Vertical farming, the best solution to support an ever growing population or just a scam?
IMHO it has a lot of potential but not being able to grow grains really is something that should be tackled sooner rather than later. But I could see this being used by self sustaining communities to provide lots of food while using very little space. And it's technically more environmentally friendly than just using vast stretches of land to produce the same amount of food.
We're doing some vertical farming in our backyard. I think it's a good way of moving food production more locally to urban centers and reducing transport costs (and thereby related emissions). I don't think they're the solution for everything, and I do think using our current farmlands more efficiently is critical. In certain ways, I think vertical farming might be able to provide some of the improved green spaces in urban areas that Garden Cities were meant to before it turned out that Garden Cities deepened the divides between classes and races in urban centers.
Overall, I think we need not think of vertical farming as "How do we solve the food crisis" and instead as "How do we provide people without land the opportunity to experience the joys of gardening their own food"
Totally agree lots of potential to lighten the load for the average Joe or Jane when it comes to groceries