It's not just about volume. It's also quality.
Outdoor grown vegetables get bumps and bruises on them that make them less desirable for individual retail sale, e.g., tomatoes sold individually.
Indoor grown vegetables have a much higher percentage being perfect, so there's a lot less loss to the grower.
Cool idea.
But watch environmentalists get ahold of this idea and start demanding policies that all food should be grown indoors for the good of nature or some such. And see food prices skyrocket as a result.
I don’t know about food in general, but indoor agriculture has certainly influenced the pot industry.
Re: “...indoor farming will never replace conventional outdoor agriculture.”
Famous last words.
When someone figures out how to profitably grow individual apples, why will anyone invest in trees and farmland and unpredictable weather?
Israel already has extensive greenhouse agriculture. Their tomatoes and cucumbers are absolutely famous.
The power cost is huge but the yields can be incredible and hydroponics is not without its own set of problems.
Just think of the urban agricultural run off. Why the EPA will end up owning 100% of the USA because of the waterlands rules.
Correct me if I am wrong but many farmers already do this. it is called Hydroponic growing.
I know it is done mainly with water in that instance, but the food tastes horrible. I will never eat a tomato grown that way - EVER.
I can see many advantages to indoor agriculture, especially in the livestock department. Years ago I believe Kentucky Fried chicken had their operation exposed where they grew most of their chickens from feeding headless chicken bodies with tubes filled with nutrients.
The other day we had boneless pork chops, and the wife said they have perfected raising headless hogs fed by tubes now, and figured out how to get boneless pigs. The pork chops were really good, I could not tell the difference.
This is all good news, because there is no poor animal to suffer come butchering time.
So yes! I’m all for indoor agriculture.
What does indoor growing anything have I common?
Electricity!
More and more Electrical use! More and more carbon dumped into the atmosphere! The evil! The horror! How can lefties approve of this?
You have to have very cheap energy to do this. Nuclear power + Metal-halide lamp lights + a MASSIVE air conditioner to keep your house moderately cool. You’ll run your AC in the winter too as much heat as good growing lights throw out.
I see the best opportunity here for “micro-environment” greenhouses. This is a technique long used in some botanical gardens, of having a chain of greenhouses, with vestibules between them, that begin with one that is cool and dry, becoming increasingly warm and wet. The plants in each corresponding to their optimal growing conditions.
In places that are very cold, with long, dark winters; or places that are very hot and dry, the most energy and water conservative way of doing this would be underground. A chain of caverns producing more expensive crops in a year around season.
This means that its economics would be based on producing better and cheaper food than could be imported.