Is The Future Of Farming Indoors?

As I am fond of saying, it's always important to be reminded that, even in troubled times, there are places where good things are happening, pointing the way to a potentially brighter future.  Here's one such instance, one that could make a difference in our ability to survive on this planet (if we don't blow ourselves up first, knock on wood).

Perhaps the most obvious advantage of indoor farming is the fact that, as the world's population continues to grow exponentially, and we begin to run out of usable land for traditional farming methods, indoor farming contains the potential to stack crops in much the same way that residences in cities are stacked in high-rises.  And, as the need for office and retail space shrinks in an age of telecommuting and digital shopping, even more land could become available for indoor farmers.  It's possible to see political effects coming out of this as well.  

If farming can be turned into an indoor activity, it can also become an urban activity, which could bring significant numbers of rural residents into center cities and suburbs.  This, in turn, would bring them into greater contact with each other in ways that ultimately could upend traditional liberal-and-conservative formulations of how people vote and how parties campaign to get those votes.  That may seem far-fetched at this point.  But I'm convinced that a large part of the political divide in this country is about proximity to people who agree or disagree with each other.  If people are surrounded by like-minded individuals, they tend to become more hostile to differing points of view than they are if they are surrounded by more people with those differing points of view.  Iowa is an example of a purple state that has become redder and redder as blue voters move away from it.

For that matter, the potential for changes in land use, and related changes in political views, is by no means limited to urban areas.  If, for example, a state like Iowa does not have to use as much of its land for farming, as indoor farming begins to take hold, much of that land could be used not only for residents, but also for a whole host of existing uses (educational, medical and so forth) as well as uses that are just on the near side of the horizon of practicality (automated factories, for example, as well as solar and wind farms), which in turn will create new jobs and new fields of knowledge for people to explore.  And that, in turn, could bring people back from the coasts to the proverbial heartland.

And this does not even touch on the aspects of indoor farming mentioned in the linked article such as food that can be made to specification of taste, and without the use of harmful pesticides.  As I've said before, if we're serious about reforming the tax code, we should reform it to encourage more innovative ideas like this one.  It might do more than guarantee our future; it might lead to a more harmonious present.