How taxing organic products could save California's water shortage

originally posted by: Aazadan


No, vertical farming involves stacking rows of crops that grow one above the other out of I think plastic tubing. I don't know all the specifics of the method, but it achieves such a high water efficiency because there's virtually no runoff, almost all of the water used goes directly to the food, there are also no losses to evaporation due to the closed environment and grows vegetables in a very space efficient method, it's a lot like hydroponic growing which is up to 20x more space efficient than just growing in a field, yet that still takes up even more space than this.

The big drawback is that because you're growing vertically, a lot of light from the sun gets blocked, the lower the food is the less sunlight it gets, this results in needing growing lights which require a good deal of electricity, but as I said California is pretty much uniquely positioned to take advantage of geothermal and that can compensate. Contrary to the claims of the coal lobby they aren't the cheapest electricity source in certain areas of the country.

Personally, I would call an investment like this into food and electricity production a worthy example of infrastructure spending.

Still think the discussion is about irrigation.

Vertical container farming is fine - if you don't mind chemical fertilizers and plastic - two things I'd rather avoid. Add in the need for more sunlight (look up Global Dimming) and you find another problem.

There may be techonological answers to these questions but efficient irragation, composted vegetable and animal waste (and other organic fertilizers) using crop rotation and you'll get the yields needed using fewer resources without adding more non-biodegrable crap into the system

a reply to: FyreByrd

The plastics don't leech into the vegetables, even if they did and such a method wasn't viable pure hydroponic gardening is still very space, water, and power efficient while also reducing the amount of fertilizer needed. Remember, in a sealed environment you don't need pesticides, in addition to the reduced resources required to grow that's a major advantage in my mind.

a reply to: Mandroid7

www.youtube.com...

Have you seen the above youtube advice regarding - SAVING WATER - ie. Hydroponic method in which plants are watered Once each Month, or as the above shows, use an Aquarium as a water suppliant whilst the plants act like an Aquarium Filter as the same water is simply circulated... Worth watching for he show all full detail