Why would we want to grow our food on 2% of our most expensive land? Land that is already used for lots of other things?

Because you don't need energy, human or otherwise to ship food or material to where the people are. Because we stack functions through time and space. Because it solves the distribution problem. Because it's already working and all we need to do is expand. Because the sun's shines everywhere. Because polyculture allows for more variety and a single crop failure doesn't need to be insured. Because we could close loops naturally and avoid polluting, we would feed animals like chickens food scraps and compost locally in the gardens and forests. Because we can do better.

Transportation today is highly efficient and the energy required per ton-mile of food is tiny. But go ahead and grow your crops in the city if that's what you want. No one is stopping you.

That's total nonsense. Shipping food takes minimal energy. The distribution problem is already solved.

Think of the real estate value living near the food forest... Like central park in NYC, why don't we cut that in half and put up more high rises on our precious expensive land.

I cannot tell if you are trolling but central park is an oasis in a hellscape that is NYC.