Tenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

As global warming leads to shifts in climate and geographic agricultural lines, innovative growing environments for our future food supply are being developed. There is growing enthusiasm for replacing traditional farms with various indoor built environment farming strategies as a sustainable farming alternative. While much of the literature encouraging a movement in this direction is focused on the increase in yield and reduction of water consumption, analysis of the significant increase in energy consumption has been lacking. This increase in energy consumption comes from the need for artificial lighting, water pumping, heating, monitors, and computers. This study surveys academic articles and commercially available data related to the energy consumption versus food calories produced of various indoor growing environments utilizing shipping containers to determine their viability as a future sustainable food stream.