I want to see more boring afforestation rather than meaninglessly expensive space technology. Aquaponics already exists and it will never be cheap enough for carbohydrates to compete with regular farmland.
Building a "food factory" the size of a regular farm is obviously more expensive than running a tractor and combine over a field.
These people never learn, this paper[0] is worth a read.
Despite the narrative of novelty touted by these companies, this is not the UAE's first foray with bringing ultra-modern or 'scientific' greenhouses to the Arabian Peninsula – a large University of Arizona project did so in Abu Dhabi from 1969-1974. Yet that project is largely forgotten today, including among today's new AgTech entrepreneurs. This article investigates why this is the case and, more generally, why the systematic failures of high-modernist, spectacular projects like those to green the desert are so routinely forgotten.[0]
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[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 16.9 ms ] threadBuilding a "food factory" the size of a regular farm is obviously more expensive than running a tractor and combine over a field.
Despite the narrative of novelty touted by these companies, this is not the UAE's first foray with bringing ultra-modern or 'scientific' greenhouses to the Arabian Peninsula – a large University of Arizona project did so in Abu Dhabi from 1969-1974. Yet that project is largely forgotten today, including among today's new AgTech entrepreneurs. This article investigates why this is the case and, more generally, why the systematic failures of high-modernist, spectacular projects like those to green the desert are so routinely forgotten.[0]
[0]https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/article/i...