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The Rise and Fall of Scottish Tomatoes - https://food.list.co.uk/article/17305-the-rise-and-fall-of-scottish-tomatoes/ https://food.list.co.uk/article/17305-the
by Kaibeezy 7y ago
The Rise and Fall of Scottish Tomatoes - https://food.list.co.uk/article/17305-the-rise-and-fall-of-scottish-tomatoes/ https://food.list.co.uk/article/17305-the-rise-and-fall-of-s...
‘At the farmers’ markets, people are always delighted to get Scottish-grown stuff. But in the supermarkets, people always buy with an eye on the price. The fact is, heating those greenhouses is always going to put us at a cost disadvantage.
‘Now if something was to happen to road transport, more attention to food miles perhaps, it could change things. Or if southern Europe was to have more water shortages … But that’s looking decades ahead. If there’s ever going to be a Scottish tomato revival, I doubt I’ll be here to see it.’
2009 article, likely he is here to see it.
- fulafel 7y agoGrowing veggies in heated greenhouses is madness in the current climate crisis, transporting them even long distances is vastly more energy efficient because freight is quite efficient per kg.
- Retric 7y agoThat depends on your heat source. If it’s carbon neutral then shipping is still worse.
- fulafel 7y agoEven then the heating fuel/electricity could be used to heat houses and displace fossil fuels there. There are rare exceptions like the mentioned iceland situation.
- kaybe 7y agoExcept in Iceland, they do a decent job with their geothermally heated greenhouses. They're very proud of the tomatoes.
- _ph_ 7y agoWhich brings up the thought - what about the efficiency of solar powered greenhouses? As solar cells are more efficient at catching the sunlight than plants - might boost the overall efficiency of growing things without negative environment impact.
- morsch 7y agoIs that even theoretically possible? Unless you find a way to grow plants directly from electrical power, you'll need to rely on a light source and the (purportedly) less efficient photo receptors of the plants in the end. I guess you could modify the broad spectrum of light emitted by the sun into a more narrow spectrum that plants are most efficient at.
- nitrogen 7y agoI guess you could modify the broad spectrum of light emitted by the sun into a more narrow spectrum that plants are most efficient at. Turn the green into red and blue?
- morsch 7y agoWell, yes, effectively. By turning all the incoming light (including red, green and blue, and the non-visible spectrum, given a solar cell that's sensitive to it) into electricity and using that electricity to power a grow light. I'm not saying that it's a feasible way to get more energy flux into the plants this way; I think it's unlikely. But that's theoretically a way to do it. If on the other hand you emit light on the same spectrum as you receive it, then it's impossible to generate more flux, even in theory.
- pjc50 7y agoA normal greenhouse is passive solar powered.
- hvidgaard 7y ago
- LifeLiverTransp 7y agoIf solar dropped to zero, and heating became free..