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South Australia is at the forefront of sustainable agriculture this month, with the official opening of a tomato farm in Port Augusta. It's not just any tomato farm. Sundrop Farms is a hydroponic greenhouse facility that doesn't use fossil fuels, groundwater, pesticides or soil. The $200 million, 20-hectare farm doesn't even take up valuable arable land. It's located on arid, degraded land that is too barren for traditional agriculture.
Here's how it works. A solar tower standing 115 metres (377 feet) high with 23,000 mirrors pointed at it provides all the power the farm requires, for heating and cooling. It also powers a desalination plant, which converts seawater into freshwater to keep the plants irrigated.
If it works, there is a lot of "arid, degraded land that is too barren for traditional agriculture" in Nevada and eastern California that could be used the same way.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bootsy on Wednesday October 12 2016, @04:21PM
This technology is very cool and can no doubt be used for the benefit of human kind but we are hardly short of tomatoes in this world, or indeed other fruit. There is already tremendous waste in the food production industry in the richer Western World and the amount of food that can be produced globally is actually enough, it just doesn't get to the right people. The upfront costs preclude a lot of poorer countries and of course many of them are land locked with no ready source of salt water as has been pointed in a reply above.
Is this just Australia trying to reduce its imports of food? What are the food import restrictions like in Australia these days?
What would be a better crop to grow for poorer countries on the African coast in terms of total nutrition? What about the nutrient source? If they are importing fertiliser then this is hardly sustainable.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @04:24PM
Yeah, this is totally a waste because our entire civilization can only work on one problem at a time.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @04:40PM
I think they're going to introduce a new mechanic in Civ VI to address that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @09:18PM
It all comes down to money.
You get get someone to front the $250mil to build this in a rich country, because you can make a profit selling the fruit.
You could build this in a poor country to boost their food supply, but you are going to lose your $250mil.