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ZipGrow: Vertical farming/urban agriculture system

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Re: ZipGrow: Vertical farming/urban agriculture system

#3
I don't really understand the whole "urban agriculture" crowd.

People do often live in crowded cities, but there's plenty of space to grow stuff on outside of cities. It's the same kind of thinking that gave us the solad roads (which were, predictably, a catastrophic failure).

Re: ZipGrow: Vertical farming/urban agriculture system

#5
post #3

I don't really understand the whole "urban agriculture" crowd. People do often live in crowded cities, but there's plenty of space to grow stuff on outside of cities. It's the same kind of thinking that gave us the solad roads (which were, predictably, a catastrophic failure).

If (a really big IF) solar panels can get efficient enough while LEDs also become more efficient, in theory plants grown indoors being fed by LEDs attuned to the precise portions of the spectrum they need with the whole thing powered by the solar panels, you could get a better yield than outdoor growing. Figure out cost effective fusion, things get even better. But neither is the case right now.

As far as the urban agriculture crowd goes, they're concerned about the length of their logistics lines to their tables. Raspberries grown half a mile down the street in winter is better for the environment than flying them in from another hemisphere... provided you get the energy costs of the indoor farming system low enough.

Re: ZipGrow: Vertical farming/urban agriculture system

#6

$399 for $25 in plastic. Go to home depot and buy some rain plastic gutters.

At the late nineties someone offered me to make a startup storing files on an "online hard drive" via a web interface. Why would you need it i asked, just use ftp... little did I know. Sometimes simplicity and packaging worth money to people. Not everybody know how to cut pipes and modify them, people don't have time or space or will to do it, they want something that is working from the get go.

Re: ZipGrow: Vertical farming/urban agriculture system

#7

$399 for $25 in plastic. Go to home depot and buy some rain plastic gutters.

Every time one of these vertical/rotating indoor farms comes onto the market (usually via crowdfunding), it has roughly the same level of cost inflation. Haven't quite figured out who they are conning into buying these setups.

Re: ZipGrow: Vertical farming/urban agriculture system

#8
post #3

I don't really understand the whole "urban agriculture" crowd. People do often live in crowded cities, but there's plenty of space to grow stuff on outside of cities. It's the same kind of thinking that gave us the solad roads (which were, predictably, a catastrophic failure).

Food production in US is increasingly consolidated into hands of large agriculture corporations. Why not decentralize, make the system more robust to shock (look what's happening with grocery stores today)?

Re: ZipGrow: Vertical farming/urban agriculture system

#9
post #8
post #3

I don't really understand the whole "urban agriculture" crowd. People do often live in crowded cities, but there's plenty of space to grow stuff on outside of cities. It's the same kind of thinking that gave us the solad roads (which were, predictably, a catastrophic failure).

Food production in US is increasingly consolidated into hands of large agriculture corporations. Why not decentralize, make the system more robust to shock (look what's happening with grocery stores today)?

I entirely agree, this would be great. I don't see why it has to be done in cities though. Farmers in smaller co-ops can provide a similar decentralisation.

Re: ZipGrow: Vertical farming/urban agriculture system

#10

$399 for $25 in plastic. Go to home depot and buy some rain plastic gutters.

Every time one of these vertical/rotating indoor farms comes onto the market (usually via crowdfunding), it has roughly the same level of cost inflation. Haven't quite figured out who they are conning into buying these setups.

What's the best DIY video on building something like this? I don't even know where to start.
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