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  • From: Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] soilless crop production
  • Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:30:04 -0700

The sad thing about food miles is that transportation energy used in
agriculture--the 1500 mile salad--is only 4% of the total energy involved in
growing, processing, distributing and selling food. Reducing the distance
food travels will have very, very little impact on the energy costs of the
food system. Most of the energy use, 84%, is on-farm and processing. Vertical
farming, whether renewable-based or not, uses more energy, wherever it is
done, and doing it locally won't change that.

(the source for the numbers is "The Impact of Household Food on Climate
Change," Environmental Science and Technology, 2009, 42:3609 by Weber and
Matthews)

This really bummed me out when I heard it, since food-miles was such a good
bludgeon to use for the local food argument. Ah, well. There are a lot of
other reasons that food should be grown locally.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com


On Sep 12, 2012, at 11:09 AM, Joy Cernac wrote:

> Re: vertical farming. The elephant in the room is the ENERGY required to
> transport food. An energy cost-benefit analysis and side comparison would
> need to be conducted between the average amount of transportation
> fuel-related food miles (1500mi) from farm to plate, compared with the
> amount of energy to generate power for localized vertical farms. Obviously,
> such as the point of Mr. Head, renewable energy would negate the
> global-warming and fossil fuel-associated issues assciated with tower
> gardening indoors. Renewables combined with localized organic
> aquaculture-derived food production are the only sustainable answer in my
> mind, as we are all crowded in polluted cities and are living in a
> fossil-fuel propped-up nation. This model is being developed by countless
> individuals right now, across the world - combined, closed-loop aeroponics
> and aquaponics models that produce an ecosystem in working together. In the
> city, soil contamination is always an issue...so growing in water, locally
> in the cities is the healthiest solution while we are getting our food
> system off the grid. Once all our electricity is run on renewables and we
> all have long-range electric vehicles that can transport food great
> distances (we're looking at a couple hundred years out for that...), then
> it will make environmental cost-benefit analytical sense to transport food
> long distances. It's only a matter of time until the localized
> aeroponic/hydroponic models are implemented on a grander scale and the
> cities are thereby moved toward having a secure, sustainable food supply.
>
> Joy
>
> On Wed, Sep 12, 2012 at 10:28 AM, georg parlow <g.parlow@gmx.at> wrote:
>
>> Hm, in one of the linked articles it says
>> "Indeed, even in today's single-storey glasshouses, artificial
>> lighting is needed to enable year-round production. Thanet Earth, a 90-
>> hectare facility which opened in Kent in 2008 and is the largest such
>> site in Britain—it provides 15% of the British salad crop—requires
>> its own mini power-station to provide its plants with light for 15
>> hours a day during the winter months. This rather undermines the
>> notion that vertical farming will save energy and cut carbon
>> emissions, notes Mr Head, who has carried out several studies of the
>> idea. Vertical farming will need cheap, renewable energy if it is to
>> work, he says."
>> Sure does not sound like a sustainable idea, or does it?
>>
>> Georg
>>
>>
>>
>> Am 09.09.2012 um 04:25 schrieb venaurafarm:
>>
>>> On 9/8/2012 10:09 PM, venaurafarm wrote:
>>>
>>>> That was it, efficient, effective ways to grow food in a space
>>>> environment. Petri dish for cultured muscle tissue for the grill or
>>>> microwave. This was part of a Google+ conversation in comments on a
>>>> Google+ post with a friend.
>>>>
>>>> Still, sprouts need only water while grasses and other plants need
>>>> growing medium that is soil-like i.e. sunflower, a recyclable
>>>> scaffold
>>>> for the roots to grow into with nutrient, similar with spirulina and
>>>> chlorella, container and nutrient. In a space environment I would
>>>> assume
>>>> they would maintain a culture library of beneficial microorganisms
>>>> for
>>>> use in food production and sewage treatment, recycling humanure as
>>>> soil-like growing medium and nutrients and secondary biological
>>>> treatment of liquid back to potable water; they already do this.
>>>
>>> More of my comments in this thread:
>>>
>>> Needless to say we need to conserve and protect our best farmland
>>> for production of the cleanest, most natural, most nutritious food for
>>> mankind. Elimination of toxins, contaminants, gmo's, all categories of
>>> pesticides will be mandatory. Full engagement with soil building
>>> programs for 1) season extension 2) water and nutrient conservation 3)
>>> building soil quality through the right kind of tillage, cropping
>>> system, application of soil amendments, mineral, macronutrient,
>>> beneficial organisms will also be mandatory. Using permaculture
>>> methods
>>> will make all this possible. Here's to health and happiness!
>>>
>>> <>
>>>
>>> Need less food with better, more complete, maximum nutrition. This is
>>> here now. Food combining for maximum digestion for maximum nutrition
>>> for
>>> maximum health and longevity. Raw foods is one of the strategies
>>> used to
>>> achieve this goal. Food combining for raw foods dieting = combining
>>> foods at a meal that are compatible, not antagonistic, i.e. no acid
>>> foods with starchy foods, only one kind of protein at a meal, no
>>> protein
>>> with starchy foods, eat separately; vegetables with starches or
>>> vegetables with protein, fruit alone: sweet along, acid alone, some
>>> subacid can be eaten with vegetables, i.e. peaches and tomatoes with
>>> vegetable salads - there's lots to this type of raw foods diet. For
>>> more
>>> info obtain a used copy of Viktoras Kulvinskas book: Survival In The
>>> 21st Century: A Planetary Healer's Handbook (with artwork by Peter
>>> Max).
>>> This is a really good book. Other works include those of Ann Wigmore
>>> on
>>> sprouts, raw foods and cultured foods such as seed cheese. There's
>>> lots
>>> on all these people on the Web, try a Google search. Add traditional
>>> Japanese macrobiotics nutrition - very excellent, controlled dieting,
>>> excellent nutrition, fermented probiotic foods, kim chee, kraut, kefir
>>> and more.
>>>
>>> With permaculture and natural, biological, biointensive agriculture in
>>> harmony with nature and Gaia, the Earth will be able to support life
>>> for
>>> much longer than with the present dominant method, chemical and gmo.
>>> Tree of Life Web Project http://tolweb.org/tree/
>>>
>>> There is vertical farming, a fascinating new concept though expensive:
>>>
>>> An important book on this subject:
>>> The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century by Dickson D.
>>> Despommier (Oct 12, 2010)
>>>
>> http://www.amazon.com/The-Vertical-Farm-Feeding-Century/dp/B0055X6F1A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347125638&sr=8-1&keywords=vertical+farm
>>>
>>> The Vertical Farm Project - Agriculture for the 21st Century and ...
>>> www.verticalfarm.com
>>>
>>> Images for Vertical Farming
>>>
>> https://www.google.com/search?q=Vertical+Farming&hl=en&client=firefox-beta&hs=e84&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvnsb&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=83tLULnLBoH00gGz1YDABQ&ved=0CC4QsAQ
>>>
>>> Growing Skyscrapers: The Rise of Vertical Farms: Scientific American
>>>
>> http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-rise-of-vertical-farms
>>> Oct 24, 2009 – Growing crops in city skyscrapers would use less
>>> water
>>> and fossil fuel than outdoor farming, eliminate agricultural runoff,
>>> and
>>> provide fresh ...
>>>
>>> <>
>>>
>>> Hydroponics, aquaponics, aeroponics do that. It is a matter of
>>> designing
>>> equipment and processes scaled to the need at hand. Nothing wrong with
>>> automation, auto-harvesting and placing in refrigeration or prep for a
>>> meal. Much work has been done with growing blue-green algae and
>>> chlorella; that could easily be scaled
>>> to home food production. SPROUTS! Grow sprouts in trays and recycle
>>> the
>>> growing medium and stubble. Wheatgrass, barley grass, alfalfa,
>>> sunflower
>>> (black oil seed), buckwheat (buckwheat lettuce) are gourmet food. I
>>> have
>>> eaten all of them except barley grass. I think sprouts could become a
>>> major source of plant-based nutrition when depending on soilless
>>> growth
>>> medium. Very many vegetable seeds can be sprouted for human
>>> consumption.
>>> Next, consider the potential for soilless growth of certain wild,
>>> exotic, heirloom, international foods, including some fruits. What
>>> about fruit; how could one do without that. Quality meat grown in a
>>> Petri dish sounds like future food. Google "future food" and see
>>> pfaf.org, Plants For A Future. I think cultured meat product could be
>>> made to taste great. "Seed" or starter tissue could be frozen for
>>> years
>>> to ensure a supply for future use.
>>>
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>>
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