3 ms·

Ignore the downvotes, I think they are from bots. At least I really enjoyed reading your post. However I'm not convinced that growing in the city is worthwhile

by ju-st 10y ago

Ignore the downvotes, I think they are from bots. At least I really enjoyed reading your post. However I'm not convinced that growing in the city is worthwhile. One could reduce the energy costs by using simple green houses (artificial light only at night using cheap power, as you proposed) built on cheap plots of land (even in a desert). This could be much cheaper (Capex+Opex) and the only disadvantage is that the greenhouse must be located in rural areas.

kefka 10y ago
> At least I really enjoyed reading your post. Thank you :) > However I'm not convinced that growing in the city is worthwhile. One could reduce the energy costs by using simple green houses (artificial light only at night using cheap power, as you proposed) built on cheap plots of land (even in a desert). This could be much cheaper (Capex+Opex) and the only disadvantage is that the greenhouse must be located in rural areas. I agree with you that I think at this time, it is a questionable decision for foodstuffs (marijuana is a whole other ballgame). But, I think there's some areas of "food independence" that could mitigate the cost aspects. There's been a good amount of talk about UBI, including the recent failed Switzerland vote. But in reality, a part of that money would be used on food. What if... a closed loop system like this was made, and plots were guaranteed on a per-person basis? We already now that plants+fish of 25 sq ft is enough to feed a human.. If we scale up and out, tax revenue could pay for this and everybody is now food-secure. It's not an end-all-be-all. It has a lot of flaws that would need to be worked out. However, smaller greenhouse-like systems could be used with LED light on only at night (to supplement an equatorial climate). These could be built, I think, cheaply. Solar plus batteries don't have to be horribly priced, considering both technologies are greatly lowering in price. I also live in Indiana. There's a lot of farmland here, and also a lot of small towns. Poverty is pretty bad, and you can combine it with a lack of transportation grid. I could see this as a way to guarantee food security for small towns, especially if we can figure out how to pump these out cheaply and efficiently. The last piece is a good automation kit, which I've been working on in Node-Red and sensors/actuators. The idea is that this stuff should be as much no-touch as possible, with exception for harvest. And I think that's not only doable, but also cheaply. And, well, save the world in the process :) But I think too big sometimes.

by ju-st 10y ago

kefka 10y ago

> At least I really enjoyed reading your post. Thank you :) > However I'm not convinced that growing in the city is worthwhile. One could reduce the energy costs by using simple green houses (artificial light only at night using cheap power, as you proposed) built on cheap plots of land (even in a desert). This could be much cheaper (Capex+Opex) and the only disadvantage is that the greenhouse must be located in rural areas. I agree with you that I think at this time, it is a questionable decision for foodstuffs (marijuana is a whole other ballgame). But, I think there's some areas of "food independence" that could mitigate the cost aspects. There's been a good amount of talk about UBI, including the recent failed Switzerland vote. But in reality, a part of that money would be used on food. What if... a closed loop system like this was made, and plots were guaranteed on a per-person basis? We already now that plants+fish of 25 sq ft is enough to feed a human.. If we scale up and out, tax revenue could pay for this and everybody is now food-secure. It's not an end-all-be-all. It has a lot of flaws that would need to be worked out. However, smaller greenhouse-like systems could be used with LED light on only at night (to supplement an equatorial climate). These could be built, I think, cheaply. Solar plus batteries don't have to be horribly priced, considering both technologies are greatly lowering in price. I also live in Indiana. There's a lot of farmland here, and also a lot of small towns. Poverty is pretty bad, and you can combine it with a lack of transportation grid. I could see this as a way to guarantee food security for small towns, especially if we can figure out how to pump these out cheaply and efficiently. The last piece is a good automation kit, which I've been working on in Node-Red and sensors/actuators. The idea is that this stuff should be as much no-touch as possible, with exception for harvest. And I think that's not only doable, but also cheaply. And, well, save the world in the process :) But I think too big sometimes.