I've been reading about how vertical farming startups keep promising to revolutionize agriculture, but most still struggle to compete with traditional soil-based farming on cost. A friend who invested in one of these companies told me the energy bills alone can eat up any savings from reduced water usage. For staple crops like wheat or corn, vertical farms seem economically unviable at scale — yet they might make sense for high-value leafy greens in urban areas. Could vertical farming ever become a mainstream solution for food security, or is it just a niche experiment for wealthy cities?