The Future of Farming Is
Inside This Bomb Shelter
Popular Mechanics,
by
Rob Kemp
Original Article
Posted By: StormCnter,
11/19/2020 5:06:32 PM
Deep beneath the streets of London, in a complex of bomb shelters left abandoned since World War II, something is growing. Thousands of green sprouts burst from their hydroponic trays, stretching toward glowing pink lights that line the arched ceilings. These plants, along with tens of thousands of other salad crops, are being grown from seed without soil or sunlight, in tunnels transformed into a high-tech commercial farm.
The farm is known as Growing Underground (GU), and it’s located 108 feet below the main street in Clapham, a south London suburb. Every year, in 6,000 square feet of old bomb shelter, more than 100 tons of pea shoots, garlic chives,
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Proud Texan 11/19/2020 5:41:00 PM (No. 610873)
You just keep telling yourself that Mr. Kemp. Maybe you can convince yourself. I'll stick to reality.
4 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
bgarrett 11/19/2020 6:19:24 PM (No. 610886)
Popular Mechanics magazine doesnt ever get it right
3 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
OK state mom 11/19/2020 6:23:36 PM (No. 610889)
The future of farming in Oklahoma is in raising marijuana inside a building surrounded by a 12 ft chain link fence.
2 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Newtsche 11/19/2020 6:43:08 PM (No. 610907)
From the publication that taught how to pull down statues.
5 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
coldoc 11/19/2020 6:50:04 PM (No. 610910)
What we need are some really cheap truffles.
2 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Vesicant 11/19/2020 7:12:07 PM (No. 610925)
The electric car of farming -- it only looks efficient because so many of the resources and materials are hidden. Pink LEDs from Finland to make frilly pea shoots -- sure. If you want an example of really efficient underground farming, look at mushrooms.
2 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
DVC 11/19/2020 7:58:50 PM (No. 610947)
Is there anything sillier than growing green plants underground with artificial light rather than outside where sunlight is free?
This might make sense on the Moon or Mars, but not on planet earth outside the polar zones.
3 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 11/19/2020 8:52:59 PM (No. 610981)
Could you please give us the exact coordinates? We might want to ''visit'' the place on our BLM world tour. /s
2 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
NYbob 11/19/2020 8:55:40 PM (No. 610983)
The knee jerk cynicism is funny. This idea is a start to thinking different about growing food. The idea of using tech to control factors that often wipe out an entire season of crops, is not only valid, but prudent. Pests are easier to handle in a controlled environment and most of all you avoid the cost of shipping out of season food halfway around the world. That trip is why you have 'tomatoes' that are tasteless. They have to survive a huge journey. This also allows you to eat food that is grown to 1st world standards, not chinese standards.
If the plants can use waste heat from energy generation, that lowers cost. In NY apples are stored in large buildings for long periods by filling the building with CO2 to prevent spoilage. CO2 is purposely made for greenhouses to boost plant growth, another reason urban farming could work, divert CO2 generated from power production for plant growth.
It is not going against acres or hectors of wheat production, it is starting with foods that are out of season for 6 months of the year. Besides, since the possibility of a year without summer is always one big volcano away and on another front a new Ice Age is overdue, this is a great idea. Everything different has to be mocked today, but this has merit. This is not a pinwheel windmill tech. Farming is going high tech in every way possible. This is part of that.
1 person likes this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
DVC 11/19/2020 10:08:00 PM (No. 611056)
Whatever you say, #9. I have friends who are retired farmers and have worked on farms when I was young. This sort of silliness is ridiculous to anyone who has worked on a real farm.
My friend the retired wheat farmer used to farm 80,000 acres..... that is 125 square miles,. This stuff about growing plants underground is literally a drop in a bucket. I suppose it might be fine to grow some high-priced fancy smancy garnish for somebody's $45 salad, but it is utterly ridiculous for feeding a planet.
Please, carry on.....but keep your damned hands out of the public coffers.
5 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
kono 11/19/2020 11:14:19 PM (No. 611123)
"'The United Nations predicts that we need 70 percent more food by 2050,' says Ballard."
U.N. predictions have been more often overblown than accurate, especially on the environment and food...
0 people like this.
Like I care what the UN thinks. What have they ever done for US except collect our money ?
0 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
NYbob 11/20/2020 1:44:20 AM (No. 611195)
#10, you grew a lot of wheat or helped to harvest it. That's great if you want to make bread or feed animals. I grew up on a dairy farm with other animals. Most farms around us were less than 500 acres. Small potatoes, which we also grew, compared to the monocrop operation, but the funny thing is most farms were small for hundreds of years till the Dust Bowl changed the MidWest. A lot of small towns and cities that are in decline would reap a lot of benefits from year round food. The group in this article might not be the answer, but they are an answer and this approach is so much more flexible and resilient than betting the farm on one crop for one season, while the well stays wet. Any agriculture that does not grow stupid corn to make bad gasoline, deserves support instead of snide comments that are more like something a city kid would say.
0 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
StormCnter 11/20/2020 8:43:44 AM (No. 611351)
I don't see "silliness" in preserving seeds for the future. Yes, growing actual crops in real dirt is being a real "dirt farmer". I also have a family heritage of farmers. But, I thought this article represented hope, practical ingenuity and confidence, certainly not silliness.
0 people like this.
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The author is not Kate Peters. When we use Outline to avoid a reader getting a subscription wall, sometimes the wrong author is listed.