In the United States it has become commonly expected that Florida will possibly be devastated by hurricanes, California could experience fires that burn down hundreds of acres of land, Texas will experience a substantial drought, and tornadoes will possibly devastate the wheat belt. Natural disasters happen every year with no guarantee that they will occur but their seasonal occurrences do grant us the knowledge of when they will possibly occur and their potential for damage to crop yields. Businesses already exist that are attempting to build upon vertical farming in urban environments such as Lufa in Montreal, Canada, and Local Garden in Vancouver, Canada. These are two areas where the cold kills the vast majority of plants in farming during the short growing season. Flavie Halais writes about Lufa in “Can Urban Agriculture Work On A Commercial Scale?” stating, “And in a cold-weather region with a growing season of four to six months, Lufa works year-around, growing enough tomatoes, eggplants, zucchinis and lettuce to help feed 10,000 people in the Montreal area” (38). Halais further explains that Lufa uses biological pest controls to …show more content…
According to Fred H. Besthorn, in the article “Vertical Farming: Social Work and Sustainable Urban Agriculture In An Age Of Global Food Crisis”, the United States Department of Agriculture in 2011 defined food security as a household having “access by all members at all times to enough food for an active healthy life […including] at a minimum (1) the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, and (2) an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (that is, without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing or other coping strategies)” (190). From this definition it is not just enough that we are able to grow and accumulate large amounts of produce, but more importantly that every person is able to acquire proper nourishment within legal means. It is common knowledge that in every country, city, and town there are less fortunate individuals. In some countries it is more expected than others due to the local economy and governmental