"Hyper-Efficient Indoor Vegetable Factories Prove Malthus Wrong, Again
A Japanese scientist working in conjunction with General Electric has developed an indoor vegetable factory that can produce huge crop yields in a small area—and one that’s well nigh impervious to droughts and extreme weather. Japanese plant physiologist Shigeharu Shimemura created an high-tech indoor farm in a disused Sony factory that grows lettuce in tightly packed stacks under ultra-thin LED’s. The Daily Mail reports:
Closely controlled using specially-designed LED lamps, the farm opened earlier this month and is already said to be producing 10,000 heads of lettuce a day. [...]
It farm uses 17,500 LED lights spread over 18 cultivation racks, reaching 16 levels high – and these lights are used to mimic day and night.
By monitoring the photosynthesis process carefully, the system grows lettuce two-and-a-half times faster than an outdoor farm.
It also cuts waste product by 40 per cent and productivity per square foot is up 100-fold. [...]"...
