I’m always on the lookout for great garden suggestions or new ways we can support wildlife and our environment. Yesterday, I came across this awesome project which grows lettuce, basil, strawberries, mandarins, microgreens, and 15 other crops year-round in Italy. Not so special, you say to yourself. After all, it is Italy, the land of grapes, olives, fine cheeses, and other culinary delights produced in the country’s heavenly zone 8 and 9 climates.
However, these crops are produced 300 feet off the coast of Noli, Italy and 20 feet below the Tyrrhenian Sea in clear and enclosed acrylic pods. Based on state-of-the-art agricultural and hydro-engineering, this project harnesses the photosynthetic power of the sun and the thermal energy of the sun and ocean to create ideal growing conditions. Because plants grow in self-contained and sealed underwater living spaces, insect infestations and crop failure due to adverse weather conditions and ravenous munching wildlife are no longer an issue. Furthermore, the low net energy requirements needed for these systems provide another highly attractive option for sustainable agriculture. The company, Nemo’s Garden, is continuing to expand its agricultural operations, and agri-researchers are looking at additional ways this technology can be used to grow food for earth’s burgeoning population, while minimizing carbon footprints and ongoing stresses to our planet’s fragile agricultural biosphere. Here is another link below:
