Infarm wants to put a farm in every grocery store

Re:Infarm wants to put a farm in every grocery store by gabrielcsapo on Monday June 26, 2017 @07:19PM (#14641240)

That's a really pessimistic way to think about it. Not having fresh food is a real problem in America. People overbuy produce, poor people can't afford fruit or vegetables these are real issues.

You might think it is for marijuana but you miss the point. Self suffiency is something we should strive for, we shouldn't be dependent on other places for food or shelter or water, we should produce those things locally.

If you think ahead even more, this is important for space travel and colonizing other worlds or even different parts of the world.

This should be an open standard and shouldn't be something people can't afford. This could change how people get food and drastically adverse the effects of being in a food desert.

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Re:Infarm wants to put a farm in every grocery store by tptacek on Monday June 26, 2017 @08:11PM (#14641511)

Poor people can afford vegetables just fine. The problem is that grocery stores tend not to site in locations convenient to poor people. That's a problem, but it's a not a problem stuff like this solves.

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Re:Infarm wants to put a farm in every grocery store by gabrielcsapo on Monday June 26, 2017 @11:45PM (#14642419)

You must be talking out of some disillusioned perspective, do you understand the food stamp allowances? Do you understand how living in American outside the realm of hacker news is not 401k plans and stock options. People are actually having problems surviving. This does fix that problem, the cost of labor and transportation is removed from the equation and is just a matter of making money on water and chemical. This can really fix a problem of affordable and sustainable agriculture in America.

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Re:Infarm wants to put a farm in every grocery store by loganfrederick on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @01:13AM (#14642732)

tptacek understands this problem as he is/was in Chicago, which has had issues with "food deserts" where poor regions of the city do not have grocery stores within a reasonable commute. And the grocery stores in those poor areas are often overpriced for exploitive reasons.

So tptacek is correct that a farm inside a grocery store does not solve grocery affordability for the poor, because the problem is due to transportation/access, not the cost of the goods.

The bridge between these two views would maybe be if there was a solution of vertical farming that used little real estate and was able to set up a vertical farm in a poor area and had minimal real estate footprint/low rent costs.

Paper on Food Deserts in Chicago (or just google "food deserts chicago"): http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/IL-FoodDeserts-2011.pdf

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Re:Infarm wants to put a farm in every grocery store by gabrielcsapo on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @02:22AM (#14642924)

I would say if that is the case the best move forward would be to make this something you could put in a consumers house.

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Re:Infarm wants to put a farm in every grocery store by tptacek on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @11:59AM (#14646595)

How about we just build grocery stores where low-income people can reach them? Farms produce vegetables more cost-effectively than low-income people or retail outlets. This is a solved problem.

I'm not sure if you shop mostly in Whole Foods or buy individually plastic-wrapped bell peppers at Trader Joes, but go to a Mexican grocery store some time and fill a cart full of green things. Vegetables are very cheap.

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Re:Infarm wants to put a farm in every grocery store by passiveincomelg on Tuesday June 27, 2017 @04:13AM (#14643333)

Like a vending machine?

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