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This article reminded me of something I've always wanted to do before I grow old; make an automated farm. What drives me crazy is the idea of an integrated syst

This article reminded me of something I've always wanted to do before I grow old; make an automated farm. What drives me crazy is the idea of an integrated system that gives me high quality produce at the maximum possible efficiency. If we use something like hydroponics then we can precisely control the nutrients the plants get. Further, since they grow inside a greenhouse we don't need to use any pesticides at all. Further, we can control the amount of light they receive to optimize for maximum growth, and by stacking such units one on top of the other than we don't have to worry space at all. So a massive 500 acre farm can be theoretically reduced to a one acre farm with 500 decks of plants in an efficient arrangement. In fact, someone else way smarter than me has already though of this and developed the idea to quite a long extent (see: http://www.verticalfarm.com/ http://www.verticalfarm.com/). Has anyone over here ever tried something like this? Are there more awesome people like Mr. Howard?

cullenking 16y ago
To address one of your points, just because the crop is inside a greenhouse (or even indoors!) does not mean you won't get pests. Anyone who has had fungus gnats or spider mites even in their far-spaced house plants can attest it happens :(
- loewenskind 16y ago
  Well, once you go indoors you have a lot more control over this. Think quarantine scenario since this is basically what we're talking about. Nothing gets in that hasn't been cleared.
  - mhb 16y ago
    Those vegetables are going to be pretty expensive.
    - loewenskind 16y ago
      When you're talking about what you put into your body, which is directly related to the quality of life you're going to have (you may not see the effects of this right away but you will see it), then I don't think cheap should be our first concern. Having said that, it wouldn't have to be insanely expensive either. It depends on the scale, right?
- todayiamme 16y ago
  Yes, but as loewenskind pointed out. It is exactly like quarantine. think about it this way if we can keep entire football fields dust free for years at a time to fabricate micro-processors then surely we can do this? Something that really amazes me is that technology has been pushed to limits that we can't imagine. Who would have thought that we are now engineering things 100 atoms apart? Unbelievable.
  - eru 16y ago
    > [...] then surely we can do this? There's a difference between technologically possible, and economically feasible.
khafra 16y ago
To address another concern with vertical farms, you'll need to use low-sun-requirement crops; most modern stuff optimized for quick growth with maximum solar and NPK input simply won't grow in those conditions--like expecting full voltage from a vertical photovoltaic panel.
jtbigwoo 16y ago
The big problem with sterility is taste and nutrition. It turns out that many of those vitamins and flavor compounds that we like are natural fungicides, pesticides, and preservatives. That's part of the reason why a home-grown tomato tastes so good--it's spent its whole life fighting off attackers while the bland industrial tomatoes have been protected by farm chemicals. A sterile greenhouse or vertical farm would create produce that was bland and less nutritious. You might be able to trick your plants into fighting by introducing controlled stressors (like a weakened pathogen, maybe?) into the "farm."

cullenking 16y ago

To address one of your points, just because the crop is inside a greenhouse (or even indoors!) does not mean you won't get pests. Anyone who has had fungus gnats or spider mites even in their far-spaced house plants can attest it happens :(

loewenskind 16y ago
Well, once you go indoors you have a lot more control over this. Think quarantine scenario since this is basically what we're talking about. Nothing gets in that hasn't been cleared.
- mhb 16y ago
  Those vegetables are going to be pretty expensive.
  - loewenskind 16y ago
    When you're talking about what you put into your body, which is directly related to the quality of life you're going to have (you may not see the effects of this right away but you will see it), then I don't think cheap should be our first concern. Having said that, it wouldn't have to be insanely expensive either. It depends on the scale, right?
todayiamme 16y ago
Yes, but as loewenskind pointed out. It is exactly like quarantine. think about it this way if we can keep entire football fields dust free for years at a time to fabricate micro-processors then surely we can do this? Something that really amazes me is that technology has been pushed to limits that we can't imagine. Who would have thought that we are now engineering things 100 atoms apart? Unbelievable.
- eru 16y ago
  > [...] then surely we can do this? There's a difference between technologically possible, and economically feasible.

khafra 16y ago

To address another concern with vertical farms, you'll need to use low-sun-requirement crops; most modern stuff optimized for quick growth with maximum solar and NPK input simply won't grow in those conditions--like expecting full voltage from a vertical photovoltaic panel.

jtbigwoo 16y ago

The big problem with sterility is taste and nutrition. It turns out that many of those vitamins and flavor compounds that we like are natural fungicides, pesticides, and preservatives. That's part of the reason why a home-grown tomato tastes so good--it's spent its whole life fighting off attackers while the bland industrial tomatoes have been protected by farm chemicals. A sterile greenhouse or vertical farm would create produce that was bland and less nutritious. You might be able to trick your plants into fighting by introducing controlled stressors (like a weakened pathogen, maybe?) into the "farm."