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The Answer is Up
Submitted by Travis Craw on Wed, 07/23/2008 - 5:40pm.
As I zoomed across I-80 this weekend in a single shot from New York to Chicago and back, my mind drifted back and forth across the countless miles of corn and my gas meter, as all that 4 dollar gas dripped away. The big question in my mind was how the heck we were going keep shipping all this corn all the way to New York and California, not to mention shipping banana in refrigerated cars all the way from South America. The answer is not bringing the food to Manhattan but bringing the farms.
Vertical Farms are the way of the future, or so says Dr. Dickson Despommier who has been working on vertical farming technology for 10 years now. Take 35 acres of farmland, stack then into a precisely regulated farming skyscraper, and you have yourself a Vertical Farm. In fact an acre of vertical farmland is predicted to have 4-6 times greater output than a boring old acre of flat land. This is a big deal with a population slated to increase 3 billion, 80% of whom will be living in urbanized areas, by 2050. With ever increasing transport and fuel costs for farming our farming practices must evolve vertically if we are going to stop millions from starving and full nations worth of natural ecosystems laid waste by flat and fat farms.
Many designs have been published for these towering greenhouses, which can protect plants from irregular weather, pests and pesticides, recycle water, transform methane to energy, and provide a source for urban food and jobs, while leaving our battered world to recuperate a little. Still the notion as a few ominous sci-fi elements with the website describing them as a prerequisite for moon colonization and asking, “Don't our harvestable plants deserve the same level of comfort and protection that [people] now enjoy?” This may be the great green hope for agriculture but it is also implies a huge condensing of our food source and the complete stewardship of people creating a new ecosystem. Futuristic and yet surprisingly obvious, this is the thinking that will reshape both urban and rural landscapes, and could make some real change, leaving carbon offsets and the inefficiency of ethanol in the dust.
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A GERMAN electric scooter
A GERMAN electric scooter will be the first production electric vehicle on Singapore roads when it is ready for registration by this quarter. e-max will offer two models through distributor Zeco Scooters - the 90S and 110S, at $6,999 and $7,399 (without COE) respectively.
Zeco's managing director Jan Croeni, 31, says the scooters can be recharged by plugging them into an ordinary household power socket. The charging time of 21/2 to five hours gives the 90S and 110S maximum ranges of 60km and 90km respectively.
"Our target customers are people who want to drive around for a whole year for only $100 in electricity, those who want a maintenance-free bike and those who are environmentally friendly," says Mr Croeni, who is launching the scooters this week.
He is also eyeing companies and fleet owners who want to go green and cut operational costs by "up to 85 per cent".
According to Zeco, the Land Transport Authority has given in-principle approval to e-max scooters. The company aims to sell about 200 units this year - or about $1.5 million in sales.
But it has bigger plans - it is looking at setting up infrastructure for electric vehicles.
It is understood that Mr Croeni plans to raise public awareness of electric vehicles with an island-wide initiative.
"Transport is responsible for 20 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions in Singapore," he says.
"Electric vehicles can reduce global warming and have a positive impact on the environment and people."
Currently, there is only one electric vehicle - which is no longer in production - registered in Singapore, although there are hundreds of petrol-electric hybrids made by Toyota and Honda.
Zeco says e-max scooters are already on roads in Europe, the United States, Australia and Japan.
The German-engineered and Italian-designed units have been made in Bavaria since 2001. Mr Croeni, a German, says the two models he is offering feature the latest technology.
"The motor is in the rear wheel so there is no chain or belt," he says. "There is also low down time because you can just remove the wheel if there is a problem - so it's ideal for fleet management."
Mr Croeni came to Singapore three years ago and worked for the German government and in consumer marketing before starting his own environmental sustainability consultancy last year.
He decided to introduce the scooter because electric vehicles have a limited range, so a small island such as Singapore is the perfect place to go electric.
"An electric two-wheeler is also much more affordable than an electric car," he says.
With ever increasing
With ever increasing transport and fuel costs for farming our farming practices must evolve vertically if we are going to stop millions from starving and full nations worth of natural ecosystems laid waste by flat and fat farms.
Did you forget that it takes
Did you forget that it takes more energy to run a green house than it does to ship produce? Carbon footprint is an all-encompassing including the construction cost of the vertical green house.
Disney had an example of a vertical greenhouse in Tomorrow Land which showed bare root produce held in suspension as the chemicals were sprayed on the root zone and the fungicides were applied to the leaves. In a controlled atmosphere disease runs rampant since there is no competing bacteria to keep infestations in check.
Since chemicals are derived from petroleum the cost of such an endeavor will closely follow the cost of energy. When the cost of energy goes down the cost of running a vertical greenhouse will not keep up with the lower cost of transportation.
If energy cost continue to rise the cost of operating these urban grow houses will become prohibitive.
There are no easy answers but one is to kill the grain based ethanol program, which the UN has stated that 70% of the rise in food cost comes from grain based biofuels.
Organic George, I have not
Organic George,
I have not seen you for a while. You were not missed but I do agree about the disaster that ethanol is. As for your other points, these vertical farms would not use energy the way you describe.
I by no means am trying to
I by no means am trying to imply that this is a flawless or even tested system. I agree that the dense packing of our food source into a purely human controlled environment causes a great concern about disease. I think that this sort of thinking avoids seeing human consumption as essentially unsustainable, however it is the sort of progressive thought which seeks to radically rethink the way we do things rather than trying to salvage our system with technologies as inefficient and dangerous as ethanol.
I do not doubt your statement on the carbon foot print of a greenhouse, but I would like to see where you found that statistic for my own edification. In addition to building and maintenance costs, one must also consider the cost of the loss of natural forests to farm land. If population continues to grow at its current rate, modest estimates have our species leveling off at 9 billion people, which would require a vast increase in farm land, an amount which may not even exist on the earths surface, and at a price undoubtedly to great for this planet to withstand. In truth the answer must be a combination of progressive technologies, conservation, and sacrifice.