There is a vegetable farm, but not just any farm; it is a vertical farm. There is no tractor. There is no farmer in dusty overalls, no barn cat or even a barn. There is no sky, no field; only a warehouse with rack upon towering rack, each level boasting a bounty of growing vegetables lit by banks of LEDs. And it could prove a vital component in the future of sustainable food and food security on our warming world.
"BoweryOS," the company told , sucks up "millions of data points through proprietary machine learning algorithms along with an extensive network of sensors and cameras," 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The system, Bowery states, allows constant tweaks and improvements to the entire cultivation and harvesting cycle, "cutting down on waste throughout the entire process."
For any sufficiently sophisticated vertical farm, all this applied technology means that the use efficiency of "light energy, water, fertilizer and land area are already much higher than those of open fields and greenhouses," says Toyoki Kozai, professor emeritus at Japan's Chiba University and honorary president of Japan Plant Factory Association. For example, "water used for irrigation per kilogram of produce in plant factories with artificial lighting (PFALs) is 5-10% of that in open fields, because 95% of transpired water is condensed and collected to be recycled" in the vertical farm's cooling system.
However, it is unlikely to meet all our plant-based food needs. Professor Cuello notes that "in general, commodity crops (e.g., rice, wheat, barley, corn, etc.) which are typically grown on a large-scale and sold in bulk at low prices are not appropriate" for vertical farming. Chiba University's professor Kozai echoed that view, noting that staple crops "require high light intensity and a long cultivation period, and the weight ratio of salable parts (grains) to the whole plants is very low.
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