Is the biggest greenhouse in the US the future of farming?
Global food production currently accounts for a third of greenhouse gases, 80% of deforestation, 70% of terrestrial biodiversity loss, and 70% of all freshwater use, according to the WWF
By Liz Kang
Video by Dan Tham, CNN
October 6, 2021
Excerpt:
“The facility allows you to control the light, the heat, and the nutrition of the crops,” says Josh Lessing, AppHarvest’s chief technology officer. “When you have that much control over the environment, you can do a lot of interesting things,” he says.
LED lights are used to supplement natural light and crops are grown without soil, in an alternative growing medium that allows water and nutrients to be absorbed by the plant root.
Using 300 sensors and AI, the facility collects data from over 700,000 plants, and growers can remotely monitor the microclimate to ensure that crops receive the ideal amount of nutrients and water. AppHarvest’s robots assess which tomatoes are ripe enough to be harvested, and then pick and prune them using their robotic arms.
“Building technology to forecast, steer the crop, and create absolute stability in the food supply allows us to grow locally and control our food destiny. That’s the real opportunity with robotics and AI,” says Lessing.
