Comment Re:Nobody grows basil in dirt anyway.... (Score 1) 279
I would call greenhouses indoor farming already, and I agree with you it is to control multiple factors. But farming in densely populated areas just makes no sense. You can build a transport network that connects your high value high density urban land with your low value crap land and build a gazzilion greenhouses for a higher yield and way less cost.
Even if you removed fossil fuels from the transport network and went all electric it still works out more efficient.
Japan does some crazy intensive farming in and around urban areas where you will see towns where the houses are surrounded on all sides by rice fields. But you can also see it would be cripplingly inefficient.
In the end however indoor farming of any kind, be it greenhouses or vertical in cities cannot produce the amount of food we require. We need to large scale farm with highly efficient machines crops such as rice, wheat, barley and corn. There is a reason we use massive combine harvesters.