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Re:Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the ... by ahartmetz on Thursday June 20, 2024 @05:10AM (#40736549)
Vertical farming is complete bullshit for most plants. I don't know why people keep talking about it.

Plant growth is (for most plants) limited by available energy, which comes in the form of sunlight. Sunlight is extremely bright compared to artificial light sources and extremely cheap, i.e. free. Replacing it makes no economic sense in most situations.

If we talk about producing a lot of calories to feed the starving, even most reservations go out of the window, because staple crops are staples because they are very efficient at turning sunlight into chemical energy and they need all the sunlight they can get.

Re:Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the ... by InSteady on Thursday June 20, 2024 @12:36PM (#40740588)
It's weird, vertical farming has gotten so much hype but really only makes sense for luxury products like microgreens, and still only makes sense if you specifically want to grow them in an expensive, dense city. Even things like mature lettuces, tomatoes, and strawberries have been tried extensively and simply don't make economic sense to grow indoors in stacks the vast majority of cases.
Re:Agricultural drones are transforming rice farming in the ... by zeekaran on Thursday June 20, 2024 @03:50PM (#40742577)
I assumed vertical farming was exciting for space reasons, and maybe very little else other than someone wanting (for whatever reason) to grow things in the middle of a dense urban center.