Controlled environment agriculture as urban infrastructure: advancing a public agenda for spatial equity
Xudong Rao, Azlan Zahid, Xinyue Ye, Devika Jain, Nick Duffield · 2026
Read Controlled environment agriculture as urban infrastructure: advancing a public agenda for spatial equity by Xudong Rao, Azlan Zahid, Xinyue Ye, Devika Jain, Nick Duffield (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13265594.txt.
Description
Xudong Rao and co-authors wrote a 2026 perspective arguing that controlled environment agriculture, high-tech indoor and greenhouse farming, should be treated as public city infrastructure rather than a private tech fix. Venture money has driven its growth, they say, yielding few sites, narrow crop choice, and little thought for fair spread across neighborhoods.
The authors propose judging such farms by public value: food justice, public health, and climate resilience. They highlight geospatial AI and high-performance computing as underused tools that could adapt crop care, guide site choices, and find underserved communities for targeted help. Joined with urban data methods, these tools could embed farms in fair, climate-ready city systems. The paper ends with priorities for a public-interest agenda for this farming sector.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Xudong Rao, Azlan Zahid, Xinyue Ye, Devika Jain, Nick Duffield |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 29939 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |