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posted by mrpg on Thursday September 06 2018, @01:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the I'd-eat-it dept.

Innovations Report:

Whereas the number of people living in cities worldwide is continually growing, the already scarce area used for growing food and resources has been steadily shrinking.

This disparity, however, can be partly bridged by urban farming, the practice of growing food in cities and urban areas. Fraunhofer IAO has published a study investigating how cities could benefit from locally grown food and resources, looking at indoor plant and microalgae cultivation.

Safeguarding the long-term supply of food and resources to urban areas is a growing challenge – particularly in densely populated cities with limited access to surrounding agricultural land. Furthermore, intensive farming practices and heavy use of chemicals are putting increasing pressure on natural resources and land.

Algae farming is tough sledding.


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  • (Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Thursday September 06 2018, @03:45AM (6 children)

    by suburbanitemediocrity (6844) on Thursday September 06 2018, @03:45AM (#731142)

    There are ~360million hectares of production farmland in the us.

    There's 26 hectares of floorspace in the WTC. I'm not smart enough to calculate how many wtc buildings would be needed.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday September 06 2018, @05:25AM (3 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday September 06 2018, @05:25AM (#731175) Journal

    After all the chips industry relocated to Taiwan, Japan has excess "clean room" space. What are they doing with it?
    Well, raising hydroponic lettuce [scmp.com]

    Spread, Japan’s largest vertical farm, produces more than 20,000 heads of lettuce a day in its 3000-square-metre facility outside of Kyoto.
    ...
    Electronics giant Fujitsu is among a number of Japanese technology firms to embrace horticulture, converting factories that had formerly been used to manufacture semiconductors into tightly sealed indoor plantations manned by engineers in white cleanroom suits.

    Or making wine [electronicsweekly.com]

    Matsuzaka took over his parents’ vineyard at the same time as he decided to outsource Enzan’s semiconductor production to Vietnam.

    The old clean room is now used for the fermentation, bottling and storage in a bacteria-free environment.

    The use of nitrogen gas ensures against oxidisation of the grape juice.

    Matsuzaka has established a brand for his fab-produced wine – named MGVs – which is gaining market recognition for its quality.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @10:39PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 06 2018, @10:39PM (#731545)

      You can't survive long on lettuce or grapes. You need calories that means calorie dense food. Corn is the most efficient light->carbohydrate calorie converter.You need to be able to grow corn, everything else is fluff. There's ~100kcal in a head of lettuce. You'd need to eat 20 large 750g heads a day, or if you wanted tomatoes, 11kg of tomatoes. Or 15kg of lettuce...about 33lbs.

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/in-defense-of-corn-the-worlds-most-important-food-crop/2015/07/12/78d86530-25a8-11e5-b77f-eb13a215f593_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.83fff62d79c5 [washingtonpost.com]

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 07 2018, @01:11AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 07 2018, @01:11AM (#731596)

        Most people don't need 2000 calories a day. Sedentary lifestyles are very common these days.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 07 2018, @04:59PM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 07 2018, @04:59PM (#731840) Journal

        You can't survive long on lettuce or grapes.

        Who the heck talks about survival on urban farming?
        Are you saying that if a solution is not perfect. it's a bad one?

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday September 06 2018, @12:34PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday September 06 2018, @12:34PM (#731264)

    There's an argument that the vertical farms are 100x as efficient or somesuch BS, and that's possibly true for something like lettuce or maybe even strawberries, but I seriously doubt it for the major grains, legumes, etc.

    Even at 100x as space efficient, that's a lot of damn buildings, and even if they're "free" standing there unused, there's still maintenance and power costs with vertical farming, both of which are not cheap as dirt and rain.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday September 06 2018, @11:55PM

    by Freeman (732) on Thursday September 06 2018, @11:55PM (#731571) Journal

    Division is a thing. Approximately 13.8 million WTCs.

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"