Technologists and green-thinking entrepreneurs have already spent hundreds of millions of dollars raising indoor vertical crops across the globe. In eastern Japan, in a former Sony semiconductor factory, one plant scientist harvests 10,000 heads of lettuce a day. In New Jersey, a former Cornell University agriculture professor, with backing from Goldman Sachs and others, is helping to turn a run-down steel factory into a 69,000-square-foot farm. It will be capable of turning out 2 million pounds of produce annually, eclipsing Colangelo’s farm when it opens this winter. The new farm will use 95 percent less water than a field farm, and like others offer more productivity per square acre, and save energy costs such as tractor fuel.
The October issue of Popular Science featured a series of articles on food related technology. They show indoor farmers around the world producing lettuce and leafy greens that feed millions of people. But who wants to eat lettuce all day? Why can’t they grow fruit?
If they were using Spectrix lights, they could be growing loads of healthy delicious fruits and vegetables every day of the year!