Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

This innovative $7,000 ‘indoor farm’ may change how America eats forever
Moneyish ^ | September 13, 2018 | Jeanette Settembre

Posted on 09/15/2018 12:48:23 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-85 next last
To: 2ndDivisionVet

Its a nice, neat, turnkey product for a corporate environment. Let them work out the best design features on their dime.

The Chinese will probably make a knock-off version for $300 - it’s basically just a rack with four trays and four fluorescent light fixtures. Gro-light bulbs are probably a main cost driver.

The home model (one four foot tray, one light fixture), for a reasonable price, would be something I’d be interested in. It could be enough to keep me rolling in fresh basil, cilantro and mint; and probably some salad greens.


61 posted on 09/15/2018 6:54:01 AM PDT by BeauBo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Born to Conserve

Attack the author.
Provide zero counter facts.
Pull in a personal anecdote.

There is a pattern here. It is the ignorance pattern.

No wonder your friend passed. He was surrounded by crackpots.

People with an alias like “Conserve” are emotion, not fact based. You probably have some investment in ecology schemes and it annoys you when truth creates legitimate discomfort.

I am waiting for you to uncover why my statement is so critically true. The statement will never come.

Hint: VERTICAL FARMING is a FAILURE. It will create the equivalent of Factory Tea, such as High Fructose Corn Syrup. Cheap junk food fed to the masses with an epidemic of disease to follow.


62 posted on 09/15/2018 7:01:13 AM PDT by TheNext (Anonymous Source)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

One big thing this can’t do, is any vegetables that need pollination - basically for herbs and salad greens.


63 posted on 09/15/2018 7:14:30 AM PDT by BeauBo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

My mother worked with a Vietnamese guy who grew Bean Sprouts at home in his bathtub and sold them to restaurants ,yuck , I stopped eating packaged beans sprouts


64 posted on 09/15/2018 7:20:00 AM PDT by butlerweave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

I think these things will remain fringe, until general purpose household robots come along.

When you have a general purpose robot, it will initially be hard to keep them productively busy 24x7. Housecleaning is probably no more than an hour a day, and security would be an on-call function, just monitoring sensors in the background. Growing and cooking your food will probably be an early selling feature of the general purpose domestic robot.

That is when home systems will be really turnkey, and production can really be optimized for flavor and nutrition, with world class AI expertise, and super-human sensors for ripeness or disease.

Such a general purpose robot could probably run a few side businesses for you, a few hours a day each. With software updates making them instant experts, they could fix whatever needs fixing, and potentially even make a lot of what you might need.

Good fresh food is a universal requirement. Everyone is going to want it - Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.


65 posted on 09/15/2018 7:36:11 AM PDT by BeauBo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Another expensive gimmick to separate fools from their money.

Hydroponics is hard. I’ve seen more than one expensive system fail. They become fouled with contaminants.

These are future coat hangers.


66 posted on 09/15/2018 7:38:57 AM PDT by Sequoyah101 (It feels like we have exchanged our dreams for survival. We just have a few days that don't suck.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Track9

I have news for everyone:

Herbs & Lettuce are NOT the only FOOD in the world.

You cannot exist on such.


67 posted on 09/15/2018 7:47:21 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: TheNext

These are the same people who refuse to build more power plants.


68 posted on 09/15/2018 7:52:11 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: EQAndyBuzz

Lettuce & herbs..........

I want to see their recipe for “Lettuce Soup”.


69 posted on 09/15/2018 7:54:07 AM PDT by ridesthemiles
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: bgill

My husband’s grandmother began teaching him to cook not long after he could walk. Children are remarkably willing to learn and adults can be remarkably dense.
Thank goodness your daughter was able to move forward from what could have been a crushing experience. Thanksgiving dinner is no easy feat!


70 posted on 09/15/2018 8:17:37 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: Track9
It was a good story till I read the last line.

You're right. Completely disconnected, It was put there as pure propaganda.

71 posted on 09/15/2018 8:27:56 AM PDT by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: All
Nice variation of what the salesman says and what a user says...:^)

Each Farmshelf unit costs $7,000, and can produce 10 pounds of herbs per week and 140 heads of lettuce per month, or $350 to $800 worth of produce each month. Farmers pay a $105 monthly subscription fee that includes nutrients and seed pods.

West Coast-based salad company Tender Greens said that it spent 20% more by growing Farmshelf produce than it might have otherwise, after paying for the machine and maintenance.

72 posted on 09/15/2018 8:40:01 AM PDT by az_gila
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: TheNext

You are factually wrong.

See my posts 50 and 51.

Multiple counter facts to your assertion that vertical farming is a failure. If you need more, just google Dutch vertical farming. They’re not stupid, and certainly not as “bright” as you, no?


73 posted on 09/15/2018 9:05:45 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Vote GOP this November. Take two friends to vote with you!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: Palio di Siena

Well...honestly, growing weed indoors was, most likely, the reason for this appearing...same techniques. That said, $7000 is way expensive, you could create the equivalent for far less. Just go to a hydroponics store.


74 posted on 09/15/2018 9:05:56 AM PDT by fuzzylogic (welfare state = sharing of poor moral choices among everybody)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

I love all the replies to post 1, without reading down further...

Know-it-alls.


75 posted on 09/15/2018 9:07:11 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Vote GOP this November. Take two friends to vote with you!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 73 | View Replies]

To: trisham

I was in bed sick as a dog with another round of pneumonia (caught from her) and every joint burning and coughing my insides out so didn’t want to think about Thanksgiving much less help. She took herself into the kitchen the night before and whipped up a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie and started the cornbread for the stuffing. The next day, did the turkey and all the fixin’s without batting an eye.

When she was less than two years old, I sat her on the counter (bad mom!) to let her watch me make her her first choc chip cookies. Didn’t make them again for 6 months and she was telling me what went in them!


76 posted on 09/15/2018 9:29:38 AM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 70 | View Replies]

To: bgill
As if anyone needs $800 of herbs a month

Um, a restaurant? Anyone that's making a bunch of food for commercial sales?
77 posted on 09/15/2018 9:42:29 AM PDT by Svartalfiar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: digger48

DIRT IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT SECRET INGREDIENTS TO OUR HEALTH.


78 posted on 09/15/2018 9:51:31 AM PDT by Yaelle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Svartalfiar

Much cheaper to go down to the local market or grow their own the conventional way. Again, there is only room in that thing for short growing herbs. Maybe some early peas but nothing else. Nothing will recoup the cost.


79 posted on 09/15/2018 10:17:33 AM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]

To: ifinnegan

Everything’s peachy until the mealybugs show up


80 posted on 09/15/2018 10:22:44 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-85 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson