Watch: This futuristic vertical farm would farm fish, bugs and plants in the middle of the city

• Designers at Studio NAB have come up with the idea of creating a large vertical farm called the Superfarm to promote sustainable living.
• The designer’s nifty solution is to focus on the production of super foods, or foods with a high nutritional value. 
• The six-storey building would incorporate renewable energy to farm fish, insects, and plants including aloes and seaweed.

It forms part of their idea to combat future food shortages as the world’s population increases to 10 billion and brings food to where, by 2050, 80% of the world's population will be living: urban spaces.

Feeding the world would require new land the size of Brazil to be farmed in order to produce enough food, if farming practices continue as they are practiced today, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations,

“Nowadays, the agri-food system and its production methods are poorly organised and unsustainable over the long term, we see its limits and misdeeds everyday,” the design company says.

The designer’s solution is to build indoor vertical farms which can produce sustainable food for the consumer in urban areas.

Far from the traditional urban farm producing salads or other fruits and vegetables, the Superfarm project, as its name suggests, focuses its production on the culture of foods with a high nutritional value.

The Superfarm would be six stories tall, with its topmost layer containing solar panels and wind turbines to produce renewable energy.

Level two would feature an open terrace with plants such as ginseng, spirulina and aloe vera cultures.

Levels three and four would be dedicated to insect breeding and algae cultures.

The fifth floor would farm aquatic creatures such as trout and tilapia and young plant cultures, while the sixth story would contain a greenhouse that would include plants such as acai berries and goji berries.

Each floor would have a specific purpose and would work in unison with other floors to create a viable ecosystem.

The project strives to recreate an ecosystem in an urban environment that incorporates seaweed, beekeeping, insect farming, aquaponics and also various greenhouse cultivations and outdoor cultures, allow each living being to serve the growth of the others.

For more, go to Business Insider South Africa.

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