There is also the fact that they consume a lot less water. In regions where solar and wind energy are a surplus but fresh water is scarce, indoor farming makes more sense.
hotelbravo722
joined 1 year ago
Just to let you know a left-libertarian is called an Anarchist.
This is a subject I am a bit interested in. Been reading Ministry for The Future and watching Foundation, so the idea of religion being used to change peoples behavior is an interesting one. I am apprehensive to it as I grew up Mormon but now a firm atheist so the notion of religion in general makes me cringe. However I have been convinced enough through conversations with colleagues that a good way to short circuit human behavior is through religion, us humans we can't get enough of it we love a good mythical story. So the question is what kind of story do we tell, one of connection to our natural world or one of dominance of our own mortality? I have been interested in the idea of Religious Naturalism, using religion as a means to appreciate the natural world and our understanding of it through the scientific method.
So in that spirit I will share what some may call a "religious" experience. I was in Badwater Basin in Death Valley National park this past New Years. Now Death Valley is a desert that was formed as an ancient ocean dried up so you can see the history of the earth on the rocks going down into the valley. Badwater Basin is in the lowest elevation of death valley, it sits below sea level and once in a while when the West has a wet enough season the basin fills up and this briny lake forms in the basin. There is an area where people can park their cars and go into the water so my partner and I did. Feeling that salty briny water on my skin was amazing, I felt a need to touch the water and feel it on my face(will admit I was also smoking a joint on the way down). But touching that water and knowing that millennia ago our single celled ancestors formed in hot briny pools like the one I was standing in, evolved, adapted, grew up and matured enough to begin to understand the infinite and finite nature of its own existence is nothing short of a miracle in its own way. I also felt this deep connection to the earth that allowed for the opportunity for complex life to form and a deep sense of sadness of how one of its creations is currently treating it. I felt I was in a sacred place and it was beautiful. I now wonder if others could feel that sense of connection just once maybe we would be more careful and respectful of the natural resources we take for granted.
I have been studying Doughnut Theory. IMO its all about metrics/measurement and Doughnut Theory gives a robust way to measure the actual health of an economy/society. You got your social foundations which you have to ensure everyone gets, and you have your ecological ceilings which are your limits on natural resource use/extraction. So the challenge is how do you build business, finance and law to do that.
I mean water amount on the Colorado river is one problem of the Colorado Compact. There is a whole lot of other problems that make the whole compact nonviable in the 21st century that are going to need to be worked out in some sort of Western States congress.
They have a lot of farm land that they buy alfalfa from but water rights are a bit different. Water rights are based on the "doctrine of prior appropriation" which means the water from the river goes to the body that is able to claim first "beneficial" use for that water, beneficial as defined as economically beneficial. Los Angeles and many Imperial Valley farmers primarily used that to build massive water infrastructure projects to divert massive amounts of water from the Colorado for projected growth. Those rights to that water are locked, however because of the crises on the Colorado river system the entire Colorado River compact is coming into question which has the doctrine of prior appropriation as a foundation to the water legal system in the west.
Just for some additional context the Colorado River Compact is essentially the West's version of the constitution. Its a water treaty governing commerce and political power in the West. Keep in mind the American West is a desert and the only real thing of true value in a desert is freshwater. There is an old west saying "whiskeys for drinking, waters for fighting over", and people did fight over water out here.
It was stupid for them to think that they could get the ridiculous profit margins that these firms where pitching them, but its not a stupid idea. As with any valid agricultural operation Gov is needed. USDA just allowed for crop insurance for vertical farming so there is hope for support on that front. I am working on developing a cheaper way to manufacture tower systems and for them to be recycled. I am born and raised in the American Southwest and we are already experiencing water shortages so I suspect local/state gov support is going to be put into place to subsidize power to vertical farming to make it more viable for farmers. We have lots of sun/wind out here but we don't have lots of water.
It's not unfeasible its just never going to have the high profit margins these companies keep pitching to VC's and banks. Farming is something that is done not because you make a huge profit from it but because you need food to survive.
Vertical farms fit in the niche for regions that have a significant population but have little water and large amount of arid land. They can allow for food to be grown closer to population centers and reduce the need for large water projects that are needed for irrigation farming. There is still going to be a need for irrigation farming for certain staple crops, but vertical farms can be used to grow certain fruiting vegetables and other leafy greens that would generally need a large amount of water in the same arid region.
Building a new food system is going to need vertical farms and other sustainable agriculture techniques, but it cannot be built on the same profit-for-profits sake economic system we currently have.
Its always fun watching the media machine work in real time. COP was a joke to begin with, it was a joke at the end. Nothing in that statement has any real measurements on how/when they are going to stop fossil fuel use and that's because they legitimately don't have one. The profit margins, the societal infrastructure that is built on fossil fuel use make them not want to touch it. They are addicted to constant non-stop GDP growth and nothing gets them there faster then using fossil fuels.
I have hope. My state Doughnut economics group just got funding to publish and distribute our state doughnut portrait and we are looking to expand to local towns/municipalities. The EU also had a degrowth conference to talk about economic/ecological overshoot. It looks dire now but momentum is building for some sort of shift, what that is and how it plays out is still anyone's guess. All I am saying is don't give up hope, fight as if your life depended on it because frankly it does.
Oh yeah at this time vertical farming is not suitable for staple crops. However because fruits/veggies lose a majority of their nutritional content when being transported growing them indoors closer to population centers makes more sense. Also would like to mention that the energy and carbon cost to an indoor farm are currently high right now however lots of work is being done to reduce those costs. Not saying it will ever be 0 but we can get closer. Like 3D printing hydroponic towers using recovered and repurposed plastic, integrating them into aquaculture systems to do aquaponics to provide a protein and high quality fertilizer source, placing them in skyscrapers with open walls to take better advantage of natural sunlight, etc. The current strategy of using climate control systems and LED lights is not the way forward IMO but hell it’s a start in a field of agriculture that hasn’t been touched in decades.