Vertical Farm Problem

The practice of agriculture is becoming a serious problem, especially considering with the world’s population estimated to increase from 7.2 billion to 9.6 billion (un.org, 2013). There is already not enough food that can be distributed to sustain the already 7.2 billion people existing on this planet. The source of the solution lies in the hands of the growers of our food and the agricultural industry. The industry is stuck in very traditional ways that have vast room for improvement in yield and efficiency. The amount land that it currently takes in order to provide the current supply of food is approximately 11% of the globes total land surface. (foa.org, 2015). That 11% is equivalent of 1.5 billion hectares. It is reported by fao.org that the 1.5 billion hectares is 36% of the total land area that is available for agriculture. The land that is used already is taking most of our precious resources like underwater ground water and precious wildlife land. Let alone, if we used the additional 64%. Then we would be using resources at an alarming and unsustainable level for future generations.
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There has to be a downside to these vertical farms. For the sake of simplicity, we will go through the issues faced with the vertical farm in Japan. The initial Capital cost was 590 million Yen (7.4 million dollars), and with an annual cost of 275 million yen (3.4 million dollars) (fieldrobotics.com, 2014). The success of the program is based on the qualifications and knowledge of the employees running the facility. The technicians are there to monitor the efficiency of the automated technology. When the desired success of the farm is reached, each year there will be a gross revenue 0.7 million dollars. That means that these plants will have a return on revenue on year 6 of operation. This means the profit is easily obtainable with current technology. The technology will only get more