The ground breaking for this impressive new urban food production project by Plantagon was last Thursday, February 9 in Linkoping, Sweden.
Reading about it made me think back to the days when I first entered the interior plantscaping business in the mid 1970's.
Sub-irrigation (prior posts), as a plant growing method, was relatively unknown in the U.S. at that time. Many of us in the interior plantscaping business, however, knew about it because of another Swedish company named MONA.
The MONA system (prior post) was an expandable, unitized “plumbing” system that could be adapted to any size planter or growing bed. We used MONA tanks along with Planter Technology planters to convert our entire company to sub-irrigation.
Now we are using the same basic principles of hydroponics to grow food in the city. This Plantagon project would have been beyond our imaginations back in those days. I’m grateful to be alive to see dreams like this happen.
Make no mistake about it, Plantagon is a serious business. This is not a dream. Companies like Plantagon and Valcent (prior posts) among others will most likely be the pace setters for the future of urban food production in cities around the world.
At this time, dirt gardens on rooftops get some rather over-the-top publicity here in the U.S. (particularly in NYC) but this out-dated approach will soon fade into history. Evidence of this is that we have many new hydroponics and aquaponics startup companies popping up all over the country.
Sad to say, however, that we currently have no significant and well-funded corporate ventures. When are we going to wake up to the realities of urban food production and modernize our antiquated horticultural education system? There are new businesses and new jobs to be had in this field and we are not yet in the game. We have no horse in the race.
via www.youtube.com
Read more about the Plantagon project:
via www.mynewsdesk.com
Seedstock.com has also done their usual fine job of reporting on this project.
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