I was browsing HackerNews recently and a (rare) agriculture news story popped up, this one to be specific, but there are others. As these are of interest to me I clicked and read through the comments. These linked articles aren’t all that note-worthy, but they are indicative of a trend. As a casual follower of the Ag startup scene and witnessing the vertical farming fascination for the past ~10 years grow, I’ve been genuinely confused as to some of the approaches founders are taking with their startups. For the longest time, I believed the hype that vertical farming was needed and more importantly, coming to a city near you™. This implies and inherent inefficiency in both current food production and its distribution chains.

I was browsing HackerNews recently and a (rare) agriculture news story popped up, this one to be specific, but there are others. As these are of interest to me I clicked and read through the comments. These linked articles aren’t all that note-worthy, but they are indicative of a trend. As a casual follower of the Ag startup scene and witnessing the vertical farming fascination for the past ~10 years grow, I’ve been genuinely confused as to some of the approaches founders are taking with their startups. For the longest time, I believed the hype that vertical farming was needed and more importantly, coming to a city near you™. This implies and inherent inefficiency in both current food production and its distribution chains.