Ski town turns car park into vertical farm for local jobs, food

For most of the year the soil in Jackson, Wyoming is iced over and the towns produce is trucked in. Nona Yehia and Penny McBride wanted to bring fresh vegetables to the ski town, but given the scarcity of available land (97 of county land is protected), they turned a tiny vacant lot next to a parking lot into a 3story vertical farm. Today, Vertical Harvest produces 100, 000 pounds of vegetables a year on a plot 30 feet by 150 feet long; their 1, 10th of an acre site grows an annual amount of produce equivalent to 10 acres of traditional farming. Relying on hydroponics and moving carousels, the farm uses 90 less water than conventional farming and doesnt use any pesticides (only sticky traps). In an industry with an ongoing labor shortage, Vertical Harvest has tapped into a population with a 78 unemployment rate in Wyoming. Their employees have conditions such as Down syndrome, autism, seizure disorders and spina bifida and as of yet, they have a 100 retention rate. The project began