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| The agriculture of the future is already a reality in Japan. |
The Mirai
Group has created the largest indoor garden in the world, with the use of LED
lamps instead of the sun and robots as farmers with Hundreds of shelves
cultivated "capable of producing
10 thousand frizzy lettuce a day:one hundred times the amount obtainable from
a traditional outdoor farm and all using 99% less water and reducing the waste
of food by 80%.
The Mirai
Group garden was built inside a former factory of 2,500 square meters.
The operation came from the widespread fear of
nuclear contamination of the soil in the aftermath of the Fukushima accident.
In the Mirai
Group Hi tech greenhouse, however not even a drop of water is wasted,the water
that evaporates from the crops is continually reused to feed the plants through
a system that emulates the natural cycle of rain. All without any waste.unlike in a traditional agricultural field water seeps into the soil and
disperses.
At present production is limited to lettuce,but the creators says they shall soon
use the same system for other crops, resulting in a decline in the price of
vegetables and a potential saving of land use for cultivation.
The plants
are organized on 18 grids high as 15 levels illuminated by 17,500 LED lights
with a wavelength that promotes photosynthesis and growth.Thanks to a system
that simulates the day and night cycle,these crops grow about 2 and a half
times faster than those of an open field. All with significant savings
because LEDs consume 40 % less than fluorescent bulbs and last much longer.Workers have circuits inside the factory.50% of the agricultural work in
fact is entrusted to a series of robots . The human staffs however,must use
overalls and masks to prevent contamination and maintain a sterile environment.
Some Hi tech
greenhouse projects were put up in other places like China,Russia and
Mongolia.
