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
                                             

How do we feed the world but not destroying the planet?

Future farms

For city farmes may seem like a baby step towards self-sufficiency, but FreightFarms enables bigger strides. The Boston-based team behind FreightFarms takes old shipping containers and turns them into modular, stackable urban farms for parking lots, garages or unused land. Each crate is fitted out with climate-control and hydroponic systems for maximum yield and energy efficiency. According to the designers, a single container can nurture 3,000 plants at any one time, more than matching the output of a traditional agricultural greenhouse.

                                              
Producing food nearer to where it will  be consumed no matter land or water would cut the carbon and energy expended in transporting and refrigerating produce, but there's an even simpler way to improve the efficiency of the world's food ecosystem.

Future papers

According to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, between 30% and 50% of the world's food is thrown away rather than eaten — which means that a third to a fifth of the energy, water and effort that goes into food production is wasted.

                                         
Correcting that failure will require systemic changes, but individual consumers can play their part too. Two other nominees provide simple, small-scale ways to keep produce fresh and cut the amount of food that ends up rotting on the refuse heap. FreshPaper, a sheet of paper impregnated with organic spices and enzymes with natural anti-fungal and antibacterial properties, claims to double or even quadruple the life of fruit and veg.

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

Reflected light from London skyscraper melts car

• NEW: Building's developers say they are taking the issue seriously
• A reflected ray of light warped panels of a Jaguar XJ parked in a London street
• 20 Fenchurch Street, known as the Walkie Talkie building, is still under construction
• Its curved glass side appears to reflect an intense beam of light onto a certain spot

London -- Never mind the traffic, car owners in London have a new hazard to worry about: A skyscraper whose reflected rays have the power to melt cars.

                                
It may sound like science fiction, but it was no joke for Jaguar XJ owner Martin Lindsay, who parked his pricey ride near the under-construction building, officially called 20 Fenchurch Street, but known by many Londoners as the "Walkie Talkie" for its distinctive shape.

Watch more: Does this skyscraper melt cars?
When he returned to the car, he found some panels warped beyond repair by the beam of light reflected down from the curved side of the landmark glass tower.
The developers of the 37-floor building, Canary Wharf and Land Securities, have said they'll pay for the high-spec vehicle to be fixed.

                             

The Las Vegas Review-Journal said in 2010 that the glass-sided Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas was reflecting a ray of light so intense that it scorched the hair of a visitor using the hotel's pool, as well as melting a hole in a plastic bag he had by his sun lounger.

How about LED grow light? Will it melt the plants? No, the opposite. They need to be refleced.

Grow lights provide the correct spectrum of light that plants need to engage in photosynthesis. This feature allows the plants to be kept indoors without direct sunlight. Grow light reflectors are designed to increase the efficiency of grow lights by up to 40 percent. There are concerns over the heat that grow lights and reflectors produce, since this heat can burn and dry out the plants they are supposed to feed. However, many of the best reflectors are designed to keep plants cool.

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

                                

                                   

Plantagon acknowledged as one of the most promising innovations in the world

                                    

Since the industrial age’s passing through the last century, the migration towards cities has increased headlong and keeps on going. According to statistics, in 2050, more than 80 % of the urban population will be living in the urban areas. Considering also the peak oil and the unbearable prices of petrol lately, that increases the price of everything we consume because of the unavoidable transportation. Do we have to rethink our lifestyle to adapt to the new urban conditions and be able to deal with all these factors that would continue to cause more problems? The main issue of the population in general is to produce enough food for all. How to do it if we all want to live in the city?

The solution is called a 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.
                                    

Plantagon Urban Greenhouse

The team of Plantagon has designed 3 different ways of integrating farming in the city.
• First example is by making the façade 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.

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 smallest model of the Plantscraper will be able to feed about 10 000 people per year and will cost about $10 to $20 million. But the trick is that it’s being paid off by the production.
The Plantscraper is not only a way to produce food in the crowded urban areas; it is a possible solution to the urban life conditions nowadays. But also a good example of multifunctional use of a building, including the waste materials in the productions process.


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

                                   

Soil cultivation or Modern Hydroponics?

                       

90% Less Water

4 Times yields

Zero soil 

X2 times faster growth

0.0 pesticide 

 

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