Upward Farms throws in towel ten years after founding vertical-farming business

Re:Upward Farms throws in towel ten years after founding ver... by shubhamjain on Friday April 28, 2023 @06:49AM (#35739654)

The pessimism here is just unwarranted. Vertical farming will transform the world by freeing up hundreds of thousands of acres of land. It will move farming closer to consumption cutting the logistics costs and wastage. It's hard to overstate the how much the positive impact on the environment will be. On the top of that, it will make all regions of the world much more self-sufficient than they currently are.

Sure, it's a little impractical right now chiefly because it's hard to match the free energy of the sun. But someday, we will solve it. It's one of those ideas which will be inevitable once energy becomes cheap and abundant

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Re:Upward Farms throws in towel ten years after founding ver... by narrator on Friday April 28, 2023 @06:51AM (#35739661)

How about retooling to specialize in crops that don't need sun, like mushrooms?

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Re:Upward Farms throws in towel ten years after founding ver... by piva00 on Friday April 28, 2023 @07:26AM (#35739943)

Mushrooms are very very poor in calories per volume/weight.

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Re:Upward Farms throws in towel ten years after founding ver... by hombre_fatal on Friday April 28, 2023 @02:51PM (#35745499)

What about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoprotein (fungal protein)?

I don't know much about it but it's intrigued me for a while. Apparently the only commercial product ("Quorn") is made in a fermentation vat with glucose syrup and Fusarium venenatum spores.

But the nutrition content is interesting: 42% protein by mass yet still has fiber and other nutrients. It's also supposed to be highly satiating.

Unfortunately, Quorn is shipped from the UK and they don't let me buy just one $10 box of it where I live.

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Re:Upward Farms throws in towel ten years after founding ver... by clearcarbon on Friday April 28, 2023 @03:11PM (#35745749)

As someone in the UK this is kinda strange to read someone wanting to try quorn like I've been wanting to try the impossible burger.

Honestly Quorn is not a great meat replacement for anything other than mince, or maybe foods that are so processed all you can taste are the additives.

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Re:Upward Farms throws in towel ten years after founding ver... by hombre_fatal on Friday April 28, 2023 @10:04PM (#35749339)

Heh. As someone who eats textured soy chunks, I assure you my expectations aren't too lofty.

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Re:Upward Farms throws in towel ten years after founding ver... by im3w1l on Friday April 28, 2023 @03:38PM (#35746107)

You can't just get energy from nothing, not even with mushrooms.

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Re:Upward Farms throws in towel ten years after founding ver... by narrator on Saturday April 29, 2023 @04:33PM (#35756876)

Mushrooms turn inedible things like wood chips into food without sunlight. It's a net win in that sense. You don't need the land space for the trees + the mushrooms and mushrooms can grow in the dark.

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Re:Upward Farms throws in towel ten years after founding ver... by seunosewa on Friday April 28, 2023 @11:43AM (#35742710)

It will be more efficient for plants to capture free energy from the sun directly than to convert it into electricity, transmit that over a long distance, possibly store it for a while, and then convert it back to light before plants capture it, for a very long time. The energy losses by solar panels and led lights are very significant.

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