How are you going to get more than an LED’s worth of chemical energy out of a plant that was fed only an LED’s worth of energy?
Also, I find this goal equally as dystopian as big ag is currently. Just plant a garden and tend it
Also, I find this goal equally as dystopian as big ag is currently. Just plant a garden and tend it
I have gardened, but personally I'm tired of it. And a garden is often impractical; takes a bunch of land, water, nutrients, requires enough sun, etc, besides the expenses, and the time and effort. I live on an acre of land and I still don't get enough sun because of where I live, and my soil is shit. I can grow things but it's quite hard and yields are pitiful.
I'm not a botanist but my understanding is that a combination of bio-engineering and growth hacks (ex. pumping co2 into grow tents, optimizing light, nutrients, hydroponics, etc) can have substantial yield improvement. It's not that cheap or scalable, though. My theory is that, for about the same money as heirloom tomatoes, you could get good yields, better flavor, have a smaller environmental impact, and avoid all the gardening limitations I mentioned. But I think bioengineering could maximize the yield more than current methods (especially if pests weren't a concern, ex. a climate-controlled grow closet)
The other issue you mentioned also killed 50%+ of vertical farming startups: you need a diverse living ecosystem. You need a living soil crawling with organisms of all sizes (check Arbico Organics, Jim's Worms and others), the whole thing needs to be balanced, otherwise it's hard to grow in the first place and/or a single unpredicted "intruder" will wipe out your entire operation (Bowery Farms and plenty of others from what I understand).
As a gardener, I would for sure suffer if all I could do is grow plants in a closet.
Gardens are a truly valuable treasure. Grow wherever you possibly can, but please don't ever take away the sunshine.
We're working on a free Home Assistant plugin that let's you define your sensors and outputs, then choose a plant (see link below, or climate of a specific location) and hopefully take most of the heavy lifting from there.