Vertical farming could free up thousands of hectares of UK farmland, but the environmental benefits depend on how that land is reused, according to new research led by the University of Surrey. The study, published in Cleaner Food Systems, is the first UK-wide study to look at not only the environmental impact of vertical farming itself, but also what happens if the land no longer needed for conventional farming is repurposed for climate and environmental goals, such as renewable energy generation, woodland creation and ecosystem restoration. Focusing on lettuce production, researchers found that vertical farming could reduce land demand by 93 per cent,…