Daily Thoughts 10/16/2010 (The Vertical Farm)



Designs by Chris Jacobs http://www.chrisjacobs.com, and Rolf Mohr. 3d Modeling and rendering, Dean Fowler http://www.machinefilms.com.  Creative Commons 3.0 Unported.  Vertical Farm.

Daily Thoughts 10/16/2010


I read some more of The Vertical Farm last night.  I think Dr. Dickson Despommier got a number of things wrong.  He tells us that venture capital is not likely to support vertical farms.  Venture capital is already starting to support closed loop aquaponics systems for cities that combine fish tanks with hydroponics to create closed loops recycling the water in the systems.  It is just starting. This is an article on Big Green Boxes an aquaponics startup. http://www.grist.org/article/food-the-new-agtivist-gene-fredericks-is-thinking-inside-the-citys-bi/P1  Another company which is starting based on the vertical farm concept is Home Town Farms http://www.hometownfarms.com/about.html

The book is conceptually interesting.  I like the ideas, but feel that the book is more about the idea than the practicalities of trying to build a vertical farm.  A book which might give a better sense of the design principles behind this book would be A Safe and Sustainable World, The Promise of Ecological Design by Nancy Jack Todd.  There are detailed descriptions of how aquaponics, bioshelters, and living machines work.  John Todd is the creater of many of the ideas in this book including living machines. http://www.toddecological.com/eco-machines/

I'm a bit annoyed right now.  I went to my local library this afternoon and found out it is closed on the weekend.  I wrote my local representatives, but am not sure if it will get them to do anything yet.

Web Bits

I rather liked this article from Library Journal about Social Research Networks http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/communityacademiclibraries/887239-419/social_research_networks_spawn_new.html.csp  It shows that social networks can be used for other things than just socializing.