A little food for thought this morning. Dickson Despommier (pictured), a professor at Columbia University, made a semi-novel proposal last Thursday on an appearance on the Colbert Report: vertical farming. The idea is that farming on a large scale could be done in cities indoors to reduce the need to transport food long distances. While the idea has been suggested before—see this PSD post on the topic from April 2008—Dr. Despommier took it a step further when he suggested vertical farming could help reduce or eliminate urban homelessness. While I'm not exactly convinced of the economics of the proposal, I wonder what implications it would have for the Harris-Todaro model of urban unemployment? Follow the link for Dr. Despommier's interview with Colbert.
Update: Graham Harvey offers a somewhat more modest proposal than vertical farms in the Guardian.
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