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Japanese plant experts produce 10k lettuce heads a day in LED-lit indoor farm

12 points by monort 11y ago

Tepix 11y ago
I find it strange that paying for artificial light would be more effective than using the free sunlight that is perfect for life on this planet because the life has adapted itself over millenia to this light. It's not as if sunlight is a sparse resource (on a global scale).
- Hemospectrum 11y ago
  > It's not as if sunlight is a sparse resource (on a global scale) But land is, particularly arable land, and particularly in a country like Japan. You can see for yourself in the picture that they have ~15 tiers of gardens, compared to a maximum of two or three when using sunlight. And sure, you could probably devise some method of piping and reflecting sunlight through to the lower tiers just to avoid consuming electricity, but then it wouldn't work at night, wouldn't work as well in winter, and so on.
- draker 11y ago
  >It's not as if sunlight is a sparse resource (on a global scale). Water is though, especially water that is fit for food production. This process (and others like it) makes a huge improvement on the amount of water required in comparison to traditional outdoor farming. >The lights give them the ability to control temperature, humidity and irrigation, allowing it to cut its water usage to 1 per cent of that needed by outdoor fields, while also growing lettuces two-and-a-half times faster, the experts claim.
- NinoScript 11y ago
  Most sunlight is not red or blue; most of it is either infrared, green or ultraviolet. Plants absorb red and blue light. If you could capture all the energy from the sun with a solar panel from the future, then it could power many more lettuces if you transformed all that energy into the important wavelengths rather than waste it in heating the floor and making leaves look green and pretty to the human eye.
greenyoda 11y ago
"Plant physiologist Shigeharu Shimamura wanted to explore ways that man could keep up with the ever-increasing food demand while bypassing the risks brought on by drought, crop disease and natural disasters." Unfortunately, growing lettuce isn't going to keep any people alive if drought, crop failures or natural disasters occur, since lettuce is mostly water by weight and has low amounts of macronutrients (2.23g carbs and 1.35g protein per 100g lettuce).[1] I wonder how much harder it would be to produce crops like rice or beans indoors? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettuce#Nutritional_content https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettuce#Nutritional_content
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- frozenport 11y ago
  Or do people just need to eat a lot of lettuce?
Nexxxeh 11y ago
July 2014
deleted 11y ago
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12 points by monort 11y ago

Tepix 11y ago

I find it strange that paying for artificial light would be more effective than using the free sunlight that is perfect for life on this planet because the life has adapted itself over millenia to this light. It's not as if sunlight is a sparse resource (on a global scale).

Hemospectrum 11y ago
> It's not as if sunlight is a sparse resource (on a global scale) But land is, particularly arable land, and particularly in a country like Japan. You can see for yourself in the picture that they have ~15 tiers of gardens, compared to a maximum of two or three when using sunlight. And sure, you could probably devise some method of piping and reflecting sunlight through to the lower tiers just to avoid consuming electricity, but then it wouldn't work at night, wouldn't work as well in winter, and so on.
draker 11y ago
>It's not as if sunlight is a sparse resource (on a global scale). Water is though, especially water that is fit for food production. This process (and others like it) makes a huge improvement on the amount of water required in comparison to traditional outdoor farming. >The lights give them the ability to control temperature, humidity and irrigation, allowing it to cut its water usage to 1 per cent of that needed by outdoor fields, while also growing lettuces two-and-a-half times faster, the experts claim.
NinoScript 11y ago
Most sunlight is not red or blue; most of it is either infrared, green or ultraviolet. Plants absorb red and blue light. If you could capture all the energy from the sun with a solar panel from the future, then it could power many more lettuces if you transformed all that energy into the important wavelengths rather than waste it in heating the floor and making leaves look green and pretty to the human eye.

greenyoda 11y ago

"Plant physiologist Shigeharu Shimamura wanted to explore ways that man could keep up with the ever-increasing food demand while bypassing the risks brought on by drought, crop disease and natural disasters." Unfortunately, growing lettuce isn't going to keep any people alive if drought, crop failures or natural disasters occur, since lettuce is mostly water by weight and has low amounts of macronutrients (2.23g carbs and 1.35g protein per 100g lettuce).[1] I wonder how much harder it would be to produce crops like rice or beans indoors? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettuce#Nutritional_content https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettuce#Nutritional_content

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
frozenport 11y ago
Or do people just need to eat a lot of lettuce?

Nexxxeh 11y ago

July 2014

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]