[emanuensis]

Growing staples is the main failing of all these vertical farms, and they are just boutique-ish without that capability.

But if energy were free could we not grow staples vertically? We ARE on the cusp of that. And there is a lot of emphasis here.

Virtually free energy could come now, with present technology, anywhere on earth with Geothermal... if it was just invested in. (Requires upfront costs).