Nowadays, climate change is a huge issue since it is expected that the upcoming 50 years will outstandingly affect the agricultural process. It is worth to mention, that another crucial challenge that will significantly affect agricultural production in the upcoming years is the rapid increase of the global temperature, as per each degree of temperature rise, 10% of existing agricultural land will be lost ( Despommier, 2010). (2008), the land used for agriculture is projected to be transformed for other purposes such as urbanization, energy production, or infrastructure growth. On the other hand, according to Lotze-Campen et al. Based on the assumption that the minimum daily demand of a single person is minimum 2000 kcal, if we maintain the same agricultural practices, we will need additional land equal to the size of Brazil (2.1 billion acres) to cover the global food demand ( Despommier, 2009). Today, agriculture occupies land equal to the size of South America in order to cover the demand of the global population. By 2050, it is expected that the global population will reach the 9.8 billion people, 2.4 billion people more that need to be fed ( United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2015). Sustainability of resources and safety in the food production line is a major issue globally. This way, the owners under a multi-value business model will create the opportunity to the vertical farm owners not only to improve their production but at the same time absorb inexpensive electricity offered, by creating an additional profit mechanism (multiple revenue streams) under such an approach by entering into contracts with companies in a utility electric region. In large scale units it could play a role to adjust their production according to different electricity prices offered in different time zones throughout the day.
It was stressed that indoor vertical farms can act as a demand response aggregator. Beyond that, in this work it was pointed out how energy plays a role in food safety in such systems. Indoor vertical farms can produce high quality and virus-free products that can be locally distributed, inside the urban environment that such investments take place, saving annually millions of tons CO 2 emissions.
The scope of this work was to stress the role of indoor vertical farming towards this direction. This work compares traditional farming with greenhouses and indoor vertical farming focusing on the challenges and the opportunities for each category.
Food safety is an important scientific field, but at the same time a discussion topic of modern society that occupies more and more space of our every day time, dealing with the preparation of food, with its nutritious value, and various transportation and storage ways aiming at preventing food-related sickness.
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