Urban Farm DB
Research catalogue
Database research record2025·Global

Vertical farming limitations and potential demonstrated by back-of-the-envelope calculations

Lovat S., Noor E., Milo R.

Plant Physiology

Urban Farm DB summary

The analysis shows vertical farming requires large amounts of energy and, under the recent average electricity mix, could substantially increase greenhouse gas emissions with limited land benefit; it is not cost-competitive with cereals or pulses and only marginally so for tomatoes and lettuce.