vertical farm institute

„Whether we want it or not, urbanisation is continuing to happen. By the middle of this century, nearly two thirds of human kind will live in cities. The city of the future demands both food security and food of the best quality. Yield increase is currently only provided by increasing efficiency. But the world population is growing faster than the increase in productivity. World agriculture will be confronted by big challenges, in the medium and long term. In the future, traditional production methods will have to be supported by new agricultural technologies. Vertical Farming offers a promising new approach to guaranteeing food security for cities. Food is produced directly next to the consumer- in the middle of the city. Vertical Farming drastically reduces the required agricultural area and resources such as water, fertilisers and pesticides. Thus, it offers completely new opportunities for urban organic food production. The Vertical Farm, conceived as a multifunctional building, offers new possibilities to combine food production with other functions such as living and working. I am very pleased to hear about the activity of the Vertical Farm institute as well as about the open and broad discussion of this issue in Austria. I hope that this technology will be of great significance for the city of the future and that Austria will play a role in this.“

DI Dr. Franz Fischler, Präsident European Forum Alpbach