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posted by janrinok on Thursday July 10 2014, @08:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the a-head-for-lettuce dept.

Wall Street Journal runs a story on Japanese electronics factories "diversifying" into running greenhouses.

Struggling to compete with rivals in South Korea or China in businesses like televisions and smartphones, a range of Japanese electronics giants are converting idled factories to agriculture.

Last month, as Fujitsu began selling lettuce from the Aizu-Wakamatsu plant, Toshiba Corp said it would begin growing vegetables inside a floppy disk factory near Tokyo that hasn't been used for two decades. Later this year, Panasonic Corp will start selling computer-program controlled greenhouses to grow spinach and other vegetables. And Sharp Corp last year began laboratory tests to grow strawberries at an indoor site in Dubai using its lighting and air-purifying technologies.

Because the lettuce is grown in a bacteria-free space, it keeps much longer than ordinary produce - up to two months if refrigerated, the company says. "Because it stays fresh for so long, this will give us a competitive edge when we ship it for export," says Akihiko Sato, a manager at the plant, showing that an economic model honed during the days of the transistor radio, when overseas sales fuelled growth, retains its appeal. But high-tech lettuce comes at a price. At a supermarket near Tokyo, a small bag of Fujitsu lettuce was selling for $3, about $1 more than a whole head of ordinary lettuce.

Fujitsu is starting modestly, with production of 3,500 heads of lettuce a day, but says that if all goes well, it intends to produce about $4 million worth by the 2016 fiscal year, up from a goal of $1.5 million this year.

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  • (Score: 2) by meisterister on Thursday July 10 2014, @08:52PM

    by meisterister (949) on Thursday July 10 2014, @08:52PM (#67276) Journal

    I would be most interested in how these companies are going to market their food. Will they go for how long the lettuce is expected to keep or by hoping people will expect that lettuce made by a tech company must be special in some way.

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    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 10 2014, @08:59PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 10 2014, @08:59PM (#67285)

      Growing it in a clean-room, I'm sure they are going for the antiseptic crowd. Excessive cleanliness and purity is a big deal for a lot of people in Japan.

      And if not, because of the longevity they can ship it to the USA were soccer-moms are also nuts about it too. Or to China where the elite have their own food supplies to avoid pollution. [latimes.com]

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @12:28PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @12:28PM (#67550)

        Thank you, interesting read! Glad to see at least some countries have a rather healthy (literally) suspicion towards genetically modified food.

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday July 10 2014, @09:42PM

      by frojack (1554) on Thursday July 10 2014, @09:42PM (#67311) Journal

      I would be most interested in how these companies are going to market their food.

      Well, if the Japanese shopper is at least as influenced by marketing claims as the "organic" industry has found american shoppers to be I suspect they will have no problem.

      Japanese are Germaphobes anyway, and with the addition of radiation worries, the dollar (50%) higher price might not be that hard to demand.

      --
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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:12AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:12AM (#67427)
        I get the impression that when it comes to food the Japanese would prefer a small high quality head of lettuce than a huge amount of low quality lettuce.

        In contrast, in China people are using "gutter oil", and in the USA instead of coming up with processes that result in less shit in/on food, they keep trying to come up with ways to sterilize shit-ridden food, or make sterilizing it the responsibility of consumers (e.g. telling them to not undercook stuff - eggs, burger patties, etc).

        So it's good that at least someone is trying out different directions.
    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Yog-Yogguth on Tuesday July 15 2014, @09:25AM

      by Yog-Yogguth (1862) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 15 2014, @09:25AM (#69225) Journal

      Well for one thing you shouldn't find any bugs in your lettuce :)

      If one can choose why not prefer food (in this case plants) that has had better lives and better health? Clean-rooms, aeroponics, and artificial lighting combine to form something close to a plant heaven and the only missing part is optimizing their air and do normal "old-fashioned" breeding selection for increased efficiencies.

      It will probably beat all traditional farming on both water (for hydroponics I think it's about 80% less and aeroponics is even better), fertilizer, and other huge (sometimes hidden) energy expenditures, can be situated pretty much anywhere, will be much easier to automate (forget huge vehicles and dangerous tools killing or maiming farmers), and we'll eventually need it in space too.

      While Monsanto & co continues creating and embellishing "RoundUp-poisoned antifood" in their evil-for-profit MAFIAA-styled scheme the above approach scaled up would trump even the achievements of Norman Borlaug [wikipedia.org] (who unfortunately didn't perceive the problems with the kind of GMO Monsanto & others produce).

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 10 2014, @08:58PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 10 2014, @08:58PM (#67282)

    A fab uses some really nasty reagents (like barium triflouride)
    Who the hell would want to eat anything grown NEAR one, much less
    IN one.

    • (Score: 2) by middlemen on Thursday July 10 2014, @09:02PM

      by middlemen (504) on Thursday July 10 2014, @09:02PM (#67290) Homepage

      Clearly the Japanese are willing to eat it which is why large companies are spending money on these technologies. I'd rather eat a lettuce grown in a clean room than eat beef from an American beef facility where cows wallow in their own shit.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by meisterister on Thursday July 10 2014, @10:57PM

        by meisterister (949) on Thursday July 10 2014, @10:57PM (#67336) Journal

        And you have just created one of the most tricky Would you Rather questions I've ever read.

        --
        (May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Friday July 11 2014, @04:40AM

      by frojack (1554) on Friday July 11 2014, @04:40AM (#67438) Journal

      It wasn't a fab, it was a floppy disk plant. The lettuce would be high in iron at worst.

      --
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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Thursday July 10 2014, @09:33PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday July 10 2014, @09:33PM (#67306) Homepage
    To compete with South Korea, they need to farm bok choi, and make kimchee.

    (No exageration - while I was in Samsung Digital City in Suwon I probably saw well over a tonne of kimchee served each and every day to the staff there. And I only went to one meal a day, most of the staff went to two, so it could be twice that.)
    --
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    • (Score: 2) by jasassin on Thursday July 10 2014, @10:24PM

      by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Thursday July 10 2014, @10:24PM (#67326) Homepage Journal

      Thank you. After a wikipedia search on kimchi I learned something new today. It was an interesting read.

      --
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      • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday July 10 2014, @10:38PM

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday July 10 2014, @10:38PM (#67331) Homepage
        The one thing you haven't yet learnt is what it tastes like! Be warned, the paprika used will be a hot variety, and there's usually plenty of raw garlic in the mix. We can't find bok choi here, so we just use its close relative chinese leaf, and the end result is just as good. Which reminds me - a pot has come free, I should make some this weekend!
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
        • (Score: 2) by jasassin on Thursday July 10 2014, @11:05PM

          by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Thursday July 10 2014, @11:05PM (#67337) Homepage Journal

          Does it have a fishy taste? Im sure I can handle the heat, but I saw how it uses fish or scallion juices.

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          • (Score: 1) by arslan on Friday July 11 2014, @03:12AM

            by arslan (3462) on Friday July 11 2014, @03:12AM (#67411)

            No it doesn't, it has whatever taste fermented food does, unless you consider that fishy taste.... I dislike fishy tastes a lot but not kimchee.

            Also there's many types, you can actually eat fresh kimchee where the fermentation is minimal and you can use various types of vegetables.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @06:34AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @06:34AM (#67463)

            Adding fish is a regional thing, so you'll just have to try it to find out. Also, it is most commonly made with chinese cabbage, but it can also be made with any vegetables (daikon radish is another common base).

          • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday July 11 2014, @05:22PM

            by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Friday July 11 2014, @05:22PM (#67712) Homepage
            There's only a hint of fishiness if you know to look for it. Sometimes I make it without any sea-food component, and it does seem to be lacking something intangible, but other times I go a bit over the top (if we've got too a backlog of shredded dried squid, and we need to finish it off), and I think the seafood's too noticeable.

            (Dear taxman, no, the deliveries of oriental food-stuffs which we often receive are not "payment" for what you may perceive as "work" that we do for what you perceive as "customers" in the far east, they're gifts!)
            --
            Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
            • (Score: 2) by jasassin on Saturday July 12 2014, @11:43PM

              by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Saturday July 12 2014, @11:43PM (#68289) Homepage Journal

              Thank you for replying. I appreciate it, and I found your comment about the tax man quite interesting. Have a great day Sir!

              --
              jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Thursday July 10 2014, @11:33PM

    by edIII (791) on Thursday July 10 2014, @11:33PM (#67346)

    A hard drive manufacturer of my youth now selling lettuce. Truth is much stranger than fiction.

    --
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    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @12:29AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @12:29AM (#67360)

      I know right. It's just as bizarre as a playing card manufacturer selling video games (Nintendo), or a textile company selling cars (Toyota) or a ceramics company selling electronics (Kyocera) or a shipping firm selling everything (Mitsubishi) or a bookstore selling servers (Amazon) or a mail company selling charge cards (American Express) or a gunpowder manufacturer selling genetically modified seeds (DuPont) or a textile company selling insurance (Berkshire Hathaway) or a noodle company selling electronics (Samsung) or a stationary store selling jewelry (Tiffany) or a textile company selling ponies and robots(Hasbro).

      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @01:53AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @01:53AM (#67386)

        With all due respect to your post, none of these is on the same scale as Fujitsu selling lettuce. Except perhaps Samsung (in reverse).

        Playing card -> videogames have entertainment in common.
        Textile company -> cars... okay, this one is a bit out there, but cars do have plenty of textiles in them, and they still have in common the type of industrial area/building they can be manufactured in.
        Ceramics -> electronics, they started making ceramic packages for other companie's actual electronics so there is a continuum
        Shipping firm selling everything -> Typical diversification
        Bookstore selling servers -> Amazon stopped being a bookstore a while ago, see previous point
        Mail company -> credit cards has geographically wide business relationships in common (it's easy to forget in the Internet era that this was far from a trivial thing back then)
        Gunpowder -> GMO seeds have chemistry in common
        Textile -> insurance.. when a manufacturing company turns to less hands-on things they still reuse many things
        Noodles -> electronics... okay, no comment.
        Tiffany: From wiki: "Founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young[6] in New York City in 1837 as a "stationery and fancy goods emporium"" -- jewelry is definitely "fancy goods", and even then, both things are the same type of product (crafts) even if with very different purposes
        Textile -> ponies -> robots in that order is a continuum, it's not like they jumped straight from textile to robots and, even then, see Toyota

        But hard drives (and other metal things) -> lettuce? They have no materials in common, they have no distribution channels in common, they have no production expertise in common (unlike, say, Fujifilm and antioxidants), they have no industrial machinery or geographical area in common (small metal stuff is usually made in industrial parks in the middle of cities, lettuce is from rural areas)...

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:47AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @04:47AM (#67440)

          Most of your analysis is really disingenuous, like your rationalization for Berkshire Hathaway as "reuse" - isn't that exactly what's going on here?

          Lets see you rationalize how going from manufacturing shoe leather to building game consoles [wikipedia.org] is unremarkable.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @06:15AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @06:15AM (#67459)

            "Most of your analysis is really disingenuous, like your rationalization for Berkshire Hathaway as "reuse" - isn't that exactly what's going on here?"

            No. It's one thing to go into something that reuses something you have and requires "little" else, and it's another thing to go into something that requires a large amount of new skills and assets. When you're used to manufacturing precision-cut electromechanical devices that involve nasty chemicals and big machines you don't simply go on to grow edible plants meant for human consumption.

            "Lets see you rationalize how going from manufacturing shoe leather to building game consoles is unremarkable."

            It is unremarkable because they didn't go from manufacturing shoe leather to building game consoles. First they started making leather craft-related stuff, which was very much related to the shoe leather business. Then they got involved in plastic moulding, which is related to what they were doing with leather, only with a different material. This type of plastic moulding led them to making toys (wiki mentions wading pools), note that this was some 10 years before the game consoles. By the time they entered the game console market they were established as a toy maker, and from toys to game consoles is not a big leap at all -- game consoles are toys. They continued making toys after they exited the game console market.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @08:48AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @08:48AM (#67506)

              > No. It's one thing to go into something that reuses something you have and requires "little" else,

              Yes, not using equipment that's been idle for years, if not outright sold off long ago, requires a whole lot of work.

              > game consoles are toys

              Its like you are playing word association. Except that you choose to deliberately suck at association for the stuff you don't like.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @12:35PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 11 2014, @12:35PM (#67552)

              Feel free to use the blockquote tag to properly mark the quotes guys, thank you.

        • (Score: 2) by lx on Friday July 11 2014, @12:00PM

          by lx (1915) on Friday July 11 2014, @12:00PM (#67542)

          Noodles to electronics seems like a logical step [imgur.com] to me.