View single post by Joe Kelley
 Posted: Sat Dec 13th, 2008 11:54 am
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Joe Kelley

 

Joined: Mon Nov 21st, 2005
Location: California USA
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http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1865974,00.html

Dickson Despommier became the guru of vertical farming because his students were bummed out. A professor of environmental health at Columbia University in New York City, Despommier teaches about parasitism, environmental disruption and other assorted happy topics. Eventually his students complained; they wanted to work on something optimistic. So the class began studying the idea of rooftop gardening for cities. They quickly discarded that approach--too small-scale--in favor of something more ambitious: a 30-story urban farm with a greenhouse on every floor. "I think vertical farming is an idea that can work in a big way," says Despommier. (See pictures of urban farming.)