Green Cities
Skyscraper Crops Are Changing the World
July 25, 2025
The future of agriculture is a major concern around the world. The Earth is growing hotter, crucial resources are becoming scarcer, and the global population is climbing higher. In the face of these issues, producing enough food to sustain the global population while preserving critically important ecosystems is increasingly difficult to manage.
But in the last fifteen years, vertical farming has emerged as a promising alternative to current farming practices.
The concept is simple: rather than taking up even more land in a horizontal direction, crops are stacked vertically, integrated into structures like skyscrapers, warehouses, and even shipping containers. It’s a brilliant and innovative solution, but because it differs so much from traditional farming, it can be hard to fully grasp just how beneficial vertical farming could be. To demystify it a little, let’s look at three of the biggest and most successful vertical farms in operation today and unpack what concrete problems they solve.
Bustanica: Tackling Water Scarcity in Dubai
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a desert country with limited fertile land and summer temperatures regularly clearing 100°F, agriculture is a major struggle. As a result, the UAE imports around 80% of its food supply, which not only jeopardizes its food security, but also increases the potential of food waste during transportation. But Bustanica, an impressive feat of technology, could change this.
Founded in 2022 by Emirates Flight Catering and Crop One, Bustanica is the world’s largest vertical farm, located near Al Maktoum International Airport and covering an impressive 333,000 square feet. Using a closed-loop system, the farm circulates water through the plants, so that when the heat causes the water to evaporate – turning it from liquid into vapor – it is captured, absorbed, and recycled to be used again. This process conserves water by reusing it instead of letting it escape into the air.
In Dubai’s harsh arid climate, the fresh water needed to make crops thrive through traditional agriculture is scarce. But by vertical farming, Bustanica is able to produce vast amounts of leafy greens with only a fraction of the water usage that traditional farming uses. Their facility saves over 250 million liters of water a year!
Sky Greens: Maximizing Space in Singapore
With a population of over six million crammed onto an island less than 300 square miles in area, Singapore has the third highest population density in the world. With so little land to work with, it’s a struggle to make sufficient space for humans, let alone for producing food, of which more than 90% is imported. To respond to their land issues, Singapore has expanded upwards, with towering high-rises built every year to accommodate their growing population, so why not apply that concept to agriculture too?
Sky Greens, Singapore’s pioneering vertical farm, did just that. Founded by engineer and entrepreneur Jack Ng, the company has patented a vertical farming system that features rotating tiers of growing troughs, mounted on an aluminum frame reaching up to thirty feet in the air and housed in a protected, controlled environment. The rotating mechanism, powered by hydraulics, allows their crops to receive uniform sunlight, irrigation, and nutrients as they pass through different parts of the structure.
Highly praised for its ingenuity, Sky Greens is a shining example of urban agriculture. The farm can produce one ton of leafy vegetables every other day, and its success has contributed to Singapore’s goal of achieving greater food security. The farm’s space-efficient design and sustainable farming techniques have paved the way for similar urban farms, offering hope for densely populated areas that desperately need to bring some greenery into their communities.
AeroFarms: Overcoming Pollution in Newark
In the city of Newark, New Jersey, a heavily industrialized area which deals with significant contamination from factories and toxic waste, thriving agriculture is probably the last thing one would expect to find. But AeroFarms, an award-winning vertical farming company with a focus on microgreens, has proved that vertical farms have the potential to brighten any city with greenery, regardless of how polluted it is.
Founded in 2004 and relocated to Newark in 2015, AeroFarms found its success through aeroponic farming, a method of growing plants indoors, without using soil. Instead, they use an artificial fabric, a fleece material made from recycled plastic water bottles, that supports seeds as they germinate and take root, while a mist delivers nutrients and water.
In this controlled indoor environment, agriculture is fully protected from the toxins that would destroy plants had they been grown using traditional farming.
AeroFarms currently supply over 70% of the U.S. retail market for microgreens, which are far more nutrient-dense than their mature counterparts. For example, younger leaves of baby spinach were found to have higher levels of phytonutrients than more mature leaves, meaning that they are better able to support the immune system and reduce the risk of chronic diseases.
Looking to the Future
Sometimes, the issues that face our world seem impossible to surmount, especially when it comes to such crucial areas as food production. But vertical farms are proof that new technology and renewable energy practices can turn the tide of global agricultural issues.
If you’re as excited about this future as we are, there are ways to take action! Check out our theme for 2025: Our Power, Our Planet, a commitment to harnessing the power of renewable energy. You can read more about what changes we’re calling for, sign our renewable energy petition, or support us by joining our mailing list. The Earth needs any help we can contribute!
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