VIDEO: Here's Why Some Think 'Vertical Farming' Could Solve Some of Arkansas's Biggest Problems
Proponents of the vertical farming method say it could help fight food insecurity and provide an alternative for farmers struggling with high prices.
Author: Carter Thweatt
October 14, 2025
SHERIDAN, Ark. — Two of Arkansas’s biggest problems, struggling farmers and food insecurity, could be addressed by a farming technique that was shown off in Sheridan on Tuesday.
This year, we have spoken with several farmers who said they could be forced to close their family farms, and Arkansas often ranks near the top of the list for food insecurity in America.
These are important issues, according to Eudora Mayor Tomeka Butler.
“We're in the Mississippi-Arkansas Delta,” Butler said. “The biggest industry is farming. It's agriculture.”
On Tuesday, Butler made the two-hour trip up from the southeast part of the state to Sheridan to watch a demonstration of a technology that she said could totally change her city.
“With this particular technology,” Butler said. “You can take one acre of traditional row crop farming and put it in your living room.”
The technology she mentioned is known as "vertical farming," and the company that showed it off is Sheridan-based 180 Pipe.
180 Pipe’s Vice President Luigi Campos said the system saves space and, since the plants don’t touch each other, it also saves time.
“It allows you to grow the plants slightly faster,” Campos said. “Because they're not competing for resources at the root level.”
According to Campos, the faster growing time and the fact that you could practice vertical farming virtually anywhere, including in food deserts, means it could be key in fighting food insecurity.
He also said it's often cheaper than traditional farming, since it requires less space, which could help struggling farmers.
One criticism of vertical farming is that it’s hard to use natural light, which can lead to high electric costs, but Campos said 180 Pipe’s bill stays small because of how their operation works.
“We don't use any LEDs,” Campos said. “We use light diffusion technology, along with different lighting on the paint that allows it to reflect back to the plants. Therefore, we can grow year-round without having a very small electrical impact on what we're producing.”
Vertical farmers like Campos are also able to recycle their water, which flows through a pipe on top, down past the plants, and back to their water tanks before doing it all again.
Mayor Butler is convinced and wants to bring the practice to Eudora and across the state.
“We need the communities to come together, to see what it is that we have, and see firsthand that this is a proven system that will work and can work, and it does work,” Butler said.
We reached out to the Arkansas Farm Bureau for more information on vertical farming.
They directed us to the USDA’s website, which said the practice can get expensive due to the need for artificial light and temperature control, but also mentioned several positives, like the fact that farmers can grow year-round regardless of the weather.