> Current agriculture doesn’t need an artificial energy source
I agree that vertical farms have their limits for producing certain important products like grains, but current agriculture does require a massive artificial input in the form of petroleum based fertilizers (via the Haber-Bosch process) - to say nothing of large amount of diesel used to transport agricultural products from rural growing areas to market in urban areas.
The transport could in theory be electrified, but the fertilizer can't at this point be produced in another way. Vertical farming can use far less fertilizer due to its precision. Again, not that it doesn't have downsides. For example, if vertical farms are powered by fossil fuels, they could be even less efficient and more carbon intensive than traditional agriculture.
The energetically expensive input to the Haber-Bosch process is hydrogen. At present hydrogen is predominantly manufactured by steam reforming of fossil fuels, which produces CO2 as a byproduct. Hydrogen can also be produced cleanly by water electrolysis powered with clean electricity.
I actually think that Haber-Bosch plants will predominantly use clean electrolytic hydrogen before farm machinery becomes predominantly electric. Farm machinery has a very slow replacement cycle. Some of my farming relatives are still running diesel powered machines built in the 1930s.
I agree that vertical farms have their limits for producing certain important products like grains, but current agriculture does require a massive artificial input in the form of petroleum based fertilizers (via the Haber-Bosch process) - to say nothing of large amount of diesel used to transport agricultural products from rural growing areas to market in urban areas.
The transport could in theory be electrified, but the fertilizer can't at this point be produced in another way. Vertical farming can use far less fertilizer due to its precision. Again, not that it doesn't have downsides. For example, if vertical farms are powered by fossil fuels, they could be even less efficient and more carbon intensive than traditional agriculture.