Is vertical farming a viable solution?

Farming: Would industrial hemp be an ideal solution for use of hog farm runoff?

• as in "runoff" I mean "hog s**t" - to use as hemp fertilizer I understand it is generally too acidic, "hot", nitrogenous, for other typical farm ...show more

• Answer:

  First there is not ideal solution, but rather several potential crops to use. If there is a market for industrial hemp then the use of manure in the crop could be a very valid fertilizer alternative. Second, there is no manure that is to "hot" for use in a cropping system. Manures have much less salting potential and thus damage from salt than commercial fertilizers. As far as storage, that is a situation that will happen regardless. While a crop may receive multiple applications of fertilizer, the USA alone has millions of acres that receive a single fertilizer application at planting only. I, personally, do not know of a cropping system, outside of a greenhouse, that requires weekly fertilizer applications. Under our cropping systems, unless the CAFO (confined animal feeding operation) has access to a lot of land (my guess, and this is just a wild a$$ guess, about 30 acres per 1000 pounds of livestock fed) with a very diversified cropping program (meaning a lot of different crops), some on-farm storage will be required.