I have a mission to become more sustainable across all areas of my life
I'm going to look at the changing production of meat whether I can power
my own commutes and what can I do inside my own home to lower my carbon footprint
maybe the future lies in magically lips summer fruit and fish poo salad whose
thoughts it's January so it's winter here in Northern Europe
and it's absolutely freezing which is the perfect time to talk about
strawberries thing is a strawberry production it requires a warm
environment this definitely didn't grow out here so where did it grow the
benefit of LED lighting is that researchers like the Sun it can control
the light spectrum and develop their own like recipes to determine which colors
the plant's best respond to red light is the most efficient photosynthesis and
blue light is necessary for good plant development in the absence of natural
light and it's this recipe of blue and red which gives us the pink glow here
they've also added a bit of white light into the mix but that's not for the
plants it's to make the working environment more comfortable for humans
it is bright pink in here why why is everything growing under the lights you
can make every combination of light colors we want the plant is most
efficient with red light and also red light is most efficient to make from
electricity so in that case we can go to a more sustainable growing system and
there's also a little bit of blue light inside this light spectrum and that also
has to do with the clones physiology because without daylight the plant
need a bit of blue light why is this better than other types of grow lamps
because we can focus and we can make the best spectrum because we can choose
with light we want to go have in we can let the plant grow most efficient so you
can choose what the crop needs the main advantage if we look to sustainability
is that LED light needs less energy for making the same amount of light from
which the plant can grow because we have not a heat production we can we have
light and climate more independent of each other when you grow the plants and
the lights like this do they look or taste any different yeah
at this moment we see not we see that crop reacts sometimes a bit different we
see nothing direct influence on the taste we sometimes see effects on the
leafs and the leaf color and we also can sometimes take an advance on that what
do you think of the future of LED lights yeah from from my opinion LED light will
be the future for greener future culture and also of course for vertical farming
LED light will be the main source for grow lights in greenish water culture we
are focusing on measuring more and more and more because there is really a lot
of data in the future yeah we look to also grow more on data instead of based
on growing on the human eye sorry is this the future of farming or rather
other methods out there yet to be explored
here's a place that's doing things a little differently welcome to the world
of aquaponics in Brighton UK inside there are lots of fish and lots of fish
poo that apparently are making for some pretty tasty salad options so this is an
aquaponics system yeah quite simply what does that mean so we can grow any kind
of freshwater fish or shellfish so it's our culture and hydroponics combined so
most plants would also grow but basically we feed the fish and then the
fish waste feeds the plants and the plants clean the water for the fish so
you get that constant cycle of water and nutrients so the fish who is feeding us
balances yeah basically they give off ammonia and our main waste products and
then that gets converted by bacteria into nitrates which is the nitrogen
cycle and then plants take that out the water that water is going through a
filter system yeah it goes through a biological filter and then goes to the
plants and that is turning the ammonia into nitrate and then that's feeding the
plants at the top of the system yes so it just keeps going round and round
around yeah we know becomes a water all of the plants that are being used in the
system they are completely soilless yeah there's no soil in here so the roots the
roots are all just hanging directly into the water
some of them hang directly into water others some are in beds where the water
goes up and then soaks the root and then they drain away again some of them get
sprayed with water others did water literally just runs underneath the roots
can you see this working on a much larger scale it already does
commercially on around the world this is used by large there's this huge farms
acres and acres of ponds with and most rice in fact is grown in the similar way
paddy fields have fish in them all around the edges and then that wall
bloodied through our the only benefits to growing the plants soilless Lee it
several probably one of the most relevant is the speed of growth because
the nutrients are being delivered direct to the root zone of the plants the
plants don't need to expend so much energy printing out root growth so it
goes into throw new growth for flowering so yeah the energy is basically going
straight into the growth of the plant rather than so much into the root this
is more efficient yeah more efficient yeah things grow about twice as fast as
growing in the ground the plants they're getting their food from the nitrates go
from the fish but what are you feeding the fish so different things we painted
slap here you can feed them on leftovers outs of harvesting so you could feed
them on the green growth or you can feed them algae so you picture plants you're
taking what you need any leftover salad leaves pop it in there it's just throw
it straight in the water things like trout which require more protein we give
them a commercial palace at the moment but we're going to research to make fish
food more unsustainable because at the moment that's the one element that we
think is a little bit backing it up because that's one thing you're having
to purchase it yeah we're purchasing in but it's also
include sea fish and stuff in there we try to get the most sustainable ones we
can okay but we're going to develop more feeds which are going to be also will
derive nutrients for the plants in a more commercial way as well mm-hm at the
moment the system's got fish and plants could we throw anything else in the mix
shellfish what would be the benefit of shellfish
they're filter feeders so they clean the water and they make a clear crystal
there and we haven't tried it yet B might go for three powers
that's my freshwater pearl's I mean you know they've been done before Yeah right
in the home from pink strawberries and fish waste salad to the Center for
alternative technology in Wales I'm off to find out how they're implementing
simple solutions that not only help them with food growth but also manage their
waste chilli and it's wet but inside we try it and if apparently these warm and
wizardess well they will be this is a hot bed so it's a sort of low-tech
solution we've got a cafe here on site so the kitchen obviously
produces quite a bit of food waste although they try to keep that minimal
but we compost all the waste from the cafe and this is something that we do in
about January mm-hmm and then we put them away in June and basically we do
that to grow all our food plants okay no annual bedding plants a byproduct of
that decomposition is heat that's and why is that a good thing the heat just
happens naturally anyway as the composting occurs and so we're using
these cages to try and capture the heat when we sew our vegetables and our
annual flowers they go right on top of the straw and the heat just naturally
percolates through and that means that you need heat to germinate seeds and you
need heat to keep the frost off plants we're just using a natural process to
create our heat whereas with so we're not we're not using electricity or
creating no you're completely cutting out the new year this is off grid very
low-tech upgrade solution this genuinely produces enough heat to start that
germination basically even in the coldest winter months yes yes you have
to feed it regularly so you have to you know that the lasagna will grow taller
as the months go by
I've only explored a handful of options but it seems that when it comes to the
future of food production our sustainable solutions don't just lie in
high-tech research facilities that are maximizing growth but also in
championing simple systems that not only help us to produce food but also manage
and make the most of our waste and to find out more about how to live
sustainably you can watch the rest of the videos in this series and don't
forget to subscribe
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