World’s Largest Indoor Farm is 100 Times More Productive

Web Urbanist ^ | January 11, 2015 | Staff

[central_va]

Lettuce velocity 10,000 heads per day = 416 heads per hour.

[central_va]

Does this thing come pre loaded with its own all Mexican staff?

[TexasGator]

“Lettuce velocity 10,000 heads per day = 416 heads per hour.”

10,000 / 24 = 416.666666666666666667

Your common core math grade is A+

[Balding_Eagle]

When shall the will to institute this new technology be exerted, and the methods more widely adopted?

When the unbreakable law of economics mandates it.

Until then we will continue as we have been, growing our food on open ground, with huge surpluses.

Many of those surpluses are exported, many are burnt to heat our homes and fuel our cars and are also used to fan political flames. Some are simply plowed back into the soil.

[mad_as_he$$]

I did read the article and saw the pictures. “Heads” may be used loosely but just think of the logistics of that. A large field in Salinas CA can easily do 10,000 heads a day. Takes twenty or thirty people and a major supply chain of material,ice, trucks and storage.

[Hotlanta Mike]

Sounds like they have a solution for populating Mars...

[justa-hairyape]

Estimate the number of LED’s in that facility. The diodes themselves.

[jettester]

imagine all of the “indoor urban farms” that could be set up and producing food in the shells of factories closed down in the big cities? What about the shuttered malls across America?

[thackney]

Uhm, a lot?

What source of info do you think is available for that estimate?

[sargon]

Very interesting.

Now, I wonder how much this lettuce ends up costing?

[reed13k]

I think the author meant to say 10,000 heads are growing at any one time - at least that makes more sense.

[Alas Babylon!]

We’re doing it here in the USA in hydroponics.

How It’s Made has a video on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w54IVw4gSro

Enormous place!

[justa-hairyape]

If those are actually LEDs he did nothing special about the light spectrum. It is cool white. He did no research on LED spectrum emission. My guess is he is not using much LED. Maybe for seedlings.

[thackney]

I buy industrial LED lighting.

You can get a broader light spectrum than the basic white LED of years past.

http://www.seesmartled.com/kb/choosing_color_temperature/

http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/print/volume-8/issue-4/features/precise-led-wavelengths-spur-plant-growth-magazine.html

[Jim from C-Town]

If the past is prologue, we should all live longer and less painful lives.

This is a good thing. Increased agricultural production helps the entire planet. This type of system would also be useful for deep space exploration.

[Blood of Tyrants]

When the Israelis turned Gaza over to the Palestinians, the Palestinians immediately stole or destroyed everything the Israelis left behind.

[Teacher317]

Remember, Obama's Science Advisor wrote (in the late 60s) that the US could NEVER support more than 270 million people, no matter what technology brought. It was simply impossible and unsustainable. We are at 330 million now, and farms like this could easily multiply our maximum number.

[Vendome]

Just did the math for an experiment I ran 5 years ago and it’s totally doable...

[OldNewYork]

I hope this is not really the future of agriculture.

[Vendome]

You add 300-500ppm CO2 and get 30% more plant, as well they mature faster...

Not sure that would matter to lettuce but, I would think they would add some CO2