Grain farming goes indoors

Post by lightedman » Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 7:51 PM UTC

forgetfreeman wrote: post #70

lightedman wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a form of artificial photosynthesis - electrocatalysis-based artificial photosynthesis. We don't need sunlight, or light at all. We can mimic its effects and induce the biological mechanisms to work. For a fodder grass, you only need a few weeks from germination to harvest.

You aren't violating basic physics and thermodynamics being what they are please explain simply where the additional energy comes from?

Post by pvaldes » Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 8:25 PM UTC

theiz wrote: post #9

schiffern wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As usual, actual numbers for water/land/pesticide use (5%/3%/0%), but the only mention of electricity use is the fraction of green power. Of course, the use of green power is positioned as an unalloyed good. No mention is made of the fact that every electron used is taken away from the transition from fossil fuels. We're losing ground here, not gaining it. We're supposed to forget that the goal is to increase green e…

And don’t forget the energy and materials you need to build something where you can actually grow things indoors. Total waste of so many things here. We know that we can grow stuff in greenhouses. We know wheat is a cheap commodity too, where it is hard to gain a profit on. What are they trying to accomplish here?

Post by LegitShady » Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 9:30 PM UTC

lathyrus_long wrote: post #108

LegitShady wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you have to spray because 1) you still have to use actual soil and thats full of bugs and organisms already 2) if you aren't fertilizing you won't get anywhere near the yield farmers do and you won't be competitive on cost. Harvesting will still require the use of whatever harvesting technology there is. If we can't competitively build grain harvesters with electricity outdoors its unlikely that you'll be able to do…

This article doesn't say, but vertical farms almost always grow hydroponically, using sterilized inert media (like coir) or inherently sterile inert media (like rockwool). The water and fertilizer are delivered together by drip irrigation. Some farms may instead use no medium at all, like in NFT or DWC. With precise control over the plant nutrition, this can achieve higher yields per square foot than soil, making opt…

Post by pard68 » Sun, Jan 15, 2023, 11:24 PM UTC

credit_guy wrote: post #50

pard68 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention plants are peak "green energy". There is a very real irony to the indoor farming movement.

Not so fast. If you replace outdoor crops with forests, they'll sequester much more CO2. In principle you can replace many acres of outdoor crops with one acre of greenhouse crops: with electric illumination you can make plants grow during nighttime, and with controlled temperature you they can also grow during the winter. Irrigation also needs much less water in a greenhouse (because plants lose a lot of water via t…

Post by jonathankoren » Tue, Jan 17, 2023, 6:32 PM UTC

lightedman wrote: post #31

jonathankoren wrote: post #12

I’m skeptical. The problem with grains and hydroponics is that grains are just so cheap it doesn’t make economic sense to do it. Vegetables, particularly leafy greens, are mostly water and can be sold at tremendous markup. I don’t see anything here that changes that economic reality. Even if they were able to double wheat production to 4 crops a year, I don’t that’s enough to make it viable. Most telling is this pass…

"The problem with grains and hydroponics is that grains are just so cheap it doesn’t make economic sense to do it." It makes a ton of economic and ecological sense if you actually break it down. Damn shame the article fails to do so. We knew it made sense a decade ago when I got brought into the field to improve upon the lighting aspects for several companies.