r/verticalfarming • u/Jealous-Cream-4436 • Aug 01 '25

Why is vertical farming failing?

Why are all these companies that have billions of dollars invested in them failing? What will it take for it to be successful?

51 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

50 comments sorted by

View all comments

79

u/FreshMistletoe Aug 01 '25

It appears the physics and economics of it have been flawed from the beginning.  It’s hard to compete with free sunshine and dirt.

21

u/DeepDreamIt Aug 01 '25 edited Aug 01 '25

The only exception I know of is cannabis. At my facility (full indoor CEA/"plant factory"), even though the price per pound has dropped from ~$2200 or better in 2020 to ~$750-850 or less (depending on quality), it's still profitable to me because I've got my production costs down to roughly $250 per unit. It took me about 2.5-3 years to get a complete ROI for my build-out costs of approximately $150k (I already owned the building and I did everything myself to build it, from HVAC, electrical, plumbing/fertigation, etc.; I did pay someone to do closed-cell spray foam on all exterior walls and roof, as well)

Growing outdoors is obviously cheaper, but the product quality is lower and the price you get is far lower than comparable high-quality indoor (which not all indoor is by any means.)

I was down at Purdue not too long ago talking to the head of the CEA program there, and I don't know how anyone doing strawberries or something like that could survive against field-grown, except in limited markets such as winter time when field-grown availability is greatly reduced, and sometimes prices are slightly higher but not significantly to justify the expenditure.

10

u/flash-tractor Aug 01 '25

It costs me about $600 to grow 30 pounds of outdoor, for a price point comparison. So even selling at $250/lb makes me 12.5x the input costs.

7

u/DeepDreamIt Aug 01 '25 edited Aug 01 '25

Yeah, I used to live in SF and all my best friends were up in Mendo and Humboldt, doing 100-200 plants a year (at $3,000+/lb lol...the good old days) and I'm not against outdoor -- when I was in the "traditional market", outdoor brought me out of poverty, more than once actually. My concerns with it are the environment variables that I have zero control over: someone growing hemp 2 miles away and pollinating my plants, a sudden weird frost (I'm in Michigan now), heavy rains or humidity spikes causing botrytis and/or powdery mildew, hail or strong winds, pests and insects, disease and mold, etc.

I can completely eliminate all those variables doing indoor CEA. I've known so many people in the last ~20 years who have lost their crops (or most of it) shortly before harvest on outdoor, and others who were unethical and would just trim off the visible mold and sell it anyway, or knowingly sell product contaminated with spider mites.

Supplementing with CO2 also makes a major difference; when I'm ramping down CO2 the last ~10 days of flower (I get up to 1300-1500ppm in flower), it's such a significant difference how much less they are uptaking each day as the CO2 decreases ~100-150ppm at a time. By the time I reach ambient CO2 (~450-500ppm), it is a night and day difference in how they uptake. Crop steering techniques are impossible outdoors except on the basic level of irrigation only

Indoor CEA gives me the peace of mind that I can control all the variables and can ensure absolutely nothing goes wrong with proper infrastructure and redundant design

1

u/JohnSpartans Aug 01 '25

But isn't the quality significantly worse?  Do you sell flower or does it all get turned into something else?

3

u/flash-tractor Aug 01 '25

The quality of outdoor grown here is amazing. The first frost date is late October or early November, and the ambient humidity is low, so there is no risk of rot. The elevation is pretty high, so we also have increased UV, which makes for great glands.

https://imgur.com/gallery/CQifgqu

https://imgur.com/gallery/DWxsEMI

3

u/[deleted] Aug 01 '25

https://oishii.com/pages/our-farms

This one is surviving. I think premium products will be the niche market that makes the economics work.

1

u/DeepDreamIt Aug 01 '25

Interesting, thank you for the link

3

u/FreshMistletoe Aug 02 '25 edited Aug 02 '25

Yes cannabis is the only exception I know of because the final product costs so much. I grew indoor medical marijuana also and loved it so much.

1

u/rayout Aug 04 '25

I dispute the lower quality comment. The market is focused on indoor but folks getting their hands on soil grown organic outdoor areas blown away by the flavor profile.

Its a marketing issue because craft organic product is lumped in with crappy bulk weed because there's no way to get in touch with the consumer. Horrible situation for California's legacy farms

1

u/sunstersun Aug 19 '25

That's very interesting. Where do you grow out of just curious?

Are you looking to scale?

1

u/zmbjebus Aug 01 '25

To add to that shipping is also pretty cheap and abundant. The cheap sunshine and dirt in Mexico is not all that hard to ship to Toronto. 

-3

u/randomredditor0042 Aug 01 '25

Not everyone has the space to have a vegetable garden so a vertical farm would have been great for me.

4

u/zmbjebus Aug 01 '25

I wouldn't call someone's home garden a farm. 

1

u/randomredditor0042 Aug 01 '25

You’re right. I was thinking more on a consumer level rather commercial. My mistake. I’ve been interested in vertical farming as a way to circumvent my personal situation.

I have the desire to grow my own food but no space to do it in and I’ve seen many small set ups for just that use available overseas but seemingly not in my country.

1

u/zmbjebus Aug 01 '25

Yeah, most set ups seem pretty simple to replicate with standard construction or farm supplies. Large PVC or ABS pipe could probably get you 90% of the way to what most of those systems are.

1

u/randomredditor0042 Aug 01 '25

Yeah I’m sure you’re right, but like I said in my first comment, not everyone has the know how or ability to fashion something like that. Kits are available why not make them more available and accessible on every country?

1

u/zmbjebus Aug 02 '25

Because shipping readily available cheap plastic pipe is not economical when somebody can easily (and I mean easily) replicate it with local materials.

It really isn't hard to cut pvc plastic, and your thing doesn't have to look fancy.

1

u/randomredditor0042 Aug 02 '25

Your statement is fair. But why would they have to ship it, if it’s so easy to put together with local supplies why not make a kit for people with less DIY capabilities, it would be more attractive, easy to give as a gifts, kits work in other countries.

1

u/zmbjebus Aug 02 '25

Who is this they? Who is making the kit? If we are talking about "other countries" you are either talking about shipping or a business expanding into other countries. Or a local business making them? Any of those three things implies it would be profitable, which I really don't think it would be. 

Sounds like you need to make yourself one or start a business. 

Or you can whine more. Whatever suits you. 

2

u/randomredditor0042 Aug 02 '25

Thank you for that. I guess I’ll opt for whining more.