Building a Vertical Farm in an Old Chicago Meatpacking Plant
Hydroponic Plant Bed Julie BeckGrowing kale and tilapia--and brewing beer--in an abandoned stretch of Chicago Recently I had the opportunity to visit The Plant, Chicago's first vertical farm. This claim depends on your definition of vertical farm, of course, because The Plant isn't the sort of futuristic vegetation-filled skyscraper you might expect, and it isn't solely agricultural. While food will be grown there, the space will also house small food-related businesses, breweries and bakeries and the like, so it might be more accurate to classify it as a "food business incubator." Whatever you call it, The Plant is definitely an example of innovative green food production, with the ambitious goal of being net-zero energy and net-zero waste by 2015. An anaerobic digester, the giant, mechanical version of your hippie neighbor's backyard compost pile, will consume all of the building's waste, as well as waste from nearby food manufacturers, and combine the...