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Future Food Production Idea

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(@melissa)
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Joined: 7 years ago
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I had a wonderful synchronistic moment last night. Thanks to our equally wonderful collective on this forum alerting one another to what is around the corner--both good and bad--I have been searching for what my specific  contribution will be in our future world. Pretty sure it has to do with food.

I had an urge to investigate just hours before I went to a dinner party and came across this site about food computers https://www.media.mit.edu/groups/open-agriculture-openag/overview/

And this TED Talk given by Caleb Harper, the brain child of the concept.  https://www.ted.com/talks/caleb_harper_this_computer_will_grow_your_food_in_the_future

Then I went to the party and lo and behold, I met someone who is involved in the project. And we both live in completely different parts of the country! Amazing what can happen when we just ask...


   
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(@jeanne-mayell)
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Melissa, This is fantastic. For the last year, whenever I think of the long term future of food, I see miles of greenhouses.  Now I'm wondering if these greenhouses are food computers. I now want to know if they can possibly feed the world this way, given the world population projections. 


   
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(@melissa)
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Joined: 7 years ago
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There is definitely a trend to maximize production with minimal space. Japan got a jump start on mass produced indoor vertical farming in response to food shortages caused by the Fukushima earthquake. http://weburbanist.com/2015/01/11/worlds-largest-indoor-farm-is-100-times-more-productive/

And now the hackathon community is getting involved by further mechanizing the process with sensors and open source code that gives each type of plant exactly what it needs in terms of humidity, nutrients, ph, etc. And they are teaching school children how to do this in your state! :)


   
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(@kim-k)
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Joined: 7 years ago
Posts: 129
 

Thank you Melissa for sharing the videos you found. I found they contain a lot of information. This is going to be good a mass scale in small spaces. For a homeowner who wants to grow such things as herbs, fruit, and vegetables a hydroponics can work. I'm looking into them, and thinking about getting one this fall.   https://sucseed.ca/collections/hydroponics


   
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(@melissa)
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Hi Kim, looks like many of us are thinking along these lines!! The product you found looks much easier to assemble too! :) Thanks for sharing that.


   
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(@jeanne-mayell)
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Me too. want to learn how to do this. I started vegetable gardening four years ago but am a long way off from feeding ourselves.  Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle  is her story of how she and her family lived entirely off what they grew (and raised - livestock) for a full year. It is inspiring and educational. However it all depends on knowing how to farm,  having good land, and a cooperative climate.  I read recently that the land in the Arctic  where the climate might ultimately be more friendly, has poor soil


   
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