[ad_1]
Aeroponic farms have the potential to offer significantly lower environmental impacts than imported fresh produce when renewable energy is used, a new study has concluded.
Aeroponic container farms use a soilless technique to grow crops in a controlled environment. The plant roots are suspended in a nutrient-rich mist, which helps to optimise crop growth and reduce water usage.
Sustainable source of high value produce
The research evaluated, for the first time, the environmental impacts of an aeroponic container farm system through the assessment of 19 environmental impact categories.
Aeroponic container farming systems are mainly used to produce herbs and microgreens but have potential for growing other high value produce such as berries, peppers and tomatoes. In the UK, these food products are grown locally in greenhouses, but when imported, they mainly come from Spain, Kenya, Jordan, and Mexico. Due to the fragile nature and short life span of these products, they are mostly transported by air freight but some could be also imported through refrigerated lorries.
If the impact of travel is taken in isolation, UK grown herbs and microgreens have a lower climate change impact than importing from Kenya or Mexico, but similar impact to air freight from Spain or Jordan. However, when renewable energy such as solar-power is used the aeroponic system exhibits lower impacts than transporting food from Mexico, Kenya and Jordan, although still higher impacts than the transport from Spain.
It estimated that the production of 1 kg of pea shoot accounts for 1.52 kg CO2eq. when using electricity from the 2021 UK energy grid. Therefore selection of energy source is critical to improving environmental performance, with the use of renewables significantly reducing environmental impacts and cost of production.
The study also demonstrated that the introduction of aeroponic systems in urban areas have the potential to contribute to local food security, by offering stability and resiliency of supply, availability, and all-year accessibility to nutritious and fresh foods which could reduce or avoid the dependency on imports, and that offers a competitive environmental performance.
The study was led by researchers from Brunel University with funding by UKRI Innovate UK, and is one of the first studies to evaluate aeroponic vertical farming’s environmental credentials under real world scenarios.
Supporting decision making for deployment of CEA
The aeroponic system was supplied by LettUs Grow, and Jack Farmer, Chief Scientific Officer at LettUs Grow, comments: “As with any agricultural technology innovation, container farms are best placed to benefit the environment in specific use cases, locations or for specific crops.
“This research and its conclusions make a crucial first step in allowing us to make educated decisions about where and how an aeroponic container farm should be used to create a positive impact.”
The paper provides evidence for policymakers and decision makers to understand the benefits and trade-offs of aeroponics when compared with imported foods, showcasing examples of when the aeroponic production system delivers foods with competitive (and sometimes better) environmental performance than similar imported products. For example, in the UK, the environmental impact performance of food grown in vertical farming could potentially contribute to the Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener (BEIS, 2021).
The paper is open access and available in Volume 860 of the Science of The Total Environment.
More about LettUs Grow.
[ad_2]
Source link
