Dr. Dickson Despommier, author of “The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century” shared his views on indoor farming and the future of food at an operating vertical farm.

Green Spirit Farms, located in New Buffalo, hosted Despommier, an emeritus professor of microbiology and public health at Columbia University, during its Mid-Winter Harvest Festival.

Despommier said vertical farming such as that practiced at Green Spirit Farms since its founding in the fall of 2011 certainly does have the potential to feed a large number of people.

He said NASA is very interested in vertical farming and has compiled a long list of edible, easy to raise plants that can be grown indoors.

“NASA wants us to live on Mars someday. You know why? Because we’ve trashed this planet and we have to move. That’s not a joke, eventually that might happen. What a shame if that does.”

Despommier said 12 of his students used the 83-crop (at the time) NASA list to see what size building would be needed to grow enough food for 50,000 people.

[Source:David Johnson, HarborCountryNews. Full story]