Fresh, Organic Produce Is on the Rise!

What if you could produce 500 metric tons (1.1 million pounds) of food every year without pesticides? And what if your growing process also reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 1000 metric tons—and saved 50 million liters of water—compared to traditional farming methods? And what if you could do all that using just a fraction of the land normally required, and slash transportation costs as well?

Well hang onto your hats, because Swedish company Plantagon is developing a prototype “plantscraper,” that aims to do just that. What’s a plantscraper? Glad you asked.

A plantscraper is a massive, vertical greenhouse/office building specializing in large-scale, urban, organic farming. Plantscrapers have a much smaller carbon footprint and are designed to use a lot less energy than current growing methods.

Watch the company’s video to see how it works.

At the heart of the idea is “agritechture,” a unique way of combining urban agriculture, innovative technical solutions and architecture to meet the demand for efficient food production in urban areas, where access to healthy produce isn’t always a sure thing.

The first plantscraper, known as The World Food Building, is scheduled to open in Linköping, Sweden, in 2020. If the idea takes off, an estimated 5,000 people a year could be fed from the produce of one of these sustainable and localized solutions.

According to the company’s website, even existing real estate such as empty office buildings or factories could be retrofitted for this type of sustainable food production.