The pessimism here is just unwarranted. Vertical farming will transform the world by freeing up hundreds of thousands of acres of land. It will move farming closer to consumption cutting the logistics costs and wastage. It's hard to overstate the how much the positive impact on the environment will be. On the top of that, it will make all regions of the world much more self-sufficient than they currently are.

Sure, it's a little impractical right now chiefly because it's hard to match the free energy of the sun. But someday, we will solve it. It's one of those ideas which will be inevitable once energy becomes cheap and abundant