How artificial farming outperforms traditional methods

Sep 01, 2023

The answer to global food scarcity might be in artificial farming. A significant study from the University of Surrey underscores how controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) can not only double lettuce output but also grow crops much faster.

In their extensive study that reviewed 120 published works, researchers zeroed in on CEA's impact on lettuce growth. The results where astounding CEA methods averaged a yield of 3.68 kg m−2, overshadowing the 1.88 kg m−2 yield of conventional farming. Moreover, while conventional methods take 60-120 days to cultivate lettuce, CEA takes a mere 40 days.

When CEA was applied to vertical farming, the yield shot up to 6.88 kg m−2. Dr. Zoe M. Harris, a key contributor to the study, believes CEA is pivotal in addressing food security concerns, especially given our changing climate. This vital research, now part of the 'Plants' journal, hopes to inspire more exploration in the realm of CEA.

The University of Surrey is committed to making sure the environment is healthy and safe. It is working hard to tackle climate change and has set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

Source : wisconsinagconnection

Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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