The Vertical Farming industry has sprouted and in recent years has been demonstrating a significant growth trajectory in many cities around the world. The demand for safe and fresh food as well as the need of city dwellers to reconnect with food systems in their local communities are just two of the compelling reasons fueling the global expansion of the Vertical Farming industry.
Because inherent in the idea of the Vertical Farm is its appropriation of a wide range of novel technologies and materials from various disciplinary sources for integration into a working and efficient cultivation system in the service of crop production, a prominent part of the appeal of the Vertical Farm to local consumers is its perceived and actual potential for fostering sustainability — environmental, economic and social — both for the industry itself as well as for the communities in which they are based.
Cuello’s Law has articulated this sustainability potential of the Vertical Farm industry. Cuello’s Law is the projected goal that crop productivity with respect to resource use in a tech-dense indoor farm (i.e., Vertical Farm) should double every four to five years.
This means that at least every half a decade in the next 10 years, tech-dense Vertical Farms should achieve a doubling of crop productivity per unit land area, per drop of water, per pound of nutrients, per Watt of energy, etc. Atendant to Cuellos’ Law are the SANE Test sustainability principles pertaining to Safety of food (S), Access to fresh food (A), Neighborhood building and strengthening (N), and Equity generation and growth (E).
In support of the global Vertical Farming industry and as a way to inspire and incite the industry to proactively work toward achieving its sustainability goals and potential as embodied in Cuello’s Law, the Vertical Farming Global Sustainability Registry Network is hereby launched. The Vertical Farming Global SURE Network enables the companies and institutions that constitute the Vertical Farming industry around the world to step forward and voluntarily self-report their own yearly Vertical Farming sustainability achievements. By doing so, each company or institution proactively participates in helping the Vertical Farming industry collectively reach its significant sustainability potential and goals. Further, each company or institution receives due recognition for its effort in furthering or fulfilling its corporate social responsibility (CSR) in advancing environmental, economic and social sustainability.
