Japanese “Farmers” Trade Boots for Lab Coats
There was a time when buying vegetables directly from a farmer might leave you with traces of cow manure on your shoes. But those days are long gone. Visit a farm now, and what clings to your heels is more likely to be a combination of fertilizers, pesticides, and maybe a little actual dirt.
But even that state of affairs could be in for a change. In fact, for some Japanese, the days of eating vegetables grown in the ground, under an open sky, are already coming to an end.
Reacting to a scandal caused by the importation of pesticide-tainted dumplings from China, the Japanese food industry has set its sights on a new type of agriculture facility, the “vegetable factory.”
In vegetable factories, “farmers” in dustproof suits, gloves, and surgical masks raise produce under completely artificial conditions. Humidity, temperature, light, and other factors are carefully controlled, and the plants grow in a solution of nutrients rather than soil.
Japan’s agriculture ministry hopes to have as many as 150 vegetable factories running within the next three years.
The benefits of the system are obvious. Imagine being able to harvest “organic” lettuce 20 times a year rather than two or three. Imagine packaging and selling vegetables that need no washing, and that will last for three weeks in the fridge because there were so few germs in their growing environment.
Not only that, but these “plant plants” can provide a profitable opportunity for recycling: The idea is to convert manufacturing facilities shut down by the recession into sites for producing food.
Which is all well and good, provided your definition of food includes antiseptic greens grown in fluorescent-lit wading pools by guys in lab suits. That may be what’s in store for all of us someday. But if so, the future doesn’t sound particularly appetizing.
By DanBing on 09-06-2009
Comment by hobosexy
June 9th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
COOL!!! so clean~
Comment by Faust
June 9th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Nice.
Comment by stuff
June 9th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
I like it is not that weird .It is kind of nice and probably the next big industry coming
Comment by pacat
June 9th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
I think the idea of mass producing like is the way to the future.This is not so new. We have been doing With the world land being used up,growing vegtables this only makes sense. Two thumbs up
Comment by masuko
June 11th, 2009 at 5:01 am
should be the other way around.
Comment by Uncle B
June 11th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Makes good sense! The waste heat from reactors cooling towers must be trapped and used this way. The chemical fertilizers can be derived from humanure, urine in particular, for a more complete cycle. For northern climates this may be the path towards food self-sufficiency once the cheap oil is all gone and costs will prohibit flying fresh greens to these people. LED lights will also provide a cost reduction, in place of the fluorescent lights shown.
Comment by Harsh Agrawal
June 11th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Cool…. It's so neat and clean
Comment by Don
June 15th, 2009 at 2:04 am
think about the huge amount of energy needed to keep these "farms" at the right temperature and light. In nature this energy is provided by the sun. In an artificial setting the energy must come from either fossil fuels or unsustainable electricity practices. Until there are widespread sustainable ways the harvest energy, this farming can be terribly damaging to the environment.
Comment by Brobo
June 15th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
This is a nightmare!
You can't use living things as a factory, its against everything.
Its unnatural, expensive and without a doubt harder to educate people for it, lets hope that this trend wont catch on and turn the world into a dystopia nightmare
Comment by Anon
June 16th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Ooh, dystopia. Someone learned a new word today.
Comment by anony
June 16th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
weren't they doing this at disney's Epcot center in the 80's?
Comment by aliaskajan
June 19th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
cool……..
Comment by el dusto
November 20th, 2009 at 6:51 am
this isn't new. it's pretty standard hydroponics. yeah, they were doing it at Epcot in the 80's. as a trained horticulturalist, i can say that it is VERY efficient and rather cost-effective. however, it would be best if energy inputs came from sustainable sources such as solar, geothermal, etc. Uncle B had the right idea with collecting waste energy from cooling towers.