As hopeful as I am that we find a technological breakthrough that allows large scale, highly energy efficient production of crops, I'm always struck by that fact that these facilities seem to only produce leafy greens.
IINM, to make a dent in the larger agricultural system, these facilities will have to produce high calorie and protein bearing crops, like grains, beans, etc.
I asked the founders of one of these agri-robot startups at demo day and they said that leafy greens are just the easiest to automate and so they will start there. What makes it easy is that they can be grown in a greenhouse rather than outdoors, and the main task that needs to be automated is moving plants from a smaller to a larger container, not the mechanics of picking a fruit off a plant.
I wonder what the reason that leafy greens would be the "lowest hanging fruit" to go after at first? I assume because they are rapidly growing and would therefore yield a high crop yield, and things like baby spinach in grocery stores always feels brutally expensive - so perhaps a good starting point in terms of retail markup possible? Lightweight, high price point, etc.
Leafy greens are low hanging goals because 1. Quick turn around (45-60 days) 2. Easy to create hybrids suitable for whatever environment 3. Single harvest(as opposed to tomatoes where there is flowers, ripe and unripe and over ripe fruit amongst canopy all the time).4. We are not trying to make it flower or fruit which makes nutrients easier. 5. Low energy. Doesn’t need a lot of light or heat.
That makes sense. I suppose the argument for this tech is from a business and product quality perspective, which I get.
It doesn't seem to have much to do with lowering the natural resources (water, fossil fuels) spent per calorie of food produced at a large scale, though.
IINM, to make a dent in the larger agricultural system, these facilities will have to produce high calorie and protein bearing crops, like grains, beans, etc.