Improved Indoor Farming
Hydroponic farms are nothing new. Wikipedia (source of all knowledge!) says research into soil-less farming began in the 17th century. Lots of sci-fi novels and shows (Acorna, The Sheep Look up, even Babylon 5) have been using hydroponic farming for decades as a means of providing both food and oxygen during space travel. It’s pretty sweet, but basically best for when there is no soil (like in space). If you have soil but the weather isn’t so good (nuclear winter maybe?) you’d probably want the most effective greenhouse possible in the last space possible. Some people in Singapore are trying to do just that.
Short on arable land, one company, Sky Green, has begun producing vegetables in Singapore in vertical farm systems.
The farm system, created by the company Sky Green and called A-Go-Gro, is a series of aluminum towers, up to nine meters high, with 38 tiers with troughs in which vegetables are grown. To ensure uniform sunlight the troughs are rotated via a hydraulic water-driven system that needs just 0.5 liters to rotate one of the 1.7 ton structures. With an emphasis on efficiency Sky Green made sure that the water was recycled, eventually being used to water the vegetables themselves. Just 60W of power – just enough for a lightbulb – is needed to operate one tower per day. The company that builds the system, Singapore-based Sky Green, claims that the artificial system is 5 to 10 times more productive than traditional farms.
Going vertical is a pretty good idea. Not a novel one, but I think these people have done a pretty good job at making it effective. I could easily see Minerva or any organization trying to live through a nuclear winter doing something very similar.
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