Perhaps you're all are getting used to my random thoughts on a huge variety of non-related ideas. That is kinda how I roll....
On that note, the idea I was mind rolling today was due to a documentary film I watched the other day about
modern food production in the USA entitled "Ingredients--the local food movement takes root".
Basically the film was lamenting about how prime agricultural land is not valued as much as it should be and how some folks believe that human beings should build "up" and live in very tall sky-scraping apartment buildings and that would ensure that the areas that have been labeled as prime "farm land" would be protected from suburban sprawl.
But I find it strange and somewhat discomforting to consider the idea that humans "should" curb their ambitions for lifestyle to adapt to apartment style living.
Why should the corn stalks get better real estate than we do???
And so on that thought....I was hypohesizing about how it would make more senste to me to figure out how to farm "up" with vertical farms than to force human beings to cram their lives into apartment buildings for the next millenium
Sooo....what then is a vertical farm....
Well, in my imagination it would be a manner in which crops can be grown in layers using the same square footage that would under "traditional" farm methods would only grown one crop per season....but under this new "vertical farm" idea would be able to produce up to 10 crops or more using the same square footage.
So what would it look like? Well, it might involve sharing sunlight by using mirrors to reflect sunlight from the upper layers of crops to the lower layers. Or it would involve hanging types of steel grids in layers
in order to rotate each crop's exposure to the necessary amounts of sunlight and rain/irrigation.
Or....we could get old school and think of an idea that has already gained some traction in the last few years and that is the modern invention of "pocket gardens" such as those
feature by the company "Woolly Pockets"....check out some of their inspiring videos of their products at
http://canada.woollypocket.com/videos .
So just to sum up my rambling....let's just say that we don't have to consider
traditional horizontal farming as the way of the future. We can be much more creative and inventive in figuring out how to maximize food production by growing crops vertically instead of taking up yet even more acreage. We can "grow up" not "out".
I'd love to hear your thoughts on these ideas.
Perhaps some of you have already tried to grow some veggies in a "Woolly Pocket" or other vertical growing apparatus. Blurt some alphabets friends, ....this blog's for you.
Peacefully productive,
Carla.
On that note, the idea I was mind rolling today was due to a documentary film I watched the other day about
modern food production in the USA entitled "Ingredients--the local food movement takes root".
Basically the film was lamenting about how prime agricultural land is not valued as much as it should be and how some folks believe that human beings should build "up" and live in very tall sky-scraping apartment buildings and that would ensure that the areas that have been labeled as prime "farm land" would be protected from suburban sprawl.
But I find it strange and somewhat discomforting to consider the idea that humans "should" curb their ambitions for lifestyle to adapt to apartment style living.
Why should the corn stalks get better real estate than we do???
And so on that thought....I was hypohesizing about how it would make more senste to me to figure out how to farm "up" with vertical farms than to force human beings to cram their lives into apartment buildings for the next millenium
Sooo....what then is a vertical farm....
Well, in my imagination it would be a manner in which crops can be grown in layers using the same square footage that would under "traditional" farm methods would only grown one crop per season....but under this new "vertical farm" idea would be able to produce up to 10 crops or more using the same square footage.
So what would it look like? Well, it might involve sharing sunlight by using mirrors to reflect sunlight from the upper layers of crops to the lower layers. Or it would involve hanging types of steel grids in layers
in order to rotate each crop's exposure to the necessary amounts of sunlight and rain/irrigation.
Or....we could get old school and think of an idea that has already gained some traction in the last few years and that is the modern invention of "pocket gardens" such as those
feature by the company "Woolly Pockets"....check out some of their inspiring videos of their products at
http://canada.woollypocket.com/videos .
So just to sum up my rambling....let's just say that we don't have to consider
traditional horizontal farming as the way of the future. We can be much more creative and inventive in figuring out how to maximize food production by growing crops vertically instead of taking up yet even more acreage. We can "grow up" not "out".
I'd love to hear your thoughts on these ideas.
Perhaps some of you have already tried to grow some veggies in a "Woolly Pocket" or other vertical growing apparatus. Blurt some alphabets friends, ....this blog's for you.
Peacefully productive,
Carla.
