Farm in a Box

[Drashner1]

Came across something about this idea on CNN and then found more on Google.

Mainly thinking about it in terms of our discussions about future food production in the early timeline.

Link

Link

Todd

[Rynn]

Cool late here but I'll give it a proper read tomorrow. I'd be interested in knowing the running cost in terms of water, fertiliser, power etc. Seems like a great way to build a modular urban farm or to allow allotments in high rises.

[stevebowers]

Power is the main problem. If there is cheap power then growing food in a box using artificial lights is a good idea. In much of the OA scenario power is not really a problem, so closed units like this could be used for food production. But in any situation where solar photaics supplies most of the energy in a society then the use of artificial lights just adds extra inefficiencies.

[Rynn]

Adds inefficiencies wrt power but if much more efficient in terms of water, pesticide and space usage. I'm guessing fuel too in some situations given that if you had a farm building in a city it wouldn't have to go very far to feed people, this is even more true if you can grow foreign crops that are usually imported by air.