• agentant [he/him, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    These farmers are disgusting, don’t they know we need that water for Drinking for all the people in Arizona so we don’t have a fucking drought where people die Data Centers?

  • regul [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    55·
    2 days ago

    California does the same in the central valley.

    Almonds too.

    The whole central valley is sinking at an alarming rate because of how quickly the aquifer is being depleted. No California politician is brave enough to do anything to take on the massive agribusiness using all this water irresponsibly because these companies run a lot of the state’s politics and also they’re afraid of the “ancient water rights” dating back to Spanish colonial water rights.

  • sexywheat [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
    18·
    2 days ago

    Maybe I’m just hydroponic-brained but I feel like they could grow way more and use fewer resources (water, space) with elevated/multi-story structures and better irrigation.

    • Hexamerous [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      7·
      1 day ago

      This article in question is atrocious, and think hydro has its places, but the whole “vertical farming” feels like hopium on par with “lab grown meat” seeing how much energy it requires to just run the grow lights. Of course not all crops have the same DLI requirements, but for reference the Sun gives about 1000w/m² around the equator. So assuming you have to match that to some degree (a solar panel gives you 20-30% of that per m² before other losses. So we’re talking like 5m² solar panels for every 1m² inside the farm) and then you need to remove all the excess heat from the building. So basically a server farm giving you low caloric density crops like salad, berries or mircro-greens with a heavy upstart-cost. And you still need fertilizer and PH buffers and water sterilization and plastic packaging and seedling plugs etc.

      I think a simpler solution, and one we already have the technology and infrastructure for, would be to stop feeding soy to animals and just make tofu-cool

      Those “pontoon conveyor belt” hydro greenhouses are really cool tho.

      • sexywheat [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        16 hours ago

        For indoor farms ultimately it comes down to electricity cost. If you’re in an area that uses fossil fuels for electricity production then it is prohibitively expensive, but if you have cheap hydro power for example it’s much more economical.

        That said, just using the image above as a reference, they could absolutely utilise the natural sun lighting while being much more space efficient and grow vertically. You are correct that the up-front costs of hyrdoponic systems are high, but over time they use substantially less water and plants grow way faster and more efficiently.

  • Sanctus@anarchist.nexusEnglish
    17·
    2 days ago

    You know, these things are just sitting there, in the middle of the desert, by themselves most of the time. It really is extremely dry and hot here.