A decade ago, vertical farming was Silicon Valley’s favorite agrarian fantasy — gleaming warehouses stacked floor to ceiling with LED-lit lettuce, promising to upend an industry as old as civilization. Today, the dream is wilting.
Most of the startups that attracted billions in venture capital during the industry’s boom years are gone. Bowery Farming burned through $938 million before shutting down. AppHarvest raised $792 million and met the same fate. Of the 23 companies that signed the Vertical Farming Manifesto just three years ago, pledging to transform “food systems for the benefit of people and the planet,” fewer than 10 remain in business.
Mike Zelkind, co-founder of 80 Acres Farms, one of the sector’s few surviving mainstream players, recently told the New York Times, “I would argue vertical farming has done a lot in 10 years, and yet it has also completely failed.”
The reasons for the collapse are both structural and self-inflicted. Vert
