Wakefulness, Storms and Urban Agriculture

Vertical farms finally make the move from cybergreen fantasy to the pages of the New York Times. The logic is seductive: urban towers, filled not with more offices and apartments, but with food crops.

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Posted by Patrick  on  07/24  at  09:47 PM

"how much would it cost to convert a McMansion to allow it to grow food?"

I was wondering this myself, I think it'd be less than you might imagine.

For example: http://www.valcent.net/s/HDVGS.asp?ReportID=264273

Posted by Roxanne Christensen  on  07/25  at  10:08 AM

A growing corps of sub-acre farmers are already converting backyard plots to commercial farms by practicing SPIN Farming. SPIN makes it possible to earn $50,000+ from a half acre. SPIN farmers utilize relay cropping to increase yield and achieve good economic returns by growing only the most profitable food crops tailored to local markets. SPIN's growing techniques are not, in themselves, breakthrough. What is novel is the way a SPIN farm business is run. SPIN provides everything you'd expect from a good franchise: a business plan, marketing advice, and a detailed day-to-day workflow. In standardizing the system and creating a reproducible process it really isn't any different from McDonalds. By offering a non-technical, easy-to-understand and inexpensive-to-implement farming system, it allows many more people to farm, wherever they live, as long as there are nearby markets to support them, and it removes the two big barriers to entry : sizeable acreage and significant start-up capital. You can see some of these entrepreneurial backyard farmers in action at www.spinfarming.com

Posted by extropian.pharmer  on  08/01  at  11:01 PM

Now to address the one weak spot of mega-level agriculture, ability to acquire solar energy to grow the crops.

If a single group solar satellites were (and similar to GPS satellites were to always have one satellite in line of sight to the ag structure) to beam the entire energy collected to maintain 24/7/365 energy to be reconstituted to the specific needs of each area of the structure then one would have a truly "green" bioproducts megalopolis.

I would initially site these structures in the least productive areas of the planet, deserts and the arctic so as to dispell biosecurity, terrorist and eco-freaks as well as mainstream agriculture which may feel threatened by such a development.

Morris Johnson, aka extropian.pharmer@gmail.com
701-240-9411; 306-447-4944
SW34-01-16-W2nd meridian

Posted by extropian.pharmer  on  08/09  at  10:37 AM

Conversion from 1D farming (and high energy cost global raw material distribution) to 3D integrated food-fuel/pharma Bioproduction factories (CW-local energy grid node interconnects) powered by a solar satellite grid rationalizes energy use. Q- How do I explain that to Saskatchewan farmers who scratch their livings from 70K2 acres of marginal dirt???Start in high density places like china and work backwards???This could make building a solar power sat grid viable though

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