The practice of farming is over 10,000 years old. It has made civilization possible. Large numbers of people are able to live together and eat food grown far away in spacious rural areas. It has also enabled many more people to survive than could otherwise be supported by the disorganized nature of hunting and gathering.

As we enter the 21st century, tough new challenges to our food supply are visible on the horizon. World population will increase significantly and thus will consumption of food, water, and land. We also face consequences from centuries of farming the same soil, depleting it of resources. And from the use of a virtual cornucopia of chemicals used to maintain our crops.

It fits then that new solutions are being explored every day to resolve our food crisis in the swiftest manner possible. Perhaps most radical amongst these is that of the ‘vertical farm’, or skyscraper farm. Derived from the principle of roof top gardening (a.k.a. ‘green roofs’), vertical farming takes the concept one step further by proposing an entire multi-story building be dedicated for the purpose.

According to Dickson Despommier, a single 30 story building can potentially produce the equivalent of 2400 acres of food per year. And while critics say this would consume a very impractical amount of energy for interior lighting and climate control, alternative vertical farm designs, such as those below, look very promising in terms of efficient food production.

While it’s too soon to say whether all of the city dwellers among will be eating locally grown harvest from Jetson’s style vertical farms, one thing is for sure: the problem this solution proposes to fix offers plenty of opportunity for more creativity.