Shelburne Free Press
https://shelburnefreepress.ca/?p=9214
Export date: Fri Mar 29 13:13:13 2024 / +0000 GMT

When nature meets technology farming becomes ‘Food for Thought’




Technological evolution is progressing at a staggering rate. It's become very difficult for new ideas to outlast forty seconds without being replaced by the newest thing. In order to relate to our changing world, we must remember a time when the world was believed to be flat and later, the entire concept of flying to the moon was, ‘crazy talk!'
As windmill turbines become a familiar sight in Shelburne and the surrounding area's landscape, again as a society we are faced with having to accept new technology forcing itself into our lives due to progress and need and without much time to adjust our mentality and opinions, we might as well brace for what could be the next great change, Vertical Farming.
The phrase Vertical Farming was coined in 1915 by Gilbert Bailey who wrote about farming underground. His book is available online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library where it can be viewed for free.http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/21982#/summary
Today however, Vertical Farming has nothing in common with anything underground as Singapore based company, Sky Greens is making leaps, bounds and history with their ability to provide fresh produce to Singapore at a fourth the cost of traditional farming. Solar power, very little water usage, and a controlled environment ensuring quality of the produce grown makes Sky Greens use of Vertical Farming a framework that will certainly be followed as less land is available to accommodate world's population and ever growing need for sustainable food.
Founder of Sky Greens, Jack Ng began his efforts to build a prototype of a high-rise vertical farming facility in 2009. By 2013, Ng has won a number of Urban Food Sustainability awards, has expanded the facility and variety of fruit and vegetables grown, and best news of all perhaps is the claim that his leafy greens taste better than imported produce. The cost of buying Sky Greens produce can range somewhere in the 40% higher bracket for consumers who actually don't mind paying as the quality of the food is so superior to imported goods.
Other factors affecting this direction of farming are of course, cost and though Singapore is a world away from Shelburne, Ontario, weather can be crippling to a local farmer. Growing all year would certainly have it's economic advantages. Imagine have fresh locally grown produce all winter? We all are well aware, winter's in Shelburne can be unforgiving, stranding people for days with road closures. Singapore may have solved it's sustainable food situation out of necessity, but Farmer's in Ontario may succumb to Vertical Farming for different reasons.
And just like those people who witnessed the first plane fly by overhead, perhaps Skyscrapers of Vertical Farms will replace Wind Mill turbines in the landscape of the future. In any case, the situation is very worth thinking about, and some might even refer to it as food for thought.
To get a better understanding go to

YouTube Video: YouTube.com/watch?v=2nFQOkzEjxQ 1

and see the YouTube Video explaining Sky Greens vertical farming procedures. Go to www.skygreens.appsfly.com to see Sky Greens Website to learn more. Also look into Dickson Despommier, a Microbiologist, Ecologist and Professor of Public Health Sciences at Columbia University, for enlightening explanations, understanding the foreseeable future and the challenges involved with feeding the world and the best way to do it.

By Alex Sher
Links:
  1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nFQOkzEjxQ
Post date: 2014-08-27 14:48:57
Post date GMT: 2014-08-27 18:48:57

Post modified date: 2014-09-03 13:57:06
Post modified date GMT: 2014-09-03 17:57:06

Export date: Fri Mar 29 13:13:13 2024 / +0000 GMT
This page was exported from Shelburne Free Press [ https://shelburnefreepress.ca ]
Export of Post and Page has been powered by [ Universal Post Manager ] plugin from www.ProfProjects.com