Urban Agriculture: Why develop a vertical farm in a city and How to manage it successfully? Case studies in Europe and the United-States

Details

Supervisors

Cerrada Cristia, Karine ; Lejeune, Christophe

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion

Abstract

Food is a necessity for all living beings. In absolute terms, the planet has currently the capacity to feed everyone. However, with the world population increase and urbanization combined with the substantial externalities our current defaulting food system generates in society, the Food Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) predicts the Earth will lose this ability within 30 years. This research involves urban agriculture (UA), an existing multifunctional approach contributing to a sustainable solution for food supply in cities with economic, environmental and social impacts. The focus is put on an emergent high-tech form of UA called vertical farming (VF) which produces food indoors in vertically stacked layers with controlled environment agriculture (CEA) techniques. This thesis aims to see whether this recent practice could be part of the sustainable solution to our societal problems, and answers the following research question: why develop a vertical farm in a city and how to manage it successfully? A literature review gives a first overview of what urban agriculture is and stretches the research to vertical farming. Then, a qualitative practical study based on three vertical farming businesses located in Europe and in the United States verifies theoretical findings and explores the recent practice in different contexts. As a result, vertical farming is a very recent concept present in developed countries, mainly in the US, China, Japan and starts to grow in Europe, but needs to evolve to reach maturity. Citizens who launch such an initiative still struggle to be economically viable due to the high financial costs it engenders and the lack of consumers’ awareness and social acceptance especially in Europe. It is for now not considered as 100% sustainable notably due to the excessive energy it consumes. Nevertheless, solutions regarding these issues are being developed to make vertical farms part of the sustainable future food supply. Research shows VF is an innovative and efficient way to produce food inside cities. Even though it is a concept in its infancy, its evolution will help a city for remaining resilient and sustainable in times of crisis like the one we are experiencing today with the COVID-19 pandemic.