Farms

Are self-contained farms plausible with current technology?
I read somewhere that 'tower farms' would start to pop up in the next few decades. Could someone set one up in the middle of a frozen hellhole

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heard_Island_and_McDonald_Islands
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plants_in_space
twitter.com/SFWRedditGifs

>Could someone set one up in the middle of a frozen hellhole
I'm sure you could, but one the points of vertical farms is to have your food source closer to the city.
That way you food doesn't travel half way around the continent to get to you.

someone somewhere is going to DIY pic related in the next 20 years

No, they're not. And Anthropological Climate change is a lie.

It would be expensive. It's kind of already possible with hydroponics and artificial light, though.

>all that building material
>all that glass
>taking an elevator to 10 different floors to harvest and sow
good god that would be expensive and tedious. if you want $25 carrots then maybe we could have vertical farms.

food coming from the other side of the planet isn't really a big deal
unlike moving people around, we're actually very efficient at it
regardless, self sufficience is a worthy goal unto itself

problem with most frozen hellholes is that the sun only shines for a few months of the year
i'm personally more interested and psyched about floating ocean cities
both are cool though and should of course be pursued as trial runs for space living and colonizing

I hope so
Anthropogenic climate change you mean? Maybe you're right, but I'm thinking of a hypothetical sellf sustaining island nation.
Heard Island is completely uninhabited by humans and has access to geothermal energy. I think by harnessing that energy, we could, hypothetically, power the structure indefinitely
Wouldn't need to be designed like that
>problem with most frozen hellholes is that the sun only shines for a few months of the year
we could use geothermal power and artificial lights

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heard_Island_and_McDonald_Islands

As someone who actually builds buildings in the middle of frozen shitholes (working up around the arctic circle right now actually), no the average person probably couldn't. Because of the extreme temperatures and temperature swings (around 100 degrees celsius, easily hitting -60/70 or colder most winters), basically everything from the roof down to the foundation falls apart much quicker. Its almost impossible to construct a structure over like 6 or 7 storeys due to this, and because the ground shifts so much it requires constant maintenance to actually last. Like, if a building costs $10 million to make in a city in a reasonable temperate climate, it could very easily cost $70 million+ to build in an arctic one.

The challenges are absolutely unbelievable, and every aspect of construction from start to finish is a battle. Quite often you're having to helicopter materials in, or you're only able to transport during the winter because the only access is by ice road, which just adds to the challenges because construction in -50C is fucking terrible. Not to mention the wind in the arctic is frequently around 60-100km/h, Im pretty sure a building like the one in your picture would fall down

smaller greenhouses might be doable, but I still think it would be too cold unless they're artificially heated, and that would end up being incredibly expensive

Geothermal power is pretty rare to find

one of the basic requirements of farming is low overhead

you had one job, OP

What about a subterranean farm with artificial growlights.
In the Heard island example, the average monthly temp in winder is 30 F (On account of how close it is to the ocean or something)
You have a great point about the wind and materials.
Would pic related be easier to build?
Yes, which is why Heard Island and the McDonald Islands are so ideal, they're the only volcanically active islands in the sub antarctic.

I could see the salt spray being bad for growing shit, but if you could keep it contained then ya that might work. And ya tents n shit might be doable, but I've literally never heard of anyone growing anything in the arctic during the winter. Also, in the summer in the northwest territories for example, they get like 3 or 4 crops in because of the 20-24 hours of sunlight they get for 2-3 months in the summer. I think it almost always ends up being cheaper to just to preserve shit, or fly, train, or haul it in on ice roads during the winter.

Trust me, the amount of research, scientists, and money being spent on arctic r&d is absolutely unreal. Im canadian, so I may be a little biased in that regard, but the government literally shits money on the north for that kind of stuff, I guarantee if there was a way to do it economically, they would be doing it. The budgets for everything here are so extreme and they're always trying to cut corners or make things cheaper every way possible. Like I guarantee someone has suggested "hey, why dont we just grow shit during the winter", and then had it broken down to the cent (probably hundredth or thousandth of a cent) how much money it would end up costing them per carrot produced, for example.

oh I missed the subterranean part, that might work actually, but I could see hvac being a real issue and again I just dont know how it would end up making sense economically.

We really should be doing more research into self contained systems, since it would have a direct impact on future space missions where we'd have to sustain astronauts for longer periods of time in situations where they cannot be re-supplied with Oxygen.

>fly, train, or haul it in on ice roads during the winter.
Not feasible on an island, especially considering the winds
>Trust me, the amount of research, scientists, and money being spent on arctic r&d is absolutely unreal. Im canadian, so I may be a little biased in that regard, but the government literally shits money on the north for that kind of stuff, I guarantee if there was a way to do it economically, they would be doing it.
This is pretty far to the south, actually. Australia owns the the island, and they don't want to do anything with it because they don't want to disturb all the birds there.
Economically, it's a long term investment. Assuming they succeed in establishing a self sustaining colony, they could appeal to be recognized as a Sovereign City-State (Like Singapore or Monaco) They could then give full citizenship and diplomatic status to anyone who donates or works towards establishing the colony

oh man better tell nasa about that..

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plants_in_space

I remember seeing a hydrophonics farm that was using the heat exhausted from a datacenter. Sounded pretty cool.

>I remember seeing a hydrophonics farm that was using the heat exhausted from a datacenter. Sounded pretty cool.
Independent city-state as host for kickasstorrrents when?

user, you don't build shit on a volcanically active island. Have you learned nothing from human history?

I know they're growing shit in space, but I am talking about a sealed system where you have a ratio of plants to humans capable of sustaining a stable Oxygen/CO2 cycle without outside intervention. Best to start on Earth where you can open the door when things don't go as planned.

We shall call it: a server farm.

We already have farms that produce more and cost less to maintain. The only reason we would need tower farms is if we had no more space for people, but unless you live in NYC there is plenty of space.

>but I am talking about a sealed system
Sort of like a space station, maybe that could work as a test environment..

Only if you want dead astronauts

You might as well go all in. Build the tower in the ocean. The lower floors are used to desalinate sea water and treat the sewage of the inhabitants to be used as nutrients for the plants. The sea level floor has a floating harbor for boats to pull up and load/unload supplies, crops, and salt. The top of the tower is a windmill that generates power for the facility. Grow everything with hydroponics or aeroponics. Bonus points for building a pipeline to the mainland to sell off your excess electricity and/or water. Super bonus points for your boat fleet running on batteries charged by the windmill.