NASA to grow lettuce in zero-gravity under pink LEDs aboard ISS

NASA to grow lettuce in zero-gravity under pink LEDs aboard ISS

Later this year NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station will be adding a new element to their daily routine — watering the garden.

                                        

NASA hopes to send up a small plot of romaine lettuce that will be grown in zero-gravity under pink LED lights. They believe it could be ready to eat in just 28 days. Of course, the astronauts won’t get to actually eat their experiment — at least not yet.

The Vegetable Production System (VEGGIE) program is going to test the safety and feasibility of growing food for astronauts in a confined environment like the ISS. The lettuce is going to be grown in small kevlar pouches that contain a growth medium. Not quite as traditional as soil, but more efficient. These space planters have been tested on Earth for the last few years with zero gravity in mind. NASA has researched how plants grow in space before, but this project is the first step to actually making edible food in orbit. The lettuce grown in this first batch won’t be cleared for consumption, though. Once it has been harvested, astronauts will freeze it and send the samples back to Earth for testing.
                                    

If all goes well, future space missions could grow a variety of leafy vegetables in orbit. These plants are considered the most efficient for production in space because they don’t require extensive preparation. Just pluck them from the bag, and they’re ready to be eaten. Foods like potatoes may be possible at some point, but they require some preparation before eating. Wheat and rice take longer to grow, and processing these plants into edible foods would require bulky equipment. As such, space bread isn’t going to be on the menu.

                                      

NASA hopes that having a garden up and running on the ISS could help keep astronauts’ spirits up, too. It can be stressful spending every hour in the stark, sterile interior of the ISS for months on end.


Hydroponics Systems from Chicfarm LED grower, http://www.chicfarm.net
                                                    
                                      

Forget TVs. Sharp Sees a Future in Strawberry Farming

                                             

Might strawberries save a TV manufacturer?

Japanese technology company Sharp is to diversify its company offering into growing strawberries in the Middle East, by developing controlled environments that carefully tweak temperature, light and humidity. Japanese strawberries are sold for high prices in markets.The company has been working to develop factory scale technology that can cultivate strawberries at a facility in Sharp's Middle East Free Zone Establishment in Dubai, where it's very difficult to grow the fruit.

   
Sharp (6753:JP) made its name building televisions. But the company actually has its origins in mechanical pencils, and its future may rest on its ability to grow Japanese strawberries in the deserts of Dubai.

                         
As a consumer electronics company, Sharp is dying. Its business is increasingly made up of selling electronic components such as LCD displays and solar cells. This part of its business made up 46 percent of revenue in the fiscal year ended in March, up from about a third three years earlier. The relative growth in electronic components isn’t just because Sharp’s sales of consumer products are tanking—although they are. Sales are at record highs in every category of Sharp’s electronic-component business, and making strawberries is another way to continue that growth.
                                

While Sharp didn’t respond to a request to discuss its thinking, it seems clear that the strawberry operation in the Persian Gulf is to peddle more components. The strawberry facility is a hermetically sealed building stocked with Sharp’s own equipment. To control lighting, Sharp is using its LED technology. The company is also using something called Plasmacluster to kill germs, bacteria, mold—the same technology used in consumer products, as shown in this video of a Sharp air purifier reducing mold in bread. There’s additional technology to monitor room temperature and humidity, and Sharp says it will collect data on how well its cultivation techniques work to “achieve stable production of high-quality strawberries.” A big strawberry success for Sharp would be one of the most satisfying pivots in the history of tech.

Hydroponics Systems from Chicfarm LED grower, http://www.chicfarm.net

Grateful thanks to AVRDC (Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center)

Dear Rene, 

                         
I am now retired and maybe that is why I look younger!
I certainly will guide any one of the AVRDC (Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center) students.

Good luck on your vertical farm. Purdue University was studying the effect of lights on plants, so they may have some useful publications. The senior researcher is Dr. Cary Mitchell.

Aloha,

Bernie Kratky                                

   

Dr. Kratky :

1967- receiving his bachelors degree from the University of Wisconsin

1969~1971-Bernie continued his studies at Purdue University, receiving his Masters in 1969 and Doctorate in 1971.

1972~1978-In sabbatical studies he has completed research in Wellesbourn, UK; Shanhau, Taiwan; Gatton, Australia; and Madison, Wisconsin.

US PATENTS-He holds 5 US patents including 2 for non-circulating hyrodponic plant growing systems.

AVRDC :

Chicfarm :

World’s latest innovation of Hydroponics debut: Chicfarm grower (a complete set).

Place of Origin- Taiwan http://www.chicfarm.net               Brand Name- Chicfarm®
Mission- prosperity for thepoor and health                         Patent : Taiwan, USA

Now a leading TAIWAN hydroponics technical company with business that spans across the globe. We offer PATENTED grower-Chicfarm, which is the most cost-effective, reliable, easy to assemble product and the entire growing foods meet SGS food testing requirements of heavy metal amount and EU Children Nitrate level. Its simple and stylish aluminum alloy grower provides long service hours to generate all kinds of hydrophilic vegetables, herbs, and fruits which are ready to be served on your dining table, absolute no toxic, no acid rain, no pesticides, but the most fresh, healthy, and tasty foods.



Hydroponics Systems from Chicfarm LED grower, http://www.chicfarm.net



2012 Best Local Retailer: Growing Communities Stoke Newington

                                           

2012 Best Independent Local Retailer: Growing Communities Stoke Newington

From a humble box veg scheme, this north London organisation has grown in 17 years to include an organic farmers' market as well as a campaign for sustainable food.

                                   

Every Saturday for the past nine years in north-east London, Growing Communities has been putting on the UK's only all-organic weekly farmers' market. Today, at its new outpost in the grounds of St Paul's church on Stoke Newington High Street, it hosts more than 20 local producers and you can pick up organic meat and fish and seasonal fruit and veg as well as more exotic items: raw milk, buffalo burgers and, on a recent visit, mushrooms so alien they might have popped up from a different galaxy.

The market is only the most visible part of what Growing Communities does. The organisation, set up by Hackney residents 17 years ago, started out with a box scheme that now has around 750 subscribers. Unlike other schemes, this one is organised on a pick-up basis, to encourage communal interaction, and its customers automatically become members with the right to vote and stand for the management committee.

                 

So you're not the average retailer, I put it to Julie Brown, the organisation's director. "No we're not," she laughs. "It's great that we've been given the independent local retailer award because that's the base line of what we do, but we're also a campaigning organisation. We're trying to change the food system because we think the current one is not sustainable." It may cost a little extra to buy their produce, she says, "but we want to pay farmers a fair price so we can enable them to survive".

                

"We're tiny in the grand scheme of things," Brown adds, "but in this part of London, people do have an alternative to the big supermarkets in terms of where they get their fruit and veg." The next step? "Our start-up programme, helping other communities to set up similar projects. We're working with six groups around the UK at the moment and are looking for six more groups to work with in the next year."

                        

Reducing Our Carbon Footprint
All their farmers at the market are organic, biodynamic. Organic farming can help cut greenhouse emissions: it uses less water and less energy than conventional farming, which is heavily dependent on the high-energy processes and fossil fuels used to produce fertilisers and pesticides. They believe that organic food production is also better for wildlife, livestock, people and the environment.

The success of the market has enabled several of the farmers who attend the market to take on more land and convert it to organic production - over 400 acres has been converted since May 2003 when the market started. We now support a total of 23 small family-run farms and food businesses through the market. Most customers get to the market on foot, by bike or on public transport - 92% in our most recent survey - which means that the market is also helping to cut down on car journeys.

                            

Buying direct
Because all the produce here has been grown, reared or produced by the people who are selling it, you can find out everything you want to know about the food and how it was grown or cooked. The money you spend goes directly to the people who actually do the work to produce the food you're eating - the farmers and makers - rather than supermarkets and wholesalers.

 
Seasonal produce
Buying local also means you stay in touch with the seasons. There won’t be apples in May but, when they are in season, from August to March, the farmers will bring in many different varieties. You’ll also find seasonal produce you may not have come across before, such as sloes, medlars, wild mushrooms and raw cow and buffalo milk.  Have a good look round the market before you buy – just to check what’s in season – if you don’t know how to cook something just ask!



Hydroponics Systems from Chicfarm LED grower, http://www.chicfarm.net

                        


 

In Tokyo, Companies are Growing Gardens in the Walls, Ceilings and Hallways of Office Buildings

The vast number of high-rise buildings constructed of concrete and glass make Tokyo one of the least likely places that you’d expect to find fresh produce. That was, until a recent movement integrating farm space and urban hydroponics with other aspects of this expansive concrete jungle was put into motion.

                     
Turning small plots between buildings into a usable farm space is only the beginning. From rooftop community gardens, to floors specifically designed to incorporate farming into an otherwise typical office space, to other spaces within high-rises filled with racks of perfectly lined leaf vegetables, companies in Tokyo are participating in this farming revolution.

This is a relief, particularly to the mothers of infants who are concerned about the safety of foods grown in Japan after the nuclear disaster of March 2011. In addition to being organic, urban farms allow citizens to eat local vegetables. The Ecozzeria Association takes this aspect one step further and plants vegetables that were known crops in Edo, what is now known as Tokyo. These local vegetables grown in small plots around office buildings allow customers to enjoy seasonal dishes created from traditional ingredients in Marunouchi, one of Tokyo’s largest financial districts and an area where the heart of Edo once stood.

                             
 PASONA, a recruitment agency, has incorporated vegetation both indoors and outdoors at their Marunouchi location to carry out the concept, “coexist with nature.” Here, every floor has space dedicated to vegetation, including crop vegetables, which serve a variety of purposes. Creative designs are employed to maximize the space available for plants, including the support beams in the café, which are used to support vine vegetables. The most surprising may be the white radish, broccoli and mustard sprouts that are cultivated under benches in break areas.

                      
There is also vegetation that grows from and adorns the ceilings, hallways and employee break areas, which serves the dual purpose of decreasing stress levels and feeding employees who eat in the building’s cafeteria and café.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries also has a plant factory and an indoor urban farm powered by solar power in Tokyo, which the company has incorporated into its corporate social responsibility (CSR) program. Leaf vegetables are cultivated at this facility including baby leaf varieties of lettuce. They have teamed up with chain restaurant company New Tokyo to create recipes for healthy dishes using these vegetables and to raise awareness about local and organic ingredients.

                                        
With major companies such as PASONA and Mitsubushi creatively leading the way, urban farming technology is sure to advance and become more widespread in the near future. Urban farming could be the answer to the heavy dependence that Japan, and Tokyo in particular, have on imports, allowing the citizens of Tokyo to enjoy local and organic produce.

Hydroponics Systems from Chicfarm LED grower, http://www.chicfarm.net

Sky Restaurant in Brussel

                                             

A gondola will be the unusual setting for dinners in the sky over Brussels

The brave gourmet diners will be able to enjoy a meal with their heads in the clouds, looking out over Brussels, Belgium.

The Dinner in the Sky event will allow more than 600 guests to take part in this lofty eating experience, seated at a "flying dinner table" set over 90 feet above one of four key tourist sites in the city.

                 
Hanging over the city's Royal Palace, Atomium, Esplanade of Cinquantenaire and the Bois de la Cambre, this restaurant with a sky setting will serve dishes concocted by seven renowned Brussels-based chefs: Yves Mattagne, Lionel Rigolet, Pascal Devalkeneer, Giovanni Bruno, David Martin, Luigi Ciciriello and Patrick Vandecasserie.

                                   
For each serving, 22 diners will be transported to their seat 30 meters above ground, where they will be in the company of a chef. The gondola will be installed at each of the four sites for one week, and every day one of the participating chefs will be responsible for the dishes served to the thrill-seeking gourmets.

                             
Diners who wish to take part in the event, organized within the framework of Brusselicious 2012, should reserve their seat and meal, priced at $315, in advance.

Dinner in the Sky has previously taken place in other cities around the world including Paris, London, Dubai, Las Vegas, Sydney and Monaco. Maybe one day, harvest in the Sky farm like Canada Gordon Graff’s and Sweden Plantscrapers will take place soon around you and me.

                                                      

Hydroponics System from Chicfarm LED grower, http://www.chicfarm.net

Non-toxic agriculture of hydroponics charity from Taiwan

Non-toxic agriculture:  hydroponic vegetables joint charity to help the elderly

Children in the classroom learning the moral education for years in Taiwan , and now with more emphasis on practical action to care for elderly people who living alone !

                                     

Experience helping others, Taiwan, 16 elementary school students on June 30 , at  neighbor Temple Square for the first time to auction their growing food. Their own hydroponics vegetables , in addition to provide nutritious lunch during weekdays for school use , hydroponics vegetables are also able to assist socially vulnerable elders .Hopefully this action of growing their own vegetables for charity can become a showcase to others .

The sponsor of Chicfarm Rene said: it has been two years that Chicfarm helping schools to promote hydroponic cultivation of fruits and vegetables to grow low-carbon non-toxic food has gradually paid off. Currently school teachers and students who involved in planting program can grow more than one day a week to add fresh food to their table at lunch. School children eat hydroponic pesticide-free vegetables from the harvesting directly to school kitchen. These food are completely without transportation to reduce the carbon footprint of the food effect .

Combined Hydroponic vegetable and fruit cultivation plan with moral education is sucessful.

Regularly, kids donated to the local Foundation elderly people who living alone, and they can also eat fresh vegetables and receive kids' kindness unselfishly.

                                      

Chicfarm Hydroponics' meaningful and educational implications :

1.  To help poverty students- the idea of ​​self- cultivation of health, energy conservation, carbon reduction and water conservation environmental objectives.

-The implementation of school nutrition, lunch meals can gradually become the concept of environmental journey through campus hydroponic cultivation of fruits and vegetables.

-All food can be required by the direct origin into school kitchen to reach the campus hydroponic cultivation of fruits and vegetables harvested as a " zero carbon footprint" food.

-The 80% percent water savings compared with traditional cultivation, i.e. : soil tillage planting a plateau about 1,200 liters of water , hydroponic cultivation of a plateau about 240 liters of water only) .
   

                        
2. Hydroponic cultivation of fruits and vegetables isolated from soil contaminated of the toxic threat , by using a net house cultivation, no need to use pesticides, so teachers and students can eat  the most safe and fresh fruits and vegetables from their own school .
                          

3 . " Campus hydroponic cultivation of fruits and vegetables " combined with the course content to enhance students' learning about self-reliance. All the crops of fruits and vegetables can be sold for charity activities to respect life and care about others.

                                                    
Hydroponics System from Chicfarm LED grower, http://www.chicfarm.net

A Skyfarm can feed 35 thousand people

The UN predicts that we will need 60% more food over the next 30 years in order to meet the demands of the world’s ever-growing population, and one designer has found an interesting place to look for other alternatives for growing food as agriculturally viable land becomes more and more scarce. So people start to build skyfarm to feed more.

The First Post discusses skyscraper farming:
It's a tempting proposition - no more weather-related crop failures, diseases spread by livestock, or runoff polluting water sources. Not to mention locally-grown produce for the residents of central London, Manhattan and Tokyo, eliminating the environmental costs of transport (with fresher lettuces to boot).

Skyscraper farms can operate year-round with artificial lighting, so, on average, one indoor acre is the equivalent to between four and six outdoors, and companies are vying to reap the financial rewards that come from this increased efficiency.
 

Gordon Graff's Sky Farm proposed for downtown Toronto's theatre district. It's got 58 floors, 2.7 million square feet of floor area and 8 million square feet of growing area. It can produce as much as a thousand acre farm, feeding 35 thousand people per year and providing tomatoes to throw at the latest dud at the Princess of Wales Theatre to the east, and olives for the Club District to the north. Thankfully it overwhelms the horrid jello-mold Holiday Inn to the west.
                                         

Sweden Linkoping Plantscraper!

A building exclusively designed for growing crops exactly as in the agricultural fields, but in an urban environment, vertically, floor after floor .The strategy is to provide access to fresh production inside the urban limits which will avoid long distance transportation and so decrease the price and time for delivery. The idea is not new but it’s finally becoming real as the construction of the first. Plantscraper has already started in Sweden, in the heart of the city of Linkoping. The “urban farm”, 17 storeys in height, will provide the city with a natural “farm market “ in the city by the end of next year when it’s expected to be completed.

Basically the production in the Plantscarper in Linkoping will happen in pots which will be fit into trays that will be irrigated by funnels.  All the wastewater will be collected and reused. The amount of pesticides and fertilizer will easily be controlled by an automatic system and in this way soil pollution is avoided. The trays when planted are being transported by a special elevator to the top of the Helix where they start their journey down the spiral structure growing and they reach the ground floor ready to be automatically harvested. It makes all year round production easy, efficient and compact.

The  3 different ways of integrating farming in the Plantscraper.

•    First example is by making the facade a productive greenhouse. They design a 6 meter deep greenhouse wrapping the building facade. The technology; consists of conveyors carrying pots with plants and rotating them regularly on 90 degrees, so that they receive sunlight regularly on all sides. This kind of façade provides, at the same time, enough light in the office spaces inside but also a good shade and regulates the temperature.

•    Another example of the technology is how to integrate the urban farm into existing buildings. They call it the Parasite as it looks like one attached to the structure.

•    The third example is what the team believes can in the future become a common part of cities suburbs just like big supermarkets are now and it’s the one under construction now in Sweden.
                          

The innovative architecture of the building allows sunlight to all parts of the spirally organized space, covered by a glass sphere. The designers from Plantagon have even won a Silver Stevie Award for being “the most innovative company of the year” in Europe. They have invented a self sufficient system which uses the leftover heat, organic waste and carbon dioxide by using them to produce Biofuel or using the excess heat in the cold periods.
                        

The smallest model of the skyfarm- chicfarm vertical farm will be able to feed a family per year and will cost about $300 to $400 . But the trick is that it’s being paid off by the production. The Chicfarm vertical farm is not only a way to produce food in the crowded urban areas; it is a possible solution to the urban life conditions nowadays, also a good example of multifunctional use of a building.                               

Hydroponics System from Chicfarm LED grower, http://www.chicfarm.net

Outdoor Hydroponics without LED grow lights



Without fertile soil and abundant water, a farmer would seem to be missing the most essential tools of his trade. Hydroponics can help a struggling farmer grow an abundant crop even on a small parcel of land in a desert, on a rooftop, in a starving city — with no need for such luxuries as soil and rain. Two 14-year-olds from Swaziland recently won Scientific American’s inaugural Science in Action award by coming up with a plan to use hydroponics to provide food for their tiny country which is completely surrounded by South Africa.

“Over 80 percent of the vegetables consumed in Swaziland each year are imported from South Africa,” according to a video the two teenagers, Sakhiwe Shongwe and Bonkhe Mahlalela, created about their project. “Forty percent of the population relies on food aid.”

Besides a $50,000 prize and a year of mentoring from Scientific American, the teens will be flown to Google’s California headquarters in July to compete in the Google Science Fair. In an experiment comparing their biodegradable hydro system to soil cultivation of crops, Shongwe and Mahlalela found hydro gave them a 32 percent boost in yield, 180 percent faster plant growth and 114 percent greater profit margin.

Hydroponics uses nutrient rich water to feed plants, so good soil is not needed. Hydro systems can also be built so that they reuse that water, which makes them more efficient than irrigation. One of the main problems with using hydroponics to feed the poor is that often the systems rely on expensive pumps, nutrient mixtures, and other materials.

                                     
By using sawdust, chicken manure, and cardboard cartons the young Swazis found a way around the cost barrier. Using hydroponics to meet the needs of the world’s hungry isn’t a new idea, but the knowledge of how to set up a hydro system is not widely distributed. To address that knowledge gap, the Universidad Nacional Agraria – La Molina in Lima, Peru offers outreach and extension programs to bring the benefits of hydro to Peru. The university has an extensive demonstration farm on their campus located a 10 minute bus ride from downtown Lima. The farm showcases everything from fancy high end systems with all the bells and whistles to simple set-ups built from old roofing panels and wooden pallets.

Another organization involved in spreading hydroponic techniques is the Institute for Simplified Hydroponics. They provide educational materials on how to use waste materials to build hydro systems that can provide fresh nourishment, even for impoverished city dwellers with no land. For the urban poor, the cheapest foods available are often high-calorie and low-nutrient. Having a source of healthy, fresh produce can go a long way to reducing malnutrition.

                         

While she was living in Honduras, a neighbor and her built a hydroponic system using some wood, plastic sheeting and river sand. The biggest benefit her neighbor found to the system was that it allowed him to get seedlings started and grown up for transplanting before the free-range chickens could peck them to pieces. That allowed him to get a large number of healthy tomato seedlings started using less seed. The tomatoes, which he then planted in the soil, gave him a higher value crop than the corn and beans he usually grew in that area.


Hydroponics System from Chicfarm LED grower, http://www.chicfarm.net