Future food supplies are a hotly discussed part of building a cleaner, brighter future for us all. As pointed out below, farming conditions continue to erode and produce less quality, nutritious fruits and veggies.
We've done stories on alternatives that are growing rapidly, many of them focused on hydroponic techniques, moving food production inside over seas containers and other controlled environments. So, we can add exploring the science around replicating underground conditions as alternative that might make sense.
As we look around our world, we are constantly struck by the abundant natural resources we enjoy. Till this point many times we misused them. Getting creative, stepping out of the box and rethinking how we cultivate the basics of like using our existing ground. air, water systems is key to our economic and physical survival.
There is no doubt valuable data will emerge from this work.
Scuba divers build vegetable garden under the sea
Vegetable garden grows under the sea
Tough drought conditions in parts of the U.S. make growing fruits and vegetables an increasing challenge for farmers.
To tackle this widespread issue, a group of divers are leading a new venture to test whether farming underwater could be a viable alternative.
"Nemo’s Garden", a project started by the Italy-based Ocean Reef Group, has built small transparent balloons in the Mediterranean sea to test this idea. Inside the structures, developers installed a ring of vases with seeds to see how they would grow.
One of the project’s managers, Luca Gamberini gave FoxNews.com a tour of his organization’s undersea garden.
“Three years ago, my dad thought ‘how can I make scuba divers have an interesting [job]’ … he put together two of his passions, scuba diving and gardening,” said Gamberini.
He explained that a combination of necessity and “crazy ideas, mixed with relentless imagination soon became a real life experiment - from there, and from the success we achieved immediately we saw an opportunity to feed the world, especially regions where natural resources like soil, weather conditions, temperature conditions, parasites, lack of fresh water, are scarce or nonexistent.”
Gamberini says the ocean provides an ideal location to grow plants. “The ocean maintains a stable temperature through day and night, knowing that the vegetables need a stable temperature to grow, we thought why not put the plants in the ocean … and this now has become research.”
The divers grow basil, coriander, strawberries, lettuce, and beans. They are experimenting with various fruits and vegetables to see which hold up better underwater.
The garden’s layout inside a large bubble allows the plants to be self-sustaining. “We have natural evaporation inside the biosphere. We have the natural creation of fresh water – the water evaporates, condenses, and naturally rains on the plants,” said Gamberini.
The underwater atmosphere is another aspect he and his colleagues are testing. “The atmosphere here (underwater), the pressure is higher … this makes the plants grow faster.”
"Nemo’s Garden" has started a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the project’s next steps. They are hoping to expand their experiment sites and resources in the coming months.
“If, by the end of this year's experiments we were to confirm that plants underwater grow faster, better and with a more efficient rate … we are going to write scientific papers and consolidate the idea that this is a true alternative to traditional agriculture,” Gamberini explained.
No comments:
Post a Comment