Here's the gist: We are in a population boom. We've had to worry more and more about where we are going to get food, especially with drought and floods (both of which bring their own set of challenges to crops). So what happens if you have a population that needs more room to live, but one that also needs more food-growing space to live? Your answer involves towers of food and new thoughts about how to grow that food.
Scientists, most recently a professor from Columbia University, have begun encouraging interest in this field again. Bringing together scientists and architects, experts have been able design buildings, such this one, above (NY TIMES PHOTO) that is more about aesthetics and powering itself through solar panels, that expand on an idea brainstormed in New York - the skyscraper.
When an influx of immigrants caused a population explosion in cities where the jobs were, those cities just started stacking living quarters on top of each other, solving the problem of lack of space. The question is this: Can the same idea solve our coming food shortage problems? Scientists say yes. I hope they're right. But with skyscapers we ran into the problem of disease, expounded by the close-quarters. It was unnatural to live like this. Can an unnatural mode of growing plants work? What other concerns might we run into with a system like the one above, or this one, seen below:
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