The Rural Voice, 2003-06, Page 56The leading edge
British system speeds plant growth
Hermetically sealed tunnels
developed in the United Kingdom are
producing abundant pesticide -free
crops in a computer -controlled
environment that is rich in carbon
dioxide and nutrients.
The tunnels allow crops to grow
year-round — some in just 35 days —
such as spinach and arugula, as well
as more exotic foodstuffs like bok
choy and chilies.
The technology, known as the
Greengro Farming System, was
patented by Unigro, an agricultural
startup that plans to sell food grown
inside the tunnels to consumers
throughout the UK and abroad.
The Greengro system achieves
greater productivity than traditional
agricultural methods by, among other
things, carefully controlling the
temperature within the tunnels, which
are sealed to isolate the growing
environment_ Excess heat is trapped
and used to maintain warm
temperatures in the evening, thus
reducing energy usage.
"The system's efficiency is
achieved by using warm and cold air
as an insulating layer to control the
environment's temperature," said
Keith Hamp, a director with Unigro.
Microchips are placed in each
planter to track water and nutrient
levels in the soil, which is made from
a combination of coir — a
biodegradable substance generated
from the husks of coconut — and
animal waste.
Crop production is boosted further
by more than doubling the level of
carbon dioxide in the growing
environment, from 340 parts per
million to 900 parts per million.
Abundant natural light combined with
agricultural lighting systems ensures
the plants, which are stacked
vertically to maximize the
growing space, receive enough energy
to perform photo -synthesis.
The system could revolutionize
agriculture, but first Unigro must
convince farmers to adopt the
technology. The company hopes to
partner with growers who will
generate pesticide -free crops that
Unigro will buy back to distribute in
the United Kingdom and abroad under
the Greengro label.
As part of the deal, farmers who
use the system will be required to
retum one acre of cropland back to the
wild, to be managed by wildlife trust
charities.
A major selling point for the
technology is its low impact on the
environment. The compost and the
tunnels themselves are sterilized,
eliminating the need for pesticides.
However, the food itself can't
technically be called organic, since it
isn't grown in a natural environment.
And rather like the theory that the
more you try to control a biosystem
the more unpredictable the results will
be, the tunnel could be storing up
trouble for the future.
"The problem about a sterile
environment, whether you're talking
about a crop pest or a human
pathogen, is that they tend to be
opportunistic — they see a space and
exploit it," said Rob Haward,
horticultural development
manager of the Soil Association. "We
believe, on the other hand, by making
the soil as biologically active as
possible you make it very resilient to
infection, whether it's human or plant
pathogens."0
Hemp agood crop for liquid manure
An Australian trial using liquid pig manure to irrigate hemp plants has proven
so successful researchers have proposed planting more than a million hemp
plants to use up the nutrients in the manure.
Southern Cross University Researcher Keith Bolton said hemp is more
effective than pasture at using up the liquid and nutrients from the pig manure
because it grows so fast. "Hemp grows like the clappers. It puts on biomass, it
sucks up the nutrients and it pumps the water so it's an exceptionally good mop
crop in terms of getting rid of waste produce."0
— Source: Western Producer
52 THE RURAL VOICE
Technique would
prevent GMO spread
A paper published by five
Agriculture Canada researchers
provides hope for creating a
technique to prevent the spread of
traits from genetically -altered
crops into naturally developed
crops.
The research, published in the
Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, describes a
new method that involves a "seed
lethal system" that prevents any
pollen that moves to a foreign
plant from producing fertile seed.
Two new genes would be
inserted into the genetically -
altered plant. One is the seed
lethal gene, which prompts seeds
to produce a hormone that
prevents germination. The other is
the repressor gene, which prevents
the first gene from working, thus
allowing germination to take
place.
As long as both genes are
present, the plant is viable and can
reproduce normally. But if the
plant's pollen drifts to a foreign
plant that doesn't have the
repressor gene, the lethal gene will
kick in and prevent the production
of fertile seed.
"The use of this system under
typical agricultural conditions,
where seed is harvested and new
varieties are sown and crops are
rotated, may prohibit the
establishment of novel traits in
unintended populations,"
according to the paper.
The system has been
successfully tested on tobacco and
canola plants in laboratory and
greenhouse settings. No field
research has taken place yet.
The future of this next logical
step is up in the air because the
industry partner which had been
helping to finance the research has
dropped out. Even if the research
continued and everything went
well, it would be five to eight
years before the system is
commercially available.°
— Source: Western Producer