How Soil-Free Vertical Farms Are Bringing Farming Closer to Cities

In an age of rapid urbanization and shrinking farmland, a new agricultural paradigm is quietly reshaping how—and where—we grow our food. Soil-free indoor farming systems are making it possible for fresh produce to be grown right inside or near urban centres, turning warehouses and old buildings into productive farms and reducing the distance from farm to table. This shift is at the heart of the boom in urban vertical farming, where hydroponics and aeroponics replace soil, and indoor controlled environments eliminate many limitations of traditional farmland.

Traditionally, farming has required large tracts of fertile land, open fields and heavy reliance on natural sunlight and soil. But the concept of an indoor vertical farm city-adjacent challenges that notion. By utilising stacked layers of crops inside buildings, an urban vertical farm can produce far more yield per square foot than conventional farms. According to one review, vertical farms can produce 80 times the yield per square metre compared with open-field methods in some cases.