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-The ‘plantscrapers’ could accommodate hundreds of storeys worth of crops

-They would use an innovate feeding system cancelling out need for soil

-Farms will increase crop yields because growing can occur all year round

Crops could soon be grown in greenhouses the size of skyscrapers in city centres across the country, it has been claimed.

Birds Eye and other food producers are investigating building ‘plantscrapers’, which could accommodate hundreds of storeys worth of crops, in a bid to make farming more economical, sustainable and meet increasing demand.

The ‘vertical farms’ would use an innovative feeding system which nourishes plants with enriched water, therefore cancelling out the need for soil – and the need for food to be grown  and harvested in the countryside. And because the climate inside them can be controlled, it is claimed the farms will  dramatically increase crop yields because growing can occur all year round, while the plants would be under cover, so pesticides would not need to be used.

Some supermarket foods such as tomatoes and strawberries are already grown on farms using a primitive form of the so-called hydroponic system. Now there are sophisticated plantscrapers planned or under construction in Sweden, Japan, China, Singapore and Chicago in the U.S.