Futuristic Japanese indoor vertical farm produces 12,000 heads of lettuce a day with LED lighting

Article Link: http://inhabitat.com/futuristic-japanese-indoor-vertical-farm-produces-12000-heads-of-lettuce-a-day-with-led-lighting/

The article begins by introducing to us an Amsterdam-based company known as Philips Lighting. This company has experimented with indoor vertical farming, and has made major headway in this area. It has 2 trial facilities in Japan, and one them has been reported to produce 12000 heads of lettuce a day just by using energy-efficient LED lighting.

Urbanization is taking place on a large scale in Japan, where most areas are either occupied by modernized cities, or too steep and mountainous for farming to take place. Vertical farming could be the new agricultural solution that Japan needs, and studies have shown that this method can produce a large variety of herbs and plants under controlled environments. This method of farming also saves water, space and energy. The two trial facilities are located in the Shiba and Shizuoka prefectures, allowing fast and easy transportation from the facilities to stores, making sure that customers get the freshest vegetables.

Since centuries ago, Japan has been heavily reliant on agriculture for survival and economic growth. Famous produce from Japan such as the corn from Hokkaido, cherries from Yamagata and strawberries from Nara are grown and exported to foreign countries where they are eagerly lapped up by consumers (Johnston, 2016). However, in more recent times, climate change has rendered farming and agricultural work in Japan to be rather risky business. The irregular weather patterns, which will certainly involve heavier rains and more frequent floods will significantly decrease the quality and quantity of rice and other fruit and vegetable crops. The steady rise in temperature due to global warming is also extremely unfavourable especially for fruit crops (Johnston, 2016).

As such, vertical farming could well be a solution to these modern day agricultural problems and help to complement traditional farming methods. Vertical farming uses no herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers, making it organic by nature. There is also no agricultural runoff as all water used for farming is recycled and used again. These reasons, coupled with the fact that it is not limited by the seasonal changes, make vertical farming a very ‘green’ and ideal method of choice.

In the 1st or 2nd lesson, it was mentioned in class that the Japanese tend to be very ‘selective’ about nature, picking out and cultivating only the aspects which they like in a non-natural environment, in the form of Bonsai and Ikebana. Vertical farming has some similarities to this, in the sense that plants and vegetables are first picked from their natural environments, then transferred to high-tech controlled environments which allow optimum growth and harvest. This style of thinking has clearly reaped more benefits in the latter situation than in the former, providing Japan with an alternative method to obtain more food, and boost the economy.

References

Johnston. E. (2016). Climate change threatens nation’s agriculture | The Japan Times. Retrieved August 28, 2016, from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2016/08/06/environment/climate-change-threatens-nations-agriculture/#.V8LW3Ch96M-