Indoor farming delivers super-fresh produce to cities, but its energy use creates a 'conundrum'

Vertical farms stack rows of plants on top of each other. Those indoor farms control the lighting, water and temperature to create ideal conditions to grow fresh produce year-round close to customers. But the industry relies on artificial lighting and has a large carbon footprint.
People who subscribe to the Ames, Iowa, company Nebullam get a bag of fresh produce delivered directly to their doorstep. Leafy greens or cherry tomatoes that were harvested at most three hours ago.

The food isn’t just local. It’s grown indoors.

Rows of plants are stacked on top of each other in an industrialized room in the Iowa State University Research Park, in what’s called a vertical farm. Nebullam controls the lighting, water and temperature to create ideal conditions to grow fresh produce year-round.