In Newark, New Jersey, a large and deceptively nondescript building is redefining the Garden State, producing millions of pounds of food per year just outside of Manhattan. This 70,000 square foot facility has the equivalent yield of over 5 million square feet of traditional farmland. Inside, a year-round, closed-loop aeroponics system employs no pesticides and requires 95% less water than field farming. This branch of AeroFarms is not alone — it’s part of a food production revolution with projects ranging from at-home and in-store micro-farms to massive facilities set up in old factories and warehouses around the world.

Technically, vertical farming can be done outside, too, by stacking planters in natural sunlight, but indoor vertical farms offer a range of advantages. Inside, there are no seasons and specialized LED lights make it possible to grow plants continuously and cycle through various crops more easily. The controlled environment and standardization of these systems also makes automation easier. In Japan, approaches have gone predictably high-tech, with endeavors like the Vegetable Factory, which is operated entirely by robots.

Spatial containment makes recycling more efficient, mitigates spoilage and reduces the risk of diseases and pests spreading beyond a specific facility. Transportation costs and energy requirements are also reduced for farms that move into old factories and warehouses right in and around cities, putting them closer to consumers. Aeroponics in general also require less material input — mainly mist and air with minimal water and soil — leading to a lighter footprint.

What started in large and independent facilities has begun to spread into mainstream grocery stores and supermarkets, too. A few years back, Target started testing direct retail micro-farms, beginning with leafy greens before moving to tomatoes, peppers and more. Since these kinds of retail spaces are climate-controlled already for the sake of both shoppers and products, less added energy is required to maintain ideal conditions.

In Berlin, a company called INFARM recently partnered with local shops to provide similar in-store services, cutting down on farm-to-table distance right in the heart of a major European metropolis. Meanwhile, in Tokyo, vertical creepers, rice paddies and broccoli fields were integrated into the design of an otherwise Modern-looking office building, brightening up the place while also providing food for the employee cafeteria.

Taking vertical integration a step further, projects like the ReGen Villages aim to incorporate stacked farms directly into residential communities. It may sound impractical or even Utopian, but at its root the idea is relatively traditional: backyard gardens and community gardening are nothing new. Coupled with walkability and density, these kinds of green-centric towns have a lot in common with New Urbanist ideas that go back decades.

Still, it is generally wise to maintain a healthy skepticism when it comes to fresh green architectural trends and technologies and eye-catching renderings. Skyscrapers covered in greenery (or treescrapers), for instance, have proven to be popular but also problematic in practice (catchy conceptual earthscrapers, groundscrapers and sidescrapers, too, for that matter). Sometimes, more practical organic solutions are hiding in plain sight. Take wood, for instance, a historically popular green building material now finding new forms and reaching new heights in tall buildings around the world. Newer is not always better.

Some extreme vertical farming ideas may indeed prove to be far-fetched and unsustainable, but market movements suggest there is a future in these kinds of facilities and approaches. Investors are putting their money where people’s mouths are, buying up disused urban real estate and developing new indoor farming technologies. Already, vertical farming is a $2,000,000,000 industry and experts project it will grow as much as 30% per year over the next decade.

Vertical farms are of course not a complete solution to ongoing threats like climate change and mounting global food crises, but they do show promise — these endeavors are slowly breaking down urban and rural barriers, reconnecting cities with the food sources that sustain them and shortening that critical distance from farm to table.

Powered by solar-paneled roofs overhead, these barge farms feature hydroponic space for produce above and support fish farming below, using extant technologies to offshore vast quantities of food to be grown on the water.

Based in Barcelona, Forward Thinking Architecture is pushing its Smart Floating Farms concept to interested cities and investors, boasting the modularity of this system that can start with a single barge or morph into a fleet of connected vessels. Each barge is designed to yield over 8 tons of fruits and vegetables and nearly 2 tons of fish per year.

The barges would be 656 by 1,150 feet and contain its own desalination plant, able to turn saltwater to fresh for farming purposes. Solar, wind and wave power render each platform self-sufficient in terms of energy as well as relatively independent, needing little human interaction or intervention to function.

While there is no set date for launching the first of these floating farms, the feasibility of the system is promising. It does not presuppose any technology that does not already exist, and represents a natural expansion of development beyond land to adjacent open spaces on the water.

From the architects: “The world population is predicted to grow from 6.9 billion in 2010 to 8.3 billion in 2030 and to 9.1 billion in 2050. By 2030, food demand is predicted to increase by 50% (70% by 2050). The main challenge facing the agricultural sector is not so much growing 70% more food in 40 years, but making 70% more food available on the plate.”

Bringing healthy and organic fruits and vegetables into low-income areas of Toronto lacking grocery stores, this converted bus is much more than a normal food truck – it looks like an ordinary vehicle until it stops and deploys its colorfully-stocked shelves (images by Laura Berman).

As in many cities, there are ‘food deserts’ in Toronto in which it is hard to find fresh seasonal produce. Using a vehicle donated by the Toronto Transit Commission, LGA Architectural Planners helped convert this vehicle to address this issue.

“Even in a city as dynamic as Toronto, there remain neighbourhoods where residents are unable to access the foods essential to a healthy diet. This happens for a variety of reasons, including low-income, lack of access to public transit, and long distances to groceries and markets. Such conditions make it extremely difficult for individuals and families without access to a vehicle to find and purchase healthy foods. Senior citizens who might be less mobile are hit especially hard by this type of isolation.”

Lettuce, berries, okra, yucca, broccoli, apples and more fill the fold-out shelves extending out from the side of the Mobile Good Food Market. Inside, bins of additional veggies and fruits can be accessed by walking or wheelchair, a handy feature for cold and wet weather.

The project  was commissioned by FoodShare Toronto in partnership with the City of Toronto and United Way Toronto in a joint effort to help supplement unhealthy local options in neighborhoods starved for good and fresh foods.

“The design also offered the opportunity to shop from the inside in inclement weather,” notes Dean Goodman of LGA, pointing out that as a former Wheel-Trans bus, ramps for ease of entry and exit were already in place. “Good food is beautiful when displayed well, so when we decided we wanted this to be a feature we worked out the mechanism so one person could fold out the shelves, restock as necessary and display the food so it was attractive.””

The BeetBox from designer Scott Garner explores user expectations and creates a delightful visual pun. Its wooden enclosure holds six actual beets that, when touched by human hands, create actual beats.

Garner’s BeetBox consists of a poplar frame housing a few simple electronic components, a half dozen fresh beets, and a capacitive touch sensor. When someone touches one of the beets, a unique sound emanates from the audio amplifier.

Touching a number of the beets in sequence creates a totally fresh mix. Users are limited only by the number of hands they have available for tapping the vegetables.

The designer’s goal was to create a unique user experience in which the electronics are invisible – both physically and in terms of the interaction being very simple.

He accomplished this goal quite neatly with the BeetBox, turning beets into beats and allowing even those without any musical experience to create their own totally personal music.

You may be wondering, as you read this article, “didn’t their mothers ever teach them not to play with their food?” But reserve judgment until you see the absolute masterpieces that the following artists have managed to create from simple foods you can find in the kitchen. By the end, you’ll be wishing you had disobeyed that rule more often!

Joost Elffers and Saxton Freymann: Food Play

(via: flickr)

If there were ever two people who didn’t listen to their mothers they would be Elffers and Freymann. The collaborators have written over a dozen books together, all of them tackling the subject of playing with your food and turning everyday fruits and vegetables into incredibly cute animals and anthropomorphic characters. All their creations are appropriate for all ages and may help you feed your kids broccoli and other pesky greens!

Akiko Ida and Pierre Javelle – Microsculptures

(via: artnet)

The husband and wife team of Javelle and Ida have made a name for themselves with their spectacular series of diptych photographs. Through these photographs they have managed to create a whole new micro universe in the vein of candyland (or foodland, or dessertland). The entire collection currently stands at 60 such photographs varying from work, leisure, sports, and war-related scenes.

Carl Warner – Foodscapes

(source: carlwarner)

Photographer Carl Warner’s tools are similar to those of Ida and Javelle, but rather than focus on the foreground, he goes to great lengths to use fruits, vegetables, and anything else he can find in his kitchen to create stunning landscapes… or foodscapes! The photographs look absolutely stunning, and for someone who was unaware that this is ‘food art’ they might not even acknowledge that everything is in fact made from edible items. Beware, however, you cannot eat these sets because of the excessive amounts of glue and pins needed to put them together.

Amazingly Creative Bento Art

(via: justinspace)

While the concept of Bento, a common Japanese cuisine that comes in a single-portion home-packaged take out meal, is very much like the lunch your mom pack for you before you left for school, the similarities end there. The Japanese have taken the art of Bento boxes to incredible heights. The results are nothing short of complex and visually appealing displays that are often so beautiful that you just don’t want to eat them and wish you could preserve them forever. In fact, in Japan, contests are often held where people compete for the best designed arrangements, which range from celebrities, pets and animals, characters from popular culture, and more.