Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hey Soltun
I was talking about the vacant land in the picture, and judging by this picture, there's plenty of land.


Plus the fact that I really just don't think that purpose built multi-story buildings are the answer to efficient food production. The embodied energy going into construction and then the running of the building means that you are never going to get anywhere near close to calorie for calorie in and out.

Just as I don't think our current factory farming methods are the slightest bit sustainable, I think this skyscraper type farming is also not at all sustainable. And if we are going to be encouraging and handing out awards to farming methods that are sustainable and positive then I feel it really needs to be things like this guy: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=15661 not some latest techno idea.

Remembering with the food miles "thing", we need to be careful not to get too caught up in growing stuff locally at almost any cost. Often it works out to be far more efficient growing things in other areas and transporting them http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/edito ... s_dilemma/

I'm all for local growing and using waste streams of other industries or businesses, but I just don;t see these skyscraper ideas as ever being a viable solution to our need for more efficient and sustainable food supplies.

They arent EB, they are proof of eductaed people not being as smart as thier certificates say they are and proof of people grabbing at straws.

With nature is always the best way, i have seen some lovely results on TV of a farmer here who is doing what that guy was talking of, using chickens after the cows to clean up parasites, etc, i think it may have been on landline.
The other thing farmers should look at in Aus is growing in native grasses, im not sure of the details on that, but apparently gets great results too.

Ive never been a fan of the whole "rip out the forest and plant fields of things", i think that things should be planted amongst the forest, biodiversity almost always makes up for a lack of sun, etc. - i have heard that rainforest sprouts survive on no sunlight because there is basically a huge mycelium the size of said forests that interconnect all plants, so the canopy plants end up feeding the sapling all they need and then no light is needed - they dont need to make thier own energy. how true this is i dont know, maybe its only certain places/forests.

That'd probably be Joel Salatin...and his "Polyface Farm" techniques... or someone that adopted them...

Not sure who it was, but he just had his herd locked into a tiny area with a brickies stringline, very tame cows.

Sure he wasn't "break fencing"... with an electric fence??

ahh it might have been.

Again I don't think you got the full grasp (read it all)
The food production is only a part of the hole building, It's mainly offices and they can't be put in the fields.
I agree in most of what you say, but I do think it's nice that buildings like offices/homes get this type of green integration, instead of just building the offices.
It would not have been buildt as a stand alone greenhouse.

cheers

Where do I get a three handled shovel from? ...... Id much rather dig holes in company

People tend not to be ready for "sea changes" in their lives, and yes I'm resorting to extreme understatement to make a point. I see all these skyscrapers that could "easily" have food production going on within them, even if only to a minor "decorative" degree, including the 16-story building I work in now, and for a moment I wonder "why? when it would be so easy for people to---" then I remember that things are the way they are for a reason, and and that reason is usually a good one.

Food is cheap.

Yes, I know, I know - but I'm not talking about from a global perspective. We don't do thing "globally", we do them locally, and I'm speaking from the heart of the DFW multi-giga-urbano-"Metroplex", where even with skyrocketing grocery prices it STILL (sadly? uh, no...) makes no economic sense for people who earn between $40 and $400+ dollars an hour (that assumption based on them being in a tall building and having a window view) to grow food in their offices.

The only possible way that I know of to justify such an effort - especially on a building-wide scale - would be from a "prepper" viewpoint (as opposed to a "current market economics" one), and though growing, that mindset just isn't widespread, and IMHO will continue not to be.

Should a total economic meltdown and collapse happen, which many of us fear is on the way, then YES, a great many people will look back in hindsight and ruefully think some version of "if only I had taken advantage of that little unused corner of my office that was full of empty space and light!", but shy of the sea change of such a collapse that's simply not going to happen.

And it won't happen afterwards either, both because people will no longer be able to afford to, and because will they likely no longer have access to their old high-rise offices.

So I predict that "home systems" will continue to be the rage amongst the tiny minority of us engaging in their construction and use, while business/industrial/office systems will remain extremely rare one-off oddities. And I include the Chicago O'Hare airport in that statement (http://chicago.curbed.com/archives/2011 ... irport.php).

You can add this to the long list of things I'd love to be wrong about.

As far as food as the primary thing goes, i would agree Shel, however singapore is diving head first into greening its city and highrise buildings, It has come quite a long way from 30 years ago and they say they have just started.

Come on Soltun.. I've read it about 4 times now and I can;t see the mention of offices anywhere, i'm not gunna read it again....

Hi EB
Cut/paste from here
http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/pressroom/ ... ide-174157

The Plantagon Greenhouse - updated Linköping type with greenhouse and office parts combined. View from the north side, showing the side of the building hosting office and commercial areas.

cheers

Hey thats cheating.... Different page, and different building totally...

I posted the south side and link to both pics earlyer
The globe in the original ausie news is just a plentagon design

cheers