Singapore Builds First Vertical Vegetable Farm

kkleiner writes "Short on arable land? One solution would be to plan up. Singapore, a small country that imports most of its food, has now begun selling vegetables from its first vertical farm. And even while they're more expensive the vegetables are already selling faster than they can be grown. If the farms prove sustainable – both technologically and economically – they could provide a much desired supplement to Singapore's locally grown food and serve as a model for farming in other land-challenged areas."

Re:Sunlight is finite

[LunaticTippy]

One cool thing about vertical farming is the fact that we already have lots of vertical surfaces that are just wasting that sunlight. We can convert existing vertical surfaces to create food with unused sunlight.

Re:Sunlight is finite

[arcite]

LED technology can replace the sun.

Will Allen has been doing this...

[sugapablo]

http://www.growingpower.org/ [growingpower.org]

economic feasibility

[prisma]

They may not be the first in the world to do this but any new competition should be welcome as being another team and another chance at finding techniques to improve cost effectiveness.

My first thought after seeing the headline and thinking "That's cool!" was whether or not they could stay in business and what kind of future this setup could have elsewhere. It's probably a concept very much like fuel prices: When prices rise high enough to support more expensive production methods, these fancier methods will have a better chance of gaining traction and staying in business.

The Singapore government should consider what value they put on food security for their population. If they value it highly enough, then perhaps a subsidy for the company to help them expand would be justifiable.

Re:Sunlight is finite

[Anonymous Coward]

there's a finite amount of sunlight that you can't get more of.

There's a narrow absorption spectrum of chlorophyll A and B (P680,P700). Sunlight is mostly wasted on plants. Converting sunlight into electricity (full spectrum), and that into just 680nm and 700nm would allow more plants to be grown from a set amount of sunlight. It costs more, and the technology to get the most out of it is relatively new. However, that's not what Singapore is doing anyway.

Re:Grow house

[mogness]

It's not really that serious. The drug laws are strict but it's actually fairly common to come across illicit substances in SG, just like everywhere else. The cases that make the news usually appear because people are stupid about it, trying to take E out to clubs or smoking weed in the street like they think they're in Amsterdam. Most people who want to don't have a problem. No, there aren't dealers on corners or people walking up to you on the street offering you drugs like back in the US, but we like it that way. Anyone who's been here more than a few years knows someone who knows someone that has drugs. We live on an island country that's only slightly bigger than Manhattan, and we have the world's busiest port. You'd be kidding yourself if you thought they'd catch everything coming in, or if you thought they prosecute every single possession case.

Porn is also illegal here, but it's silly to think no one is looking at it.

Singapore's policy with just about everything is if you can keep it to yourself they aren't interested. Keep your head down and you can smoke all the weed you want, if that's your thing.

What I find craziest of all is that in the first three years of my adult life in the US I had six, maybe seven run-ins with law enforcement. I've been in Singapore for almost four years and I've not yet ever been confronted by a single police officer. And people say Singapore is a police state?

Re:Sunlight is finite

[Adriax]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grow_light#LED [wikipedia.org]
~450nm (blue) promotes vegetative growth.
660-680nm (deep red) promotes flowering and fruiting.

Rather tempted to experiment with led christmas light strands if they have any leftover at walmart this year. Make a cheap grid light out of them and see how plants do.

Re:Sunlight is finite

[khallow]

And I think it's been noted that solar cells plus LEDs are a bit more efficient than raw sunlight for plants (I understand plant photosynthesis can't use the IR, a narrow green band, and UV portions of sunlight).