Cities of Tomorrow: Vertical Farms

Production
2014, France, China
French
00:52:00
Genre
documentary
, environment, technology, society
Benoît Laborde
ARTE France - Docside Production - Rare Media France / Diff : ARTE, Ushuaïa TV

Very soon, big cities will have to address a considerable challenge : feeding 7 billion citizens. Everywhere, experts already try to limit the distance between production and consumption places. 

In order to thoroughly transform today’s metropolises, an environmental science professor once had a dream : buildings that would be capable of sustainably producing great quantities of fruits and vegetables. His vertical farm concept has met a great success : if such agricultural skyscrapers have not been built yet, a new generation of scientists looks forward to using all available technologies to make the dream come true. In Singapore, people are already trying to save cities’ most precious resource – space – by building 10 meters high green towers. But the gigantic ambition of this project has not only triggered positive reactions. Some people are indeed concerned about the possible future of these urban farms : what if the food-processing industry hijacked them for its own profit ?