High-tech farmers sow seeds of revolution in Dubai desert:
An ultra-modern vertical farm in the middle of the desert stands as a testament to Dubai's determination to spark a "green revolution" to overcome its dependence on food imports.
Al-Badia market garden farm produces an array of vegetable crops in multi-storey format, carefully controlling light and irrigation as well as recycling 90 percent of the water it uses.
"It's a green revolution in the middle of the desert," the farm's director Basel Jammal [says].
[...] That was not an issue decades ago when the area was sparsely inhabited by Bedouins.
But the wealth generated by oil discoveries since the 1970s sent expatriates flocking to the UAE.
Dubai now has more than 3.3 million inhabitants of 200 nationalities, relies largely on expensive desalinated water, and its food needs have grown and diversified.
Will hydroponics be cheaper than importing food?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 20 2020, @03:59AM
You're not thinking things through. The scarcer water is, the more important hydroponics become. I have little reason to conserve water where I live, because the rivers flow all year long, and never run out of water. Where there are no rivers, no lakes, you conserve, or die.
The ideas put into use in the desert will almost certainly carry over to Mars, and other human outposts in the solar system. Practice here, where small mistakes don't cost a helluva lot of lives. Carry the lessons out where those same mistakes can entirely depopulate a post, a settlement, or even an entire colony.