Philips Is Revolutionizing Urban Farming With New GrowWise Indoor Farm

Kristine Lofgren writes: With arable land dwindling and the cost — both economically and environmentally — of growing and transporting food increasing, it's time to redefine farming. So Philips is creating a revolution with their new GrowWise indoor farm, which uses customized 'light recipes' in high-tech cells to grow plants that don't need pesticides or chlorine washes, and use a fraction of the water that traditional farming requires. The system can churn out 900 pots of basil a year in just one square meter of floor space, and bees keep things humming year-round for farming that is truly local, even in the middle of a city.

Comments

Re:So does this qualify as 'organic'?

[Adriax]

Overfertilization is an issue because farms can't economically control the runoff from their farm.
That's not an issue here as the hydroponic system fully contains the water.

Infact it is much more economical, with a system this size, to recycle the water as it finishes a run through your system instead of dumping it. A good amount of nutrients stay unused. So you scrub out the waste, fix the nutrient imbalances, and send it back through the system. That's why these guys claim as low as 5L of water for a kilo of tomatoes, instead of the 30-60L for other greenhouses and 214L for standard farming (from a quick google search).