Urban Farming Inside of Shipping Containers | Stuart Oda | TEDxBeijing
Is it possible to think about food production without thinking about land and big plantations? In his TEDxBeijing talk, Stuart Oda presents the next big thing in agriculture. He and his coworkers have devised a method to make agriculture more accessible and efficient, which could possibly change the future of food production. Co-Founder of Alesca Life Driven by his passion for service and moved deeply by his travels to some of the most impoverished communities in the world, Stuart co-founded Alesca Life with the hopes of revolutionizing the agricultural industry to make food security, food safety, and environmental degradation a thing of the past. He is a staunch supporter of all things related to sustainability and hopes to positively impact communities around the world by bringing the products and services of Alesca Life to the masses. Stuart possesses a unique blend of corporate finance and consumer product know-how having previously worked in the investment banking division of Merrill Lynch Japan Securities and the global emerging markets business strategy team at Dell China. He has an intimate understanding of key global mega-trends through his extensive industry and country coverage and has been retained previously as a business consultant for numerous start up projects. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
Comments
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Good, not original but you've achieved some good efficiencies on the operational side it seems. Like all other growlight/hydroponic systems yours is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels for its hardware procurement, and obviously requires electricity. It would also be interesting to know what fertiliser you were using and how it is procured. Is the hardware easily repairable and made from parts that are easily manufactured locally, from recycled materials, in the diverse famine/poverty-stricken areas you are hoping to help?
I would like to suggest thinking about the fact that plants grow without high-tech help. Natural systems have organisms that do the jobs your technology does, and they are self-replicating, self-powered, self-organising and recycle their raw materials with 100% efficiency. No farming operation has ever reached the biomass productivity of a natural system - such as a forest or an ocean food-web, yet they do not need irrigation, pest control, fertiliser application or management of any kind. Humans can create highly-productive food forests that require little effort to maintain, by working with the natural systems rather than trying to fight them (i.e. conventional agriculture) or mimic them using fossil-fuel based technology (your approach). One of the best examples is the forest agriculture of the Papua New Guinea highlands, which has been practiced for tens of thousands of years without any need for imported fertiliser. They are totally integrated as a natural part of their ecosystem, and have modified their ecosystem to be the most productive it can be for their needs.
If we combine all the examples of successful models of sustainable agriculture like the one described in PNG, with the scientific method and appropriate technology, we have Permaculture. This philosophy has been applied to successfully turn land that has been destroyed by unsustainable human agriculture (such as the Loess Plateau in China, and the entire middle east) back into productive food forests. Land to grow food on is not in short supply, it is just that we have destroyed most areas of arable land by using terrible farming techniques, which only got ten times worse when we initiated the Green Revolution. Luckily we have lots of evidence now that this productivity can all be regenerated. Like all the major crises we are facing, the solutions already exist, it is education and political will that is lacking.
If you're interested here's a couple of starters. In my research it seems clear that the key understanding is the function of the soil food web. Truly sustainable - or even better - regenerative food production is focussed on supporting the soil food web. If you do this you increase topsoil depth, increase carbon sequestration, increase nutrient density, increase soil fertility, lock up toxic residues, reduce water loss and eliminate erosion. Biochar is the key technology in this system.
http://projects.worldbank.org/P003540/loess-plateau-watershed-rehabilitation-project?lang=en&tab=overview
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Lcc1iSgAAAAJ&hl=en -
This idiot still thinks man walked on the Moon? LMAO. A metal greenhouse, how original.
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Sorry, but it still cost less to get my food from the maga big farmers. I can't afford this technology yet.
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Transparent food? eww
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That guy is hot.
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Interesting. However, I see the hydroponics system and I wonder about the start-up costs. Also, there is so much plastic being used. The computerized system would probably cost a lot of money. Also, energy costs would probably be through the roof in order to create a Mediterranean environment indoors during a Beijing winter. How will you overcome all of this? I laud the idea but these must be taken into consideration and they are not presented in this talk. How will the "average" person be able to undertake such an urban farming endeavor. I'd be interested in know this.
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