Wow! This is brilliant! It doesn't take much imagination to see these
stacked many, many stories high (or down under the ground) producing tens
of times the amount an acreage normally could. No other form of agriculture
could match this level of productivity.
Maybe it will go retail too. I would buy one or a few if I had the money.
The concept of isolating the crops from pests is very cool. I eliminates
complex, expensive, poisonous pest management.
Lovely!
Best wishes,
- Miriam
At 01:55 PM 12/08/2001 -0500, Barbara Lamar wrote:
>I think I've mentioned on this list before that my ideal house would contain
>a garden room capable of providing for most of the nutritional needs of the
>occupants while recycling metabolic by-products as well as other organic
>waste. Here's an interesting invention that's a step in the direction of
>making this possible.
>
>Barbara
>
>=======================
>from the archives of
>http://www.bridgesforpeace.com/publications/dispatch/inventionsinnovations
>
>Robot "Farmers" Revolutionize Agriculture?
>by Judy Siegel, The Jerusalem Post, September 29, 1999
>
>
>Israeli-developed robots that tirelessly tend hydroponically grown organic
>vegetables cultivated in standard metal shipping containers promise to
>revolutionize agriculture from Africa to Alaska. Called Grow-Tech 2000, the
>integrated systems are stackable and self-contained, and they can replace
>open-field frames, says their inventor, Lior Hessel.
>
>
>The 31-year-old Technion graduate in Agricultural Engineering and Management
>has filed for patents in the US and Israel and expects the first Grow-Tech
>2000 to be on the market within a year.
>
>His prototype, at the OrganiTECH Technion entrepreneurial incubator, has
>shown that 500 heads of lettuce can be produced in a single container.
>
>The system is environmentally friendly, using an absolute minimum of water,
>producing oxygen instead of toxic gases from pesticides, and needing merely
>to be plugged into a power source.
>
>The robots monitor the environment, keeping the oxygen, artificial light,
>carbon dioxide, humidity, temperature, mineral levels, and other factors at
>optimum levels.
>
>"Dozens of lettuce varieties, plus innumerable other vegetables, like
>cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, onion, garlic, and herbs can be cultivated
>in Grow-Tech 2000. The next step is to grow hormone and chemical-free
>strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers," Hessel said.
>
>Bushes and even trees laden with fruit could follow. The demand for organic
>produce has skyrocketed in the developed world. In the US alone, the market
>for naturally grown products jumped by 30 percent between 1996 and 1997. Of
>7.5 billion heads of lettuce eaten in the US each year, 10 percent are
>organically grown.
>
>"I predict that conventional agriculture will be finished in Israel in a
>decade. There just isn't enough water, and fields will be covered over with
>housing. What could remain are organic farms like these systems and the
>export of know-how like ours," said Hessel. He first conceived the idea
>several years ago, but has been working on the project since last summer.
>
>The Technion industrial incubator received seed money from the Chief
>Scientist's Office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and is now
>considering offers for investors and strategic partners from Israel and
>abroad. Hessel expects the company, which now has six professional staffers,
>to have hundreds of workers within a year.
>
>"The applications are endless," Hessel said. "We believe we can grow highly
>pure raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry. We also can solve the
>problem of insects in leafy vegetables for religious Jews whose glatt kosher
>standards demand a complete absence of pests. Also, today large amounts of
>pesticides are used, but this is not healthy."
>
>Hessel doesn't envisage many ordinary people having a self-contained farm in
>their garden, but he does believe that the "growing machines" could be
>located at retail establishments, such as supermarkets, restaurants, and
>fast-food places, as well as at distribution commissaries for chain stores.
---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=---------=------
Q. What is the similarity between an elephant and a grape?
A. They are both purple... except for the elephant.
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http://werple.net.au/~miriam
http://members.optushome.com.au/miriame
Virtual Reality Association http://www.vr.org.au
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