Vertical farming is part of a wider controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) sector that includes greenhouses, hydroponics, and other protected production systems. In the United States, CEA operations increased from 1,015 in 1998 to 2,994 in 2019, while food-crop production reached 7.86 million hundredweight in 2019. The figures below show where the sector has grown, which crops dominate, and where energy and cost constraints remain.
Contents
- U.S. CEA scale and growth
- Crops, growing area, and sales
- Hydroponic production
- Yields, land, and water efficiency
- Lighting and electricity
- Costs, funding, and commercial constraints
U.S. CEA scale and growth
The USDA Economic Research Service tracks controlled-environment agriculture as a broad category. Because the category includes vertical agriculture but is not limited to it, these national figures should be read as context for vertical farming rather than as a complete vertical-farm census. The USDA also cautions that CEA and field-grown comparisons draw on different surveys, samples, and marketing channels. USDA ERS, “Trends, Insights, and Future Prospects for Production in Controlled Environment Agriculture and Agrivoltaics Systems”
The number of U.S. CEA operations rose from 1,015 in 1998 to 2,994 in 2019. The 2019 count was nearly triple the 1998 count. Food-crop production increased from 5.02 million hundredweight in 2009 to 7.86 million hundredweight in 2019.
Sales followed a more uneven path. CEA food-crop sales totaled $296 million in inflation-adjusted 2012 dollars in 1998. They peaked at $769 million in 2014, then measured $626 million in 2019, also in inflation-adjusted 2012 dollars. These are sales figures for the broader CEA food-crop category, not a standalone revenue series for vertical farms.
USDA reported that more than 60% of production for tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce used nontraditional technological systems in 2019. That measure indicates how important protected and technology-assisted methods had become for several major crops, while still leaving the exact contribution of vertical farms unspecified.
Crops, growing area, and sales
Tomatoes were the dominant CEA food crop by area. Across the 1998, 2009, 2014, and 2019 census years, tomatoes averaged 53% of total CEA food-crop area. In 2019, tomatoes occupied about 59% of CEA food-crop area.
The 2019 area mix also included fresh-cut herbs at 12%, cucumbers at 7%, lettuce at 6%, peppers at almost 3%, and strawberries at nearly 1%. The distribution matters for interpreting vertical-farming discussions: leafy greens and herbs are prominent indoor-farm products, but tomatoes still represented most of the measured CEA area in this USDA category.
Sales were concentrated in the same leading crops. In inflation-adjusted 2012 dollars, CEA tomato sales were $307.2 million in 2019. Lettuce sales were $63.3 million, and fresh-cut herb sales were $58.0 million.
| 2019 CEA crop | Share of food-crop area | Sales in 2012 dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Tomatoes | About 59% | $307.2 million |
| Fresh-cut herbs | 12% | $58.0 million |
| Lettuce | 6% | $63.3 million |
| Cucumbers | 7% | Not supplied |
| Peppers | Almost 3% | Not supplied |
| Strawberries | Nearly 1% | Not supplied |
The area percentages and crop sales come from different measurements within the same 2019 CEA reporting context. They should not be used to infer a crop’s average price or profitability, because the supplied figures do not provide matching production, price, or cost denominators for every crop.
Hydroponic production
Hydroponics is one of the production methods used in vertical farms, but it also operates in other protected settings. Hydroponic systems produced 3.652 million hundredweight of CEA food crops in 2009 and 4.222 million hundredweight in 2019.
Hydroponic adoption varied considerably by crop in 2019. About 61% of CEA tomato production was hydroponic, compared with about 67% of cucumber production and about 66% of lettuce production. Hydroponics accounted for 23% of fresh-cut herb production, 3% of pepper production, and 16% of strawberry production.
Tomatoes were the largest quantified hydroponic crop in the supplied USDA figures, with 2.533 million hundredweight in 2019. Hydroponic cucumber production measured 340,000 hundredweight in 2019. These values describe CEA hydroponic production and do not establish how much was grown in multilayer indoor farms.
The crop differences show why “hydroponic” and “vertical” should not be treated as synonyms. Hydroponics describes how plants receive water and nutrients; vertical farming describes a production arrangement that may use stacked layers and controlled lighting. A hydroponic greenhouse and an indoor vertical farm can therefore share a production method while having very different structures and energy profiles.
Yields, land, and water efficiency
USDA comparisons reported substantially higher protected yields per unit area than open-field yields for several crops. Protected strawberry yields were about 40% higher than open-field yields. Protected tomato yields were about 400% higher, while protected cucumber yields were more than 2,100% higher. The comparison period was the 2019 Census of Horticultural Specialties and the 2021 Vegetable Annual Summary.
Those percentages compare protected and open-field production, not necessarily vertical farms against field agriculture. The USDA source notes that the underlying surveys, samples, and marketing channels differ. They are therefore useful indicators of potential protected-production intensity, not universal yield multipliers for every indoor facility.
Some estimates cited in a 2024 USDA report put indoor-agriculture water use 80% to 99% below traditional agriculture through recycling, precision irrigation, and lower evaporation. These are estimates rather than a national census. Another cited vertical-farm comparison said that one conventional acre-equivalent of vertical output could replace 390 conventional farm acres. The source identifies that figure as an estimate, so it should not be interpreted as a guaranteed result across crops or facilities.
A 2016 experiment reported that vertical hydroponic lettuce yield per occupied floor area was about 14 times horizontal hydroponic yield when planting density was 20 times higher. The cited hydroponic lettuce benchmark used about 50 plants per square meter. This is a study result under stated experimental conditions, not a national commercial average.
One 2021 lettuce trial provides additional timing and yield comparisons. Soil cultivation reached maturity in 48 days and completed its cycle in 107 days. Deep-water-culture hydroponic lettuce reached maturity in 40.5 days and completed its cycle in 92.5 days. In that trial, yield was 1.15 kilograms per plant conventionally, 1.64 kilograms in deep-water culture, and 1.32 kilograms in nutrient-film technique.
Lighting and electricity
The U.S. Department of Energy estimated 500,000 square feet of total lit grow area in U.S. vertical farms in 2017. Its estimates were based on stakeholder interviews and data collected from May through July 2017, so they describe that measurement period rather than a current national inventory. DOE, “Energy Savings Potential of SSL in Horticultural Applications”
DOE estimated that vertical-farm lighting operated for 6,278 hours per year in 2017. LED lighting demand was estimated at 17.4 watts per square foot, compared with 22.8 watts per square foot for linear-fluorescent lighting. LED fixtures represented an estimated 66% of U.S. vertical-farm lighting.
| DOE vertical-farm lighting estimate | 2017 value |
|---|---|
| Total lit grow area | 500,000 square feet |
| Annual operating time | 6,278 hours |
| LED demand | 17.4 watts per square foot |
| Linear-fluorescent demand | 22.8 watts per square foot |
| LED fixture share | 66% |
| Electric lighting consumption | 60 gigawatt-hours |
| Source energy equivalent | 0.62 trillion Btu |
U.S. vertical-farm electric lighting consumed 60 gigawatt-hours in 2017, equivalent to 0.62 trillion Btu of source energy. DOE modeled a theoretical conversion of the remaining fluorescent fixtures to LED. In that scenario, annual use fell from 60 to 55 gigawatt-hours, implying 10% electricity savings for U.S. vertical-farm lighting.
Vertical farms represented 1% of the 46 million square feet of U.S. horticultural grow area lit electrically in 2017. The estimate highlights a useful distinction: vertical farms can deliver dense production per floor area, but lighting remains a measurable operating load, particularly when production depends on long daily photoperiods.
Costs, funding, and commercial constraints
The cited USDA estimate put vertical-farm startup costs at $150 to $400 per square foot. The cited greenhouse startup-cost range was lower at $50 to $150 per square foot. These are reported ranges and should not be treated as standardized bids; building condition, automation, crop, climate systems, lighting, and location can all affect actual costs. The USDA source presents some cost figures as estimates or company claims rather than national census results.
A 2017 estimate based on a 16-hour photoperiod put energy costs at about $3.45 per square foot for a small indoor farm. For an indoor farm larger than 10,000 square feet, the same estimate put energy costs at $8.02 per square foot. The supplied source also cites one energy-price and wheat-price scenario in which energy cost reached 100 times the value of the wheat produced. That scenario illustrates crop economics under particular assumptions; it is not a reported average for commercial vertical farms.
Public funding has supported urban agriculture and CEA research. In October 2022, USDA announced $14.2 million for 52 urban-agriculture and innovative-production grants across 27 states. USDA said that round built on $26.3 million in projects funded since 2020 through its urban-agriculture office. In January 2023, USDA announced another $7.5 million in urban-agriculture grants.
Auburn University received a $9.95 million USDA grant for controlled-environment agriculture research in 2023. USDA reported more than $50 million in CEA research and commercialization contracts and grants awarded since 2022, as reported in 2024.
Together, the cost and funding figures point to a sector with significant research activity but demanding operating economics. The official sources reviewed did not locate a 2026 vertical-farming census. For that reason, older national estimates, protected-agriculture comparisons, study results, and forecast-like scenarios should remain clearly labeled by year, geography, and scope when used to understand vertical farming.