Current Status of Commercial Vertical Farms with LED Lighting Market in North America
The North American indoor vertical farming industry, known as plant factories (PFALs) in Japan and as city farms in Europe, is best described as nascent. Although there has been a significant amount of discussion and enthusiasm about this industry, in actuality, very few commercial vertical farms have been built in the USA and Canada. However, there have been significant developments and improvements in electric light sources for producing plants without sunlight. This chapter will focus on the following topics: background of the North American vertical farming industry, market trends for vertical farm lighting, LED companies and predictions for lighting vertical farms as a growing industry.