Las Vegas slowly becoming an arcology: 30 story verticle farm proposal inside

[johnny861]

http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/28654/print

Las Vegas to Build World’s First 30 Story Vertical Farm

Las Vegas the tourist mecca of the World is set to begin development of the World’s first vertical farm. The $200 million dollar project is designed to be a functional and profitable working farm growing enough food to feed 72,000 people for a year and provide another tourist attraction to the city that does everything in a larger than life way.

The World currently uses about 80% of the available farm land and 60% of the earth’s population lives near or in an urban environment so the logical choice for farming is to go up for land where the environment can be controlled and where distribution is local. Las Vegas is seen as the perfect location for this project by Nevada State officials who would like to demonstrate their sustainability and environmental awareness instead of projecting an image of waste and excess.

Although the project initial cost is high at $200 million, with annual revenue of $25 million from produce and another $15 million from tourists the 30 story vertical farm would be about as profitable as a casino with operating expenses only being about $6 million a year.



There would be about 100 different crops grown ranging from strawberries to lettuce even miniature banana trees could be grown from each floors specially controlled environment. The products would go straight to the casinos and hotel properties and be a very visible and desirable addition to the overall Las Vegas experience. Design details should be worked out in 2008 and the project could open its doors by the middle of 2010.

[DataBass]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...0_Arcology.jpg

[bfp]

This is something Cosmo Kramer would come up with.

Awesome.

[PETA]

that or Ray Bradbury

[reason]

wow

i guess it matches our current technological progress

this could be great for the suffering agriculture industry..... it could even help with the increased need for ethanol production

[johnny861]

Originally Posted by reason

wow

i guess it matches our current technological progress

this could be great for the suffering agriculture industry..... it could even help with the increased need for ethanol production

That would be a pretty cool idea!

Imagine a cluster of high-rise switch grass verticle farms that could have a connecting factory for processing the produce into fuel.

wicked!

[catfish]

i wonder if it will be ran by wind or solar energy ... that would double the wow

[reason]

Originally Posted by johnny861

That would be a pretty cool idea!

Imagine a cluster of high-rise switch grass verticle farms that could have a connecting factory for processing the produce into fuel.

wicked!

it would be freaking sweet.... limitless possibilities

i can't help thinking about Pauly Shore and "Bio-Dome"



ooh ooh.... we could have some massive garden frolicking emo raves!

[PETA]

Originally Posted by reason

wow

i guess it matches our current technological progress

this could be great for the suffering agriculture industry..... it could even help with the increased need for ethanol production

suffering ag industry?

we pay the industry not to grow...

[reason]

yea... but it is mostly so they will grow corn instead - or leave the land open to have corn planted if needed

my take (as a foil hat patriotic) is..... the more we can grow here, the less e coli infested produce we have to import

[PETA]

lol... w/out doubt anything that increases our capacity to produce high quality food is a great thing. One more example of why Malthus was really really wrong.

[C-fer]

I think it's a novel idea, I'm surprised it hasn't come up before.. Well it probably has but since it's Vegas there's more publicity.

Originally Posted by reason

yea... but it is mostly so they will grow corn instead - or leave the land open to have corn planted if needed

my take (as a foil hat patriotic) is..... the more we can grow here, the less e coli infested produce we have to import

The ethanol/corn industry is so jacked up right now. Once cellulosic ethanol takes off corn demand will drop, and so will prices. Ethanol production costs will also drop since it won't be dependent on corn/corn prices and ethanol prices will drop making it more cost effective to use.

[Rohan]

Originally Posted by xian

lol... w/out doubt anything that increases our capacity to produce high quality food is a great thing. One more example of why Malthus was really really wrong.

only when coupled with POPULATION CONTROL

[PETA]

Originally Posted by Rohan

only when coupled with POPULATION CONTROL

Birth rates are declining in most of the world and population rates in many places. We're not seeing exponential population growth a la Malthus.

Our capacity to produce enough food for the world's population has never really been an issue and I really doubt it ever will.