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posted by CoolHand on Friday November 04 2016, @08:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the hydroponics-not-just-for-growing-ganja dept.

The landscape is virtually treeless around a coastal hub town above Alaska's Arctic Circle, where even summer temperatures are too cold for northern-growing forests to take root.

Amid these unforgiving conditions, a creative kind of farming is sprouting up in the largely Inupiat community of Kotzebue.

A subsidiary of a local Native corporation is using hydroponics technology to grow produce inside an insulated, 40-foot shipping container equipped with glowing magenta LED lights. Arctic Greens is harvesting kale, various lettuces, basil and other greens weekly from the soil-free system and selling them at the supermarket in the community of nearly 3,300.

"We're learning," Will Anderson, president of the Native Kikiktagruk Inupiat Corp., said of the business launched last spring. "We're not a farming culture."

The venture is first of its kind north of the Arctic Circle, according to the manufacturer of Kotzebue's pesticide-free system. The goal is to set up similar systems in partnerships with other rural communities far from Alaska's minimal road system—where steeply priced vegetables can be more than a week in transit and past their prime by the time they arrive at local stores.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Friday November 04 2016, @10:33PM

    by Gaaark (41) on Friday November 04 2016, @10:33PM (#422654) Journal

    My mother-in-law as well: an orange and a handmade doll.

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    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 04 2016, @10:40PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 04 2016, @10:40PM (#422657)

    Luxury. When I were growing up, we dreamed of hands.

    • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Friday November 04 2016, @11:45PM

      by JNCF (4317) on Friday November 04 2016, @11:45PM (#422681) Journal

      Extravagence! When I was growing up, we would have traded an arm and a leg to dream.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 05 2016, @12:04AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 05 2016, @12:04AM (#422687)

        IOW you would have dearmed to dream.

        • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Saturday November 05 2016, @12:30AM

          by JNCF (4317) on Saturday November 05 2016, @12:30AM (#422693) Journal

          No-no, we lacked the mere conception of dreaming, and we certainly weren't dreaming of dreaming. But if somebody suggested the trade, we would have taken it; what good are arms and legs without hands and feet, anyway?