sun Future farm: a sunless, rainless room indoors

[pauly7]

Just came across this article on indoor farming in the Netherlands, with a nice pic of some bell-peppers under LEDs.

"Farming is moving indoors, where the sun never shines, where rainfall is irrelevant and where the climate is always right.

The perfect crop field could be inside a windowless building with meticulously controlled light, temperature, humidity, air quality and nutrition. It could be in a New York high-rise, a Siberian bunker, or a sprawling complex in the Saudi desert.

Advocates say this, or something like it, may be an answer to the world's food problems."

Full story here.

 

[SuperHot]

I do believe in this technology and to some degree working on control simulations.

 

[mmcdermott1_thehothalf]

Interesting article, but nothing beats growing in the outdoors and conquering mother nature.

 

[megamoo]

It's all good fun until a pest gets a foothold and none of the natural predators are there to keep it in check. Then you either scrap the whole crop and start from scratch, use pesticides, or import a different bug to deal with the first one. With all the energy expended to isolate and maintain the growing environment, added to the cost of nutrients and power etc.. its cheaper to plant some seeds in animal crap and let mother nature do her thing. Of course we went and messed with mother nature didn't we... if the weather goes bad then this way of farming might be our only choice!

rant over

 

[synclinorium]

Potential issues aside, I only condone this sort of growing in areas that are otherwise inhospitable to plants outdoors (and where, if you're lucky, the natural pests one might encounter outside are at a minimum). Cities, for one, should be looking into using more rooftop gardens as runoff control, insulation, and food source wrapped into one, particularly with buildings that cover a large area (warehouses, supply depots, etc.).

Most importantly, the energy and water to run these facilities should be sustainable. This is definitely not the solution to world hunger if you account for the coming water shortages and energy demands of growing societies.

 

[LGHT]

Great read. I've grown indoors with success, but have also had to spend some $$$ to get those results. I opted to go with a standard HID setup and just pay the extra cost on electricity over time since I was able to get some really cheap used bulbs and ballast. I would have preferred to go with LED which would substantially lower the monthly electricity cost, but I would have had to spend $700-$1000 on an equivalent LED light to get the same power I got from my used $100 HID setup.

The cost to run my gear added about $25.00 to my electric bill a month so it would have been several years before I even broke even with LED's. The article however did find extra cost reductions that I didn't anticipate such as using 1/4 of the water, and transportation cost / spoilage associated with large growers Seems like it may cheaper to grow inside, if you add up the cost of pesticides, transportation, water, etc. If the cost of LED drop a bit it will definitely be cheaper to grow indoors as long as your electricity cost isn't horrible expensive and you have a viable market to sell to close by eliminating shipping cost.

 

[synclinorium]

Great read. I've grown indoors with success, but have also had to spend some $$$ to get those results. I opted to go with a standard HID setup and just pay the extra cost on electricity over time since I was able to get some really cheap used bulbs and ballast. I would have preferred to go with LED which would substantially lower the monthly electricity cost, but I would have had to spend $700-$1000 on an equivalent LED light to get the same power I got from my used $100 HID setup.

The cost to run my gear added about $25.00 to my electric bill a month so it would have been several years before I even broke even with LED's. The article however did find extra cost reductions that I didn't anticipate such as using 1/4 of the water, and transportation cost / spoilage associated with large growers Seems like it may cheaper to grow inside, if you add up the cost of pesticides, transportation, water, etc. If the cost of LED drop a bit it will definitely be cheaper to grow indoors as long as your electricity cost isn't horrible expensive and you have a viable market to sell to close by eliminating shipping cost.

For the home grower, I think it may be reasonable to collect rainwater for irrigation purposes, at least as a supplement to primary water sources. For larger facilities not already using green roofs, runoff can be collected in a similar fashion.

It's a shame solar panels and wind turbines are so expensive. They're still cost prohibitive in the home for your average person, and it would only slightly offset energy costs without a full setup. At the commercial level it may be possible, and for that matter geothermal is an option for some polar and mountain growers, both of whom have very short natural seasons. Still a very high initial investment, but as the price of our existing energy infrastructure increases and demand for alternatives rises, any of these options may become viable in the future.