Comments on: The Future of Farming?

By: Wendy Ricci

Wendy Ricci — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:27:42 +0000

Hi. I couldn’t find an email address to contact you directly, so I apologize in advance for leaving this message as a comment.

I am working with the online team for a new spirit made with acai and thought you and your readers would be interested in this company’s sustainability efforts. Please emamil me if you are interested in finding out more!

By: ruralaspirations

ruralaspirations — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:39:33 +0000

SpaceMom: I agree that there will likely always be a place for backyard gardeners, but we will have to come up with some other way to mass-produce our food. Perhaps systems like the one at Polyface farms could be put into practice, but I think the hydroponics technology also offers many sustainable perks that make it an attractive option.

spughy: with the SkyFarming concept the buildings would collect their own energy via solar panels and wind spires (corkscrew-style wind turbines). In fact they may even generate excess electricity for other urban users. They can also recycle city wastewater which I think is an excellent idea.

By: spughy

spughy — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:15:45 +0000

There are certainly tradeoffs here. The nutrient content of the resulting veg is one, but what about the energy that grows the plants? Those illustrations seem to indicate large electric light arrays providing the photons that the plants need to grow – where would the energy to run these come from?

I just finished re-reading Omnivore’s Dilemma and the section on Joel Salatin was again a bit of a revelation – the thing about his style of farming is that there are so few *inputs* into the farm. I think in the future, with energy and commodity prices going ever higher, affordable and sustainable agriculture is going to be judged by what inputs it takes to grow, not so much how much space it takes to grow it. You can always cram more humans into less space, but I’m dubious about the veg.

By: Spacemom

Spacemom — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:41:32 +0000

Of course, there should always be some traditional farming. However, given the food crises that are hitting the world, we need to consider these ideas. I know that Disney had worked with this. When I was 10, I ate in a restaurant that revolves around the hydroponic garden that grows all of the veggie matter for the restaurant.

We need to work on a way to not deplete the soils and that we need to get the proper nutrients into the recycled waters….And traditional farming needs to continue.
Think about the Amazon Rainforest right now. People are cutting down large regions to grow soy. What if they could grow soy crops WITHOUT destroying the land?

Things to think about….certainly!