Some of the greatest innovations in history came out of times of crisis. An example of this in recent history was the innovations that have occurred after the March 2011 earthquake that hit the northern coast of Japan. The earthquake caused a tsunami and did considerable damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The area that was hit was also an agricultural region, and because of the damage caused by this natural disaster there was a great shortage of food.
The food shortage has prompted Marai, a company led by botanist Shigeharu Shimamura, team up with GE. They wanted to test their ideas for accelerated food production in a controlled environment. As you can see from the results, the project was a huge success.
The giant indoor farm is air conditioned, and uses LED lights specifically designed to maximize plant growth.
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In this custom designed system, the cycle of day and night was shortened to allow the plants to grow faster.
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They also used special technologies for optimizing the humidity and temperature in the confined space.
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Overall, the place closes 25,000 feet allows plants to grow 2.5x faster, producing up to 10,000 heads of lettuce a day.
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The system uses 99% less water, 80% waste less food, and uses 40% less energy than traditional outdoor farms. Even with the reduced resource use, optimal environmental conditions ensure that the product is of superior quality.
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The project was so successful that plans for factory farms have been announced for Hong Kong, Mongolia, Russia and mainland China.
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Here's a video of GE with the President Marai Shigeharu Shimamura talk about this revolutionary project:
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this new way of becoming more efficient food quality is a huge innovation in agriculture. Given the fact that this system uses the natural properties of plants to maximize the production of high quality foods, I hope we see more of these in the third world countries, where food shortages are common.
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