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For 38 years, I have taught at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Now, as a professor emeritus, I have more time to devote to three of my passions: fishing, cooking and sharing vertical farming with the world.
Vertical farming grew out of my Medical Ecology course, in which students link natural processes with living on earth, from the point of view of being human. Taking as a starting point the fact that humans exist as part of, not apart from, the complex systems comprising our Earth, Medical Ecology is intent on describing those natural processes that directly affect human well-being and exploring how we can improve our lot while still valuing nature qua nature.
Vertical farming is a response to many problems (outlined on www.verticalfarm.com) related to our interaction with the natural world. The first step, as my Medical Ecology students know, is to be aware of how the human world overlaps with the rest of nature. Once aware, we are then better able to avoid those situations which threaten man's well-being.
For me, it's not enough to eat organic veggies and a freshly-caught brook trout if the rest of the planet is still entrenched in using poorly-designed systems that despoil nature and run high human health risks. As far as I know, this is our only world, and we only get one shot at using it right. Vertical farming offers a way to integrate many of our most harmful systems--e.g. factory farming, municipal waste management, etc.--in a way that actually produces a positive effect on the health of us and our planet. It won't be easy, but humans are incredibly talented when we put our minds to something. Or better yet, a fortune cookie reminds me that a stronger appeal would aimed be elsewhere:
"Nothing is impossible to a willing heart."
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