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mouser.com/te 33 LED-lighted horticulture enables urbanization by extending agriculture space inside of buildings without the need for direct sunlight. Vertical Farming History and Current Challenges Vertical farming originated outdoors to address the pain points caused by agricultural space limitations. Early approaches like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in 600 BC struggled to access water and required innovative pumping solutions to irrigate the elevated plants. Crops like corn, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and tropical fruit like kiwi and passion fruit lend themselves to vertical farming, as do leafy greens such as lettuce and kale. As the technology progressed throughout the centuries, modern improvements like aeroponic technology accelerated plant growth and increased crop yield in less space than conventional approaches. Farmers mist or drip a nutrient-rich solution over plants whose roots are exposed (an improvement to hydroponic systems whose roots are submerged) to surrounding air. This approach addressed the air, water, and nutrient hurdles, solving outdoor vertical farming. In addition, these solutions helped refine the practice and enabled the development of infrastructure and efficiency. For indoor vertical farming, sunlight remained the only remaining barrier. Technology Creating Indoor Sunlight Two essential elements of wide-scale lighting for indoor vertical farming are efficiency and cost. LEDs need to be high efficiency to assure the sustainability of the approach; doing this naturally reduces cost by getting more energy output per unit input and can mitigate both upfront capital and operational costs to create the indoor farm. In addition, the lighting solutions need to be flexible to adapt to the vertical orientation of the plants. The lighting solutions need to be flexible to adapt to the vertical orientation of the plants. " "