No Cropland? No Problem! Farming On Air

Aeroponic farming, which uses mist to grow plants without soil, is another new technique. Grown indoors with LED lighting, without pesticides, aeroponic produce requires less than 10% of the water consumed by conventional agriculture. And because aeroponic farms are located in urban areas, transportation costs and carbon emissions are vastly reduced. _GreenTechMedia

As the price of fuel rises, the cost of farming rises along with it. Energy-intensive farming practises will be strained if energy costs rise much further. Of course, if energy crops and biomass-to-fuels can be made more economical and efficient, it is likely that more cropland will be devoted to biofuels and bioenergy -- if fuels prices continue to rise.

Where will the food come from, in that case? The concept of aeroponic farming -- farming on air -- is beginning to receive more attention. Aerofarms can be located anywhere, even in the middle of a large city.

Albright said the reason hydroponics and aeroponics have increased in popularity is the whole idea of food safety. If greens are grown and sold locally, there is less of a risk of disease from various outside factors.

“With the ability to control the environment for the plants precisely you get optimized production which increases productivity,” Albright said. “You are doing it in a place that is free of animal manures and pesticides, so it is ready to eat right away, without being rinsed in chlorine three times.”

Bloomgarden said the goal of the company is to rework the way farmers grow food and to transform the agriculture business as a whole. “A high level, lofty goal would be to transform our current system into a more sustainable and efficient food system by enabling commercial scale vertical farming in urban centers,” she said.

Hardwood said his main focus is working on transforming rural, traditional farming into urban high-tech production. He said he expects a warm welcome from the Ithaca community when they move in. _IthacanOnline

There are even companies that are developing small aeroponic "pots" and modules that will be controlled by a person's home computer. Click & Grow aims to penetrate the urban, high tech professional lifestyle, by making the growing of indoor crops and flowers as easy as clicking a mouse button.

One daring entrepreneur is even trying to transform and rejuvenate Detroit -- the poster child of urban blight and decay -- using aeroponic farming.

"It won't be a conventional farm," he promises, but an exhibition of state-of-the-art agriculture using aeroponics -- the science of growing in the air -- and other advanced ways of growing year-round in an urban environment. He's going to start by growing a variety of lettuces, apples and probably trees for timber or Christmas. Trees, he has learned, as a crop also reclaim contaminated land. Hantz said the city is over-valuing land that has no value until someone can pay for it. He points out that the city is paying for vacant land that costs the city in taxes and maintenance. The crisis that spawned his idea to use vacant land for for-profit agriculture has yet to create real momentum. We're still stuck.

"That's the opposite of how it should be," he says, during an interview in his Southfield office._DetNews

Anyone could have told the man that dealing with the city of Detroit tends to be a no-win proposition. Unless you grease the right palms, of course. Organised crime together with labour unions and corrupt officials have made Detroit highly toxic to private enterprise.

But if aeroponic urban farming can work for Detroit, it can potentially work anywhere in the developed world or the third world.

Biomimetic Sky-Farm Captures Sun and CO2

Image SourceThe award winning "Dystopian Farm" incorporates some interesting architectural ingredients, in an attempt to create an urban high-rise agriculture for a rapidly urbanising world.

World population in urban centers is on the rise. Experts predict that by 2050 80% of the world's citizens will reside in an urban setting. These residents will need an estimated 109 hectares of arable land to provide their food. As space on the ground is limited, one increasingly attractive solution is to build upwards, creating vertical farms. _Ecogeek

Designed for the Hudson Yard area of Manhattan, Eric Vergne’s Dystopian Farm aims to provide New York with a sustainable food source while creating a dynamic social space that integrates producers with consumers. Based upon the “material logic of plant mechanics”, the biomorphic skyscraper is modeled after the plant cells of ferns and provides space for farms, residential areas, and markets. These organic structures will harness systems such as airoponic watering, nutrient technology and controlled lighting and CO2 levels to meet the food demands of future populations. _Inhabitat

Ideally, such a structure would incorporate novel grow-lighting methods including "light pipes", custom light cycling over a 24 hour period for optimal growth, and light spectrum customisation. As noted at Inhabitat, the DF will utilise aeroponic growing methods which do not require soil. CO2 levels should be controlled at much higher than ambient levels to better carbon-fertilise growing plants. Better methods of "nitrogen fixing" for a wide array of plant families are also needed, for such intensive urban farming.

Highly controlled, intensive urban farming methods should allow a reduction in the use of liquid fuels for shipping produce into cities. They would also provide more self-sufficiency for urban environments in the face of disruption of services and transport in the countryside. Finally, such test beds for closely controlled agriculture should prove useful when humans move their center of gravity off-planet, to less life-friendly surroundings.

Urban High Rise Farming Cuts Transportation Cost

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The largest driver of current high food costs is the high cost of energy. It requires energy to run farm machinery, and energy to transport the goods from the farm to the warehouse, and from the warehouse to the market. Why not grow the food in the city where it will be consumed, and save some of the energy cost?

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Advanced aeroponics growing systems can provide fresh-grown vegetables and fruit year-round, with minimal use of water and no soil required! Aeroponics-grown produce is free of disease, and requires less energy than most other growing systems.

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As biological systems are being modified to produce medicines and fuels, as well as food, the full range of crops and products could be grown in almost any urban environment.

We are only beginning to see the variety of approaches to building an urban high-rise farm. As the idea begins to be implemented, and the various problems of financing, marketing, and custom building are overcome, expect urban architects to bring a lot more imagination to the enterprise.

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The last image provides an architect's view of a "prosthetic add-on" to pre-existing buildings. These "vertical parks" could incorporate wind turbines and photovoltaics, as well as crop-growing zones. They could provide emergency exits from high-rises in case of fire, and could also serve as "skywalks" in cold weather, to allow people to brave the iciest of ice ages.

We live in a de-centralised world, in terms of food supply. In a single day, a person may consume food products from at least 3 or 4 different continents. But a lot of things can change to force food services and retailers to look much closer to home, for product.



H/T FutureScanner

Planting a Garden On the Moon and COS 49

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A permanent manned presence on the moon will require lunar residents to produce their own food on Luna. This introduction to the topic of lunar agriculture was featured in the Carnival of Space #49.

There are two main types of seleneculture generally considered: hydroponic and soil-based. As its name implies, hydroponics relies primarily on water-delivery of nutrients to the naked roots of different plants. This style of growing plants has been extensively studied by NASA scientists as a means of providing a high-efficiency/low-mass greenhouse for a space station, and is used in industrial farming here on Earth. It may not be ideally suited for the Moon, but would certainly provide a quick way to get started.

Soil-based plant cultivation uses plants in dirt. The most frequent objection in this case is that plants can’t grow in Moon-dirt, so you’d have to ship up tons of Earth dirt for the plants to grow in. This will certainly be true in the beginning though not to the tune of tons, and we probably will be shipping up small quantities of high quality humus. Still, is it true that plants cannot grow in Moon dirt? __read more at Out of the Cradle

Of course, there is a third approach to Lunar agriculture that might work even better than the two above: aeroponics. Aeroponics uses less water than hydroponics, and has no need for soil or other growing medium (except air). In fact, NASA has developed an inflatable aeroponics module, for use in small space stations and space habitats.

Aeroponics International

Biocontrols Aeroponics Systems

Small self-contained aeroponics chamber you can use at home

More on Aeroponics

Update 21 June: This BBC story describes a "vertical farm" for large metropolitan areas. One of the advantages to high-rise urban farming, is the close proximity to markets and consumers. In case of large scale disasters, many urban areas could very well be cut off from rural food supplies. The in stock inventory of distributors and retailers might be depleted in just a few days.
Followingan earlier post about aeroponics, I began to wonder why this ingenious and water-thrifty method of growing crops and plants is not more commonly utilised.

Due to the disease-free environment that is unique to aeroponics, many plants can grow at higher density (plants per sq meter) when compared to more traditional forms of cultivation (hydroponics, soil and NFT). Commercial aeroponic systems incorporate hardware features that accommodate the crops expanding root systems.

....In 1986 Stoner was the first person ever to market fresh aeroponically grown food to a national grocery chain. He was interviewed on [NPR] and discussed the importance of the water conservation features of aeroponics for both modern agriculture and space.[3]

Stoner is considered the father of commercial aeroponics. Stoner's aeroponic systems are in major developed countries around the world. His aeroponic designs, technology and equipment are widely used at leading agricultural universities worldwide and by commercial growers.[1]

....NASA's long range plans indicate for man's visit to Mars will utilize inflatable structures to house the spaceship crew on the Mars surface. Planning is under way to incorporate inflatable greenhouse facilities for food production.

NASA planning scenarios also reveal the Mars surface crew will spend 60% of their time on Mars farming to sustain themselves. Aeroponics is considered the agricultural system of choice because of its low water and power inputs and high volume of food output per sq meter.

....

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You can find much more information here.

As humans expand their habitat into space, they will need the utility and efficiency of aeroponic crop production. Aeroponics should also work well for ocean-top seasteads, undersea colonies, and as a good local source for year-round fresh produce in large urban areas.

Topsoil: It's the Organisms, Stupid!

There is nothing magical about topsoil. For thousands of years, humans have been able to detect when soil was healthy and capable of growing good crops. Although pre-scientific humans knew nothing about the details of decomposition, they could tell a good crop from a bad crop--and quickly learned the external characteristics of good soil.

Now we are being told that the earth is losing its topsoil, and that such a loss can never be recovered. Regular readers of this blog may recognise such claims as "appeals to the pseudo-apocalypse." Which is precisely what they are.

It is certainly true that mining and other industrial processes destroy topsoil. And while conventional methods of remediating soil from mining and from other industry may be effective, they can also be extremely expensive.

Scientists in Russia have developed complex mixtures of micro-organisms that can be placed in situ, to remediate soil from petro-chemical contamination. Canadian scientists have gone farther, creating symbiotic combinations of plants and microbes, to clean contaminants from soil in situ.

Researchers are always looking for new bacteria in the strangest places. Or perhaps, not so strange, if you are looking for assistance for petroleum cleanup.

Here is a short description of the micro-world of soil:

• Bacteria -- Bacteria are the tiniest and most diverse of all soil organisms. A single teaspoon of topsoil typically contains more than 100 million bacteria that belong to over 1,000 different species. Bacteria help to decompose residue in the soil and increase nutrient availability for plants by dissolving phosphorus and fixing atmospheric nitrogen. Some bacteria that live on plant surfaces can also prevent plant diseases, either by antagonizing pathogens or stimulating the plant’s own immune systems.

• Fungi -- Fungi are important in the break down of plant residue, and they can transport nutrients through the soil profile. Because they are tougher than bacteria, they tend to release nutrients more slowly so that plants can have access to them throughout the growing season. Some fungi, called mycorrhizae, develop beneficial relationships with plants that allow for nutrient and water absorption by plant roots. Fungal cells also help to stabilize soil structure by secreting a sticky gel that glues mineral and organic particles together into aggregates. These aggregates allow for natural breaks to occur in soil, allowing for greater aeration and water infiltration.

• Protozoa -- Protozoa are single-celled animals that act as secondary consumers of organic matter. They feed on bacteria, fungi, other protozoa, and organic molecules. Protozoa are believed to be responsible for mineralizing a small fraction of the nitrogen in soils.

• Nematodes -- Nematodes are simple worms that are less than one-tenth of an inch long. They help breakdown organic residues and feed on bacteria, fungi and protozoa. They also convert some nitrogen into usable forms for plants.

• Free-living mites -- Soil mites are arthropods that graze on decomposing organic matter, fungi, algae and nematodes. Mite populations are slow to develop, so their appearance indicates a highly stable soil environment.

• Springtails -- Springtails are arthropods found in decaying material. They are one of several biological agents responsible for the creation of soil, and are considered to be the most abundant of all macroscopic animals living in the topsoil.

• Earthworms -- Earthworms round out the list as important keepers and restorers of soil fertility. While less numerous than nematodes, they account for up to 10 times the biomass of the other secondary consumers. Earthworms feed on bacteria-laden plant residues and organic matter mixed with mineral particles. The resulting material is given off as worm casts, which are generally higher in available nitrogen, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus than the soil itself. Earthworms also constantly bring soil up to the surface, providing anywhere from one to 100 tons per acre of organic-laden soil for plant use each year.

“There are countless other organisms that contribute to the soil community. The variety of soil organisms is so high that even today we don’t have the tools to say what an average community really looks like from a small scale to a large scale,” said Gardener. “But it can be said that a healthy soil is often marked by multiple trophic levels of diverse microflora, microfauna and mesofauna.”

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Up until now, most of the microbe-hunting has been done by pharmacology researchers, looking for magic bullets against human infection, cancer, and other disease. More and more, such hunts are being done to find cures for environmental ills.

Plants can certainly be grown without soil, and in certain environments aeroponic crops will be the only source of fresh vegetables and fruits.

But the Earth itself has needs beyond the needs of humans. That is the concern. That is why humans have to learn to care for the health of the planet. Humans can learn to take care of themselves. They can also learn to care for the planet, even when their own welfare is not directly concerned.

Growing the World's Crops in a High Rise

A lot of people begrudge biofuels their use of cropland. But that is not thinking clearly. With the growing success of aeroponics, land is not needed to grow crops.

Crops can be planted and harvested in the system year round without interruption, and without contamination from soil, pesticides, and residue. Since the growing environment is clean and sterile, it greatly reduces the chances of spreading plant disease and infection commonly found in soil and other growing media.

The suspended system also has other advantages. Seedlings don't stretch or wilt while their roots are forming. Once the roots are developed, the plants can be easily moved into any type of growing media without the risk of transplant shock, which often sets back normal growth.

Aeroponics systems can reduce water usage by 98 percent, fertilizer usage by 60 percent, and pesticide usage by 100 percent, all while maximizing crop yields. Plants grown in the aeroponic systems have also been shown to uptake more minerals and vitamins, making the plants healthier and potentially more nutritious.

Tomato growers traditionally start their plants in pots, waiting at least 28 days before transplanting them into the ground. Using an aeroponic system, growers can start the plants in the growing chamber, then transplant them just 10 days later. This advanced technology produces six tomato crop cycles per year, instead of the traditional one to two crop cycles.

Successful long-term missions into deep space will require that crews grow some of their own food during flight. Aeroponic crops are also a potential source of fresh oxygen and clean drinking water. But this is about more than a breath of fresh air or taking a quick shower. Each ounce of food and water produced aboard a spacecraft reduces payload weight, allowing space for other cargo that can't be produced onboard.

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With advanced high rise building techniques, very large crop producing structures can be built--providing many thousands of acres of growing area with just a few acres footprint on the ground.

It should go without saying that aeroponics will be extremely useful for long duration space missions, for lunar bases, for seasteads, and for undersea and underground habitats. Given water, air and CO2, nutrients, and full-spectrum lighting, you will be good to go.