Thanet Earth: is this a taste of future for UK agriculture?

Poppycat

Thought I post a link to this article here as it may be greener than transporting fruit/vegetables from all over world

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/11/greenbuilding.food

A_fiend_for_life

Sounds like a lot of light if folk will be wearing shades hopefully they get good sunblock too or everyone will look like negative pandas. :rotfl:

Poo we save leckie so companies can burn more. I see these greenhouses becoming unsustainable with increasing fuel prices though. It may or may not be greener than transporting from further afield. But it still uses a lot of energy and therefore still vulnerable to fuel price increases.

I wonder how their overheads compare with conventional farming and what fuel source they are using.

Poppycat

I saw on working lunch other day a port that uses wind to power most of the plant it works so successfully that they are getting more to use to provide power to the ships when in port. It runs the cranes that pick up the goods, so not surprises me if you are in right place and have the right gear

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7445760.stm

woollyjumper

Was on countryfile a couple of weeks back.
from what I remember they are generating electricity from gas ; and a by product of this process is heat which is used to keep the greenhouses warm.
Apparently this is how all Holland produce all the peppers , tomatoes etc. we get in the shops early.

Jonesya

Not only that but apparently some of the schemes have thermal stores so the engine/generator can be larger allowing it to operate during the day when electricity prices are highest, storing excess heat in a thermal store for use over night.

Poppycat

The 32MW generated by the combined heat and power system, uploaded to the National Grid, will offset significant costs from the site, while some of the CO2 produced by the burning gas will used to enrich the glasshouse atmosphere.

A_fiend_for_life

Poppycat wrote: »

Thought I post a link to this article here as it may be greener than transporting fruit/vegetables from all over world

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/11/greenbuilding.food

Possibly one taste of the future agriculture.

There's another article from George Monbiot from the Guardian also:

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/06/10/small-is-bountiful/

he does state that such farming practices are more productive in certain places unfortunately there is no mention on European countries. I've not read the rest of the links yet though so hopefully there are UK studies.