I've been reading about vertical farming since it first got hyped around 2015, and the claims about saving water and land always sounded promising. But I just saw a report showing that a large vertical farm in Europe consumed 3.5 kWh per kilogram of lettuce, which is way more than field-grown lettuce's 0.3 kWh. Does the technology really offer a sustainable path for staple crops, or is it just a niche solution for leafy greens in urban areas? I'm genuinely curious how others weigh the energy costs against the benefits of local production and reduced transportation, especially when we need to feed billions affordably. Could vertical farming ever replace traditional agriculture, or are we overestimating its scalability because we focus only on high-value crops?