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Interesting to get that perspective. I'm based in Australia, which has a similar farming landscape to the US/Canada; I'll admit my view is probably a bit skewed.

Is rice agreeable to vertical farming? i.e.: could the bulk of China's crops be moved to VF? In my understanding it's typically a hydroponic practice, so I imagine so.

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Yeah I figured out you were in Victoria. I'm from Sydney. Expect a possible phone call from the interested party. No idea about rice, which I've only ever seen planted in fields, but a close friend of the investor is a qualified biologist and a cursory web search suggests that rice hulls are themselves an appropriate hydroponic medium for some crops, so perhaps you could potentially save further on transport by going multi-crop and full circle by re-using waste product as growing medium for other crops. Try Rice endosperm iron biofortification by targeted and synergistic action of nicotianamine synthase and ferritin, Plant Biotechnology Journal, 2009 (7), p. 631-644, Wirth et al

More than happy to start a conversation with them; also feel free to pass on my email: simon at touch dot farm.

Interesting thoughts on the reusing the waste. I toured the Carlton United breweries the other day, and found out it's their waste that has formed the basis of Vegemite since its inception. i.e.: there are massive wins to be made when you can "close the loop" on food production. When you've got production, processing, and reuse all under one roof like you could with vertical farming - gold.

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