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Vertical Farming Sustainability and Urban Implications

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Vertical Farming Sustainability and Urban Implications Master thesis in Sustainable Development 2018/32 Examensarbete i Hållbar utveckling Vertical Farming Sustainability and Urban Implications Daniela Garcia-Caro Briceño DEPARTMENT OF EARTH SCIENCES INSTITUTIONEN FÖR GEOVETENSKAPER Master thesis in Sustainable Development 2018/32 Examensarbete i Hållbar utveckling Vertical Farming Sustainability and Urban Implications Daniela Garcia-Caro Briceño Supervisor: Cecilia Mark-Herbert Evaluator: Daniel Bergquist Copyright © Daniela Garcia-Caro Briceño, Published at Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University (www.geo.uu.se), Uppsala, 2018 Content 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 PROBLEM FORMULATION ............................................................................................................... 1 1.2 AIM ................................................................................................................................................. 2 1.3 OUTLINE ......................................................................................................................................... 3 2. METHODS ......................................................................................................................................... 4 2.1 RESEARCH APPROACH AND DESIGN ............................................................................................... 4 2.2 RESEARCH DELIMITATIONS ............................................................................................................ 4 2.2.1 Methodological delimitations ................................................................................................. 4 2.2.2 Theoretical delimitations ........................................................................................................ 5 2.2.3 Empirical delimitations .......................................................................................................... 5 2.3 EMPIRICAL DATA COLLECTION ..................................................................................................... 6 2.3.1 Secondary data: literature review .......................................................................................... 6 2.3.2 Primary data collection .......................................................................................................... 7 2.4 ANALYSIS OF EMPIRICAL DATA ..................................................................................................... 7 2.4.1 Emergy synthesis .................................................................................................................... 7 2.4.2 Emergy indices and ratios ...................................................................................................... 9 2.5 THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK IDENTIFICATION ............................................... 10 2.6 QUALITY ASSURANCE .................................................................................................................. 11 2.7 ETHICS .......................................................................................................................................... 13 3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................................. 14 3.1 SYSTEMS THEORY ........................................................................................................................ 14 3.2 EMERGY THEORY ......................................................................................................................... 17 3.3 URBAN POLITICAL AGROECOLOGY – A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ........................................... 19 4. EMPIRICAL BACKGROUND ...................................................................................................... 23 4.1 URBAN SUSTAINABILITY AND URBANIZATION TRENDS ............................................................... 23 4.2 URBAN AGRICULTURE AND VERTICAL FARMING ......................................................................... 26 4.3 FOOD SECURITY VS. FOOD SOVEREIGNTY .................................................................................... 33 5. EMPIRICAL RESULTS ................................................................................................................. 36 5.1 LEAN EMERGY SYNTHESIS .......................................................................................................... 36 5.2 VERTICAL FARMING IN UPPSALA: THE URBAN PLANNER PERSPECTIVE ...................................... 41 6. ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................................................... 44 6.1 LEAN EMERGY ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................. 44 6.2 FRAMEWORK FOR URBAN FOOD SOVEREIGNTY ........................................................................... 45 6.2.1 Critique of dominant ideology .............................................................................................. 45 6.2.2 Equity ................................................................................................................................... 45 6.2.3 Ecology ................................................................................................................................. 48 6.2.4 Politics .................................................................................................................................. 49 7. DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................... 51 7.1 VERTICAL FARMING SUSTAINABILITY AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO URBAN METABOLISMS ............ 51 7.2 TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED AGRO-URBAN SYSTEM ..................................................................... 52 8. CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................................................. 54 9. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................... 55 10. REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................... 56 APPENDICES ...................................................................................................................................... 70 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW GUIDE ........................................................................................................ 70 APPENDIX B: URBAN SUSTAINABILITY TERMS .................................................................................. 71 APPENDIX C: ADDITIONAL FOOD SECURITY INFORMATION ............................................................. 75 APPENDIX D: EMERGY INPUTS, UEVS AND GEB RATIOS ................................................................. 79 ii Abbreviations %Ren Percent renewable index CEA Controlled environment agriculture CSA Community supported agriculture DWC Deep-water culture EIR Emergy investment ratio ELR Environmental loading ratio ESI Emergy sustainability index EYR Emergy yield ratio FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FIES Food insecurity experience scale GEB Geobiosphere emergy baseline GHG Greenhouse gases ICLEI International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives LCA Life cycle analysis LED Light emitting diode Mha Mega hectares NFT Nutrient film technique PoU Prevalence of undernourishment sej Solar emjoules UA Urban agriculture UEA Uncontrolled environment agriculture UEV Unit emergy value UPE Urban political ecology VF Vertical farming WHO World health organization Key concepts Emergy Ch. 2.4 An environmental accounting tool, used to evaluate quality Ch. 3.2 of resources in the dynamics of complex systems (Odum, 1996) Food security Ch. 4.3 “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (FAO, 2017b:6) Systems theory Ch. 3.1 A theoretical perspective for studying entities or objects with the purpose of providing a better understanding and a more purposeful analysis of those entities or objects being studied (Dekker, 2017:5-6). Vertical Farming Ch. 4.2 An agricultural technique involving large-scale food production that enables fast growth and planned production by controlling environmental conditions and nutrient solutions to crops using cutting-edge greenhouse methods and technologies (Abel, 2010; Banerjee & Adenaeuer, 2014; Despommier, 2010, 2011) iii List of figures Figure 1. Systems diagram symbols (adapted from Odum, 1996:5). ................................................................ 8 Figure 2. Food system map shows the interconnectedness of food and urban systems, which are both affected by environmental, economic and socio-cultural processes (Internet: shiftN, 2016). ................ 15 Figure 3. Odum's basic ecosystem organization diagram (adapted from Odum, 1996:22). ............................ 16 Figure 4. Typical transformities adapted from Odum & Odum (2008:9) ........................................................ 18 Figure 5. A conceptual framework: urban political agroecology. ................................................................... 21 Figure 6. Sustainability tripartite venn diagram (Elkington, 1998; adapted
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