Just a short distance from one of the United States’ busiest ports, an indoor ‘vertical farm’ is under construction. AeroFarms, owned by a New York-based company and funded by major investors, including Goldman Sachs and Prudential Financial, will be housed in a former steel mill. The company claims its ‘vertical farm’ will be the world’s largest once it has been completed.

The latest in intensive urban agriculture, the 6,400m2 AeroFarms project will cost an estimated $30 million (£20m) and has gained the backing of local government.

Many experts on food issues are hailing vertical farms such as AeroFarms, Chicago’s FarmedHere project and the proposed Plantagon ‘plantscraper’ in Linköping, Sweden as the future of food, claiming that incorporating agriculture into towns and cities will be key to feeding an increasingly urbanised population. 

Produce at the vertical farm will be grown using ‘aeroponics’, a novel technique in which plants’ roots will be grown with their roots left hanging to be sprayed with nutrients and water vapour. AeroFarms’ leafy greens and herbs will also be grown under artificial light, which will eliminate the need for soil and sun and reduce water requirements by 95 percent compared to conventional agriculture, according to the project’s developers.

As with many other large-scale indoor farms, the project in Newark is part of a concerted redevelopment effort in a post-industrial neighbourhood. The aim is to improve the food security of cities like Newark and its neighbour New York City, which form a huge urban area that is not only vulnerable to extreme weather events, but also to disruptions to food supplies.

Announcing the closing of the deal on the new project last week, AeroFarms CEO David Rosenberg said, "We are excited to redefine not only the Garden State but also agriculture overall.”

Even so, the developers have said their project in Newark will not be up and running until next year at the earliest.  

There are currently over 20 vertical farms operating in the United States, all of which opened less than ten years ago. Though they require electricity to maintain suitable growing conditions, there are huge advantages that go beyond supplying local food to large population centres, and can include reducing water and chemical inputs needed to grow healthy food.

Even so, this area of urban food remains very much in its infancy, and the AeroFarms project will primarily be a means to showcase and test new technology, rather than address the district’s food security concerns.