Week 9 [10.12-16.12.18] Possible future of farming

Every day we unwrap millions of fully packed pallets with food which came to us from all around the world to meet our hunger demands. Did you know that many fruits and vegetables lose their crucial nutritional value because of the conditions there are being shipped it? Kimbal Musk (brother of famous Elon Musk – CEO of SpaceX and Tesla) might have a solution which will enable growing food a subway ride away from your home, no matter where you live. His proposition is scaleable and might allow us to grow crops even in the center of large and crowded cities.

Questions:

Do you think that all farms in the future will look similar to Square Roots proposition?
Can you imagine a situation where food grown in containers will be healthier than the one we get from regular fields?
Are you afraid that companies like this will do some serious food modifications to make their products tastier or more sustainable without worrying about the long-term impact on their client's health?

Comments

Companies already do not care about impact on the customer's health. They never did, actually. What about food, I think that the future lies behind chemicals. The planet Earth is capable of producing less and less food. Oh, and there is overpopulation. So, molecular cousin should be the answer. The nature extinction is inevitable, therefore, such solutions should be researched ASAP.

11 December 2018 at 20:08

Filip Sawicki said…

I have really high hopes for automated vertical farming. There are so many benefits that this technology will bring to us, like food will be healthier, cheaper and ecological. I’m just worried that current farming industry which certainly is going to be strongly against this idea, will postpone implementation of that technology on a mass scale. Regarding last question, I’m not afraid. There are many regulations that prohibit use of certain substances and force producers to include list of ingredients on their products. With common knowledge one can easily distinguish healthy product from trash ones.

14 December 2018 at 15:25

Unknown said…

I agree! Movie mentioned chemical improvements. Unfortunately, we won't make it without some DNA modifications. It's a new type of growing food not only for us but also for the earth, so it hasn't had enough time to evolve yet, that's why we need to help it a bit and speed up the process to meet up our needs.

15 December 2018 at 18:30

Unknown said…

As mentioned in the move the biggest problem, for now, it the energy demand. It's not efficient to grow food in such containers. Until people discover a new more efficient way of how to power thing, we won't see such innovations in our cities, but I think it's just a matter of time. Current farming industry will be able to implement this solution to their business as well as people in the cities with this small difference that they already have huge fields that can be stacked up with containers which will grow an enormous amount of food.

As we all know, regulations don't stop people from doing marvelous stuff. This case is tricky because it's strongly connected with chemicals. To grow more food people will try different things. Especially at the beggings of this business people might place their profits over customers health.

15 December 2018 at 18:36

Unknown said…

1. Farm Square Roots does not use the soil and grows plants only without root crops. Therefore, it is not known whether they will solve this problem in the future, especially with fruit trees. Perhaps humanity will so pollute the soil of the earth that it will become absolutely uninhabitable or climate change will no longer allow us to grow food, then we will have to rely on such farms.

2. Yes, I think it is possible. They use natural and safe methods for growing food.

3. It is impossible to exclude such an opportunity, people most often think about their own profit, and not about how their products will be beneficial to human health. Moreover, with the use of such methods, it is possible to grow more plants in a short period of time.

16 December 2018 at 21:08

Maryna Bratishko said…

Do you think that all farms in the future will look similar to Square Roots proposition?
The likelihood that most farms will look so very high. Obviously, farms will remain in their original form. There will always be many eccentrics who pursue naturalness and old trends.
Can you imagine a situation where food grown in containers will be healthier than the one we get from regular fields?
I have little faith in this opportunity. Already many times there were cases that began to sell products, and they showed their harmful effects after a long period of time. Like, for example, gene modifications, initially everyone thought they were a great idea.
Are you afraid that companies like this will do some serious food modifications to make their products tastier or more sustainable without worrying about the long-term impact on their client's health?
No one will allow farms to do this thoughtlessly, usually, the institutes are engaged in changes at the gene level. And nowadays they first carry out all kinds of tests, although this does not guarantee that the product is harmless.

16 December 2018 at 21:52

Aleksander Wiza said…

Kimballs vision is very realistic and possibly square roots despite being a great company name for a - garden in a shipping container - producer. I think it promotes very controlled environment for plants to grow, more stable than that of a glass house which lets in varrying sensitivity of light.

I do believe that food produced that way is indeed healthy and can be even better than traditionaly grown food.

Lastly I'd have to mention it is possible that something bad may be a result of altering production techniques, but it's nothing to be worried about in case of square roots methods

16 December 2018 at 22:01

Mykhailo Reznyk said…

Wow, I didn’t know Elon Musk has a brother, and that he also a visionary. It looks like a family fool of geniuses. Anyway, I think it is a great idea. I have heard about something similar few months ago. Basically, there was a proposal to build farms on a top of buildings. By doing so, you are getting rid of a need to transport vegetables. Such a farm could provide enough food for the whole building. But let’s return to Musk’s idea. As was said in a video, it saves so much space and resources like water. And this is just an early stage, a prototype, meaning that there are so much room for improvements. Kimbal could ask his brother to help him with providing solar panels for containers to solve problems with electricity. Anyway, it looks really promising. Regrading how healthy it is. I haven’t studied this subject too much, but it’s clearly better for us if food is served right away, instead of being freezed and dried multiple times before it reaches our local store. I do not worry about big companies starting to use some genetic modifications to make food better, since they already do it for decade or more. Of course, some serious research should be done before messing with a biology and chemistry of a food, but I think it is regulated by law.

16 December 2018 at 22:33

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