In the city of the future will be cows, and grass, and clean air! Urban farming is not a new idea as there are already plenty of community gardens in urban centers. The scale that is being suggested by a professor at Columbia University has not been tried before – farming in skyscrapers.

Imagine a cluster of 30-story towers on Governors Island or in Hudson Yards producing fruit, vegetables, and grains while also generating clean energy and purifying wastewater. Roughly 150 such buildings, Despommier estimates, could feed the entire city of New York for a year. Using current green building systems, a vertical farm could be self-sustaining and even produce a net output of clean water and energy.

Via TreeHugger