More than ten years ago I learned about a professor at Columbia University who was developing an idea with his students to grow crops in urban buildings. Every futuristic idea needs a cool name, and Dr. Dickson Despommier and his students came up with “Vertical Farming” and created a website. It was one of those thought experiments that only a cranky professor and his ingenuous students could seriously consider – plus one excitable freelance journalist. I pitched the story for a couple of years – one publication rejected it saying, “we already covered green roofs” – until it landed in …
