Monday 2 January 2017

This Is In The,

'what a neat idea' department,


simply put, it is a Farm In A Box, a shipping container comes with a complete farm for a 2 acre site to grow crops using the latest technology like drip irrigation and solar energy panels on the roof of the container the unit is self-sufficient, the ‘farm', can be transported by road or presumably by helicopter, it was the idea of Brandi, DeCarli and Scott Thompson they found that that access to food was an issue in many areas, with a lack of the infrastructure needed for reliable crop production, especially in drought conditions, “There’s a bit of a missing infrastructure that occurs in a lot of underdeveloped areas, and even here within the U.S,” says DeCarli. “So we thought, let’s provide communities with the tools they need to be able to grow and sustain their own crop so that the resilience is actually built up from the ground itself. the $50,000 kit, could be useful to governments, NGOs, schools, and even individuals who want to start a farm, smaller units are now being discussed for people with smaller plots of land, one unit Adam, is already active in Sonoma County, on a school property called Shone Farm, that one’s going amazingly well. It’s actually more efficient than we had even planned, which is a good problem to have",

"The production has been really high, and the energy output has been really high, and we’ve been able to save a lot of water using that system. All crops grown on the 2-acre test site with ‘Adam’ go towards supporting the Shone Farm CSA and the Culinary Arts Program, We initially planned on deploying in California and in the rift valley of Ethiopia. We’re working with the international rescue committee to pilot another unit with resettled refugees from Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan, here in California, in West Sacramento. We’re also going to deploy one in Virginia, working with veterans, and there are a few international sites that we’re in discussions with”, the box comes with everything except seeds, they are chosen dependent on the location of the farm, 


from the blurb, 
'included in the box is an off grid power system, a complete water system with a solar powered pump and drip irrigation system, and connectivity, drip irrigation can save so much water. It can also make sure that the water that is being used is targeted directly to the roots of the plants. It extends the growing season in a lot of different areas, so that opens up new possibilities for different types of crops to be grown, every box also comes with its own renewable energy system. Everything is solar. We’ve got three kilowatts of solar energy pre-installed on the actual kit. You have power access to not only power the pump, you can also power things inside of the box. That powers the WiFi connectivity, so there’s information access as well, to be able to monitor the farm remotely, but also to get information in terms of market prices or training systems', 

what a neat idea for people with land but without the means or sufficient water to farm it.


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