A "vertical farm" poised to rise in old dairy building in Anchorage

[Blue_In_AK]

(Cross posted from GD)

I wasn't sure where to post this, so I'll put it here. I think this is such a great idea for Anchorage where all our fresh produce has to be shipped for days during the winter. I hope this guy is very successful.



http://www.adn.com/article/20150315/vertical-farm-poised-rise-inside-old-mat-maid-building

A legal grow operation will soon open inside the old Matanuska Maid building in Anchorage, with an ambitious goal of cultivating 20,000 plants per month.

It’s not what you think.

The cash crop Jason Smith hopes to reap can be found in produce aisles at local grocery stores. A veteran of the second Iraq War who learned to grow vegetables in his Anchorage garage, Smith wants to dramatically improve on the lettuce, spinach and kale commonly found on Alaska shelves.

He plans to build a “vertical farm,” with racks of vegetation stacked to the ceiling of the building -- and fill a statewide niche for fresh, organic greens available year-round.

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[OnlinePoker]

1. If it's hydroponic, it's not organic. n/t

[mopinko]

2. imho organic is a useless designation.

anybody who is so obsessed about that they would not buy locally grow food in alaska is missing the point.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Our locally grown food in the summer is fabulous.

They did a little experiment here with feeding a bunch of grade-school kids locally grown carrots and then imported ones and asking them which ones tasted better. The local carrots won, hands down. It may be the soil and light conditions out in the Matanuska Valley where they're grown, so I'll be interested to see how these hydroponic veggies taste in the wintertime, if they still have that deliciousness.

But in any event, it'll be nice to have it be a week fresher.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. I am reading that hydroponic can be organic,

http://www.myorganicfoodclub.com/organic-grown-food/organic-hydroponics/

But in this case it doesn't matter a whole lot to me, since it would at least be pesticide-free and, most especially, FRESH.

[mopinko]

6. it is allowed.

http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/NOPOrganicHydroponicCropProduction

[mopinko]

3. good luck to him.

local is becoming a big deal. imho, organic is about to be surpassed by local as an indicator of healthy food.

[Nihil]

7. "organic" and "local" are two completely different designators ...

They can overlap - for sure! - but they are two completely unrelated attributes of the produce.

You can have local organic (best), remote organic (healthier but worse in "food miles" terms),
local factory (not necessarily healthy but useful in some places - like Alaska) and remote
factory (worst in all cases yet by far the most commonly available).

There is a grey area (mostly a religious argument) about where the crossover between
local factory & remote organic comes but that's because you are "measuring" two different things.