing required for vertical farming will become cheaper as time goes by and the market matures as more players enter the market.
2. A limited number of crops that can be grown economically
The next and probably the biggest disadvantage of vertical farming compared to field farming is the limited number of crops that can be grown in vertical systems. One should note that this limitation is not only due to space constraints but also due to economic viability. As of today, most vertical farming systems are suitable to grow small horticultural crops like leafy greens, small vegetables and an assortment of berries. While there are companies that use their vertical farming technology to grow plants like potatoes, mushrooms, cucumbers and tomatoes, many of these plants still require a lot of research and most of them are not yet economically viable when grown in large scale systems.
In addition, while the current selection of plants being grown in vertical systems does include berries (strawberries being the best example), one of the big hurdles that still needs to be solved before growing flowering plants can be scaled on an industrial level – is making sure that the plants are able to pollinate correctly. While the pollination of flowering plants is normally done by bees, birds and even the wind, these natural components are naturally (pun intended) absent from controlled environment systems. Also, while some vertical farming companies have replaced natural pollination by a manual, human-made process, this has the tendency to become economically unsustainable as soon as the farming operations are scaled up even slightly. Even while companies like Polybee and Edete are working on novel technological solutions for automated pollination, the question of pollinating plants in vertical farms is still a significant hurdle that will require sizeable investments long into the future.
3. Can’t replace the farming of tall field crops
Another massive problem with vertical farming is that it cannot replace the farming of tall field crops and other protein dense plants because they simply do not fit into the vertical farming systems – and even if they did, the economics simply would not yet support the viability of such an operation. This is a huge issue and one of the major hurdles for vertical farming to solve due to the fact that the majority of field farming around the globe is dedicated for tall field crops (like wheats, grain, soy beans and so on) and since vertical indoor farming is not able to replace the production of these types of plants, it is questionable if not entirely unethical, to argue that vertical farming could somehow fix all the sustainability issues coming from conventional farming.
While vertical farming can work as a replacement for the traditional field farming of small horticultural crops (like leafy greens, herbs and small berries), this simply isn’t the case with large scale field farming. Having said this, our team at Arctic Farming has already successfully grown soy beans using our technology. In fact, our trials with growing soy beans were hugely successful and we believe that vertically farming soy beans would have excellent applications in the space industry. Regardless, our tests have shown that vertical farming technologies and the principles used to run these systems do work for plants like soy beans. However, the economics of such operations are still questionable to say the least.
4. Dependency on technology working properly
The fourth major disadvantage of vertical farming is the reliance on technology and the need for that technology to work properly. While the use of innovative technologies and high levels of automation is exactly what makes vertical farming so exciting, the need to rely on technology can also be considered as one of the big risks involved with vertical farming. This comes especially apparent when considering that the technology has not yet matured (as mentioned above) and that there are many unknowns that companies operating in this field have not been able to solve just yet.
To give you a concrete example of what this means, let’s consider the irrigation systems used in vertical farms. As you might know, most vertical farms are operated as hydroponic systems meaning that instead using soil, the system grows plants by introducing a nutrient rich water solution directly into the plant root zones. This means that it is absolutely crucial that the irrigation systems work without any issues While using no soil allows hydroponic systems to achieve higher production and faster growth cycles compared to conventional field farming, it also means that the plants do not have any nutrient or water reserves in case the irrigation systems fails. Thus, if the irrigation system in a vertical farm fails it is more than likely that that one could lose either significant portions, or at worst, the entirety of the growth cycle.
Considering the amount of risks involved in relying on technology, this means that vertical farming companies need to build in a large amount of fail-safes making sure that there are no single points of failure that could ruin the entire harvest or otherwise significantly impact the production in the long-term.
5. High energy usage
Talking about technology, the next big disadvantage of vertical farming is the high energy demand of vertical farms. There are many different reasons for the high energy consumption including the automation and irrigation systems, HVAC systems and so on. However, most of the energy used in vertical farms goes to power the artificial lighting needed to grow plants indoors. While LED lights have seen some incredible development in the recent years, the amount of LED lights required to run a vertical indoor farm is still quite staggering. Not only does this mean that the variable costs in terms of electricity are still very high but even worse the reliability on LED technology is the biggest single reason for why most vertical farms are not yet able to become more environmentally sustainable compared to field farming.
The environmental sustainability of vertical farming is a complicated topic and if you are interested in learning more about the this topic, make sure to check out the video below where we break down this topic in more detail.
6. Requires high level of skill and technological know-how
The next disadvantage of vertical farming is the need for a highly educated workforce and the subsequent high labour costs associated product development. Because vertical farming is still a rather new and a novel technology that relies on high levels of automation, vertical farming companies developing new products need experienced and highly educated employees from a multitude of specialised fields like engineering, software development, agricultural sciences, data management and so on. This need for highly educated talent means that companies in this field have to be prepared to pay higher than average salaries and recruitment fees in order to build a talented and experienced workforce that allows the company to become competitive.
7. Recruiting experienced personnel is difficult – due to the technology being so new
Talking of highly educated and experienced employees, the next disadvantage of vertical farming is the lack of experienced people in the labour market. Again, due to the fact that vertical farming has been done commercially for only a short period of time, this also means that there are not that many people around the globe who have experience around the technologies and systems related to this field. Combining this with the current labour market issues around the globe means that hiring suitable talent should be considered as one of the biggest challenges of the vertical farming market in the near future.
What we would suggest is that instead of looking for people who have previous experience in vertical farming, companies in this field have to accept the fact that such people are few and far between, and instead of chasing people like this, one should focus on hiring people with the necessary skillsets and abilities to adapt to this new field.