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Hi!
I just saw a TV report about an interesting way to produce plants.
It's a real machine based approach to growing plants in a very highly
automated way. See
http://www.organitech.com/
for the corporation building the machines. It also has a number of
ecological advantages. I found a report about it on
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/06/vertical_farmin_2.php
Some advantages listed there:
* Water efficient.
* Environment friendly technology.
* Eliminates weather and climate related risks.
* Ability to locate anywhere, minimizing distribution costs.
* Hydroponic technology, no herbicides or pesticides
* Space efficiency, the integrated machines are stackable
* Labor costs are reduced to near zero.
* Glatt-kosher standard, no insects or worms present.
* Optimum growth conditions resulting in short growing cycle / high
productivity.
* Clean, safe and ready-to-eat produce.
* Steady production cost year-round.
They were a bit concerned about the energy spent but then "We were
relieved to learn that where there is room to spread out horizontally,
a new unit built out of a 40' container with a greenhouse roof can be
used to reduce the need for artificial lighting."
There is also a more detailed Wired article about it at
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,68888,00.html
Actually this looks to me like the GPL society answer to the problem
of agriculture. Reducing need of human labor to near zero I find very
promising but also that it looks like a really ecological way to do
agriculture.
Mit Freien Grüßen
Stefan
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