Farmers are now “boosting crops with electricity,” reports the BBC:
The translucent orange cubes jiggle temptingly under the grow lights, looking for all the world like exotic confectionery, somewhere between gummy bears and Turkish delight. If it weren’t for the vibrant green leaves poking out of the little air tunnels that perforate them, I might be tempted to pop one in my mouth when Maddalena Salvalaio isn’t looking. She seems to read my mind. “We often have to remind visitors not to eat them,” she says.
The cubes are made of hydrogel, a material with a network structure that holds liquid. It’s more typically found in medical devices and nappies. But here, in the Plant Morphogenesis Laboratory at Imperial College London, Salvalaio – a research technician – and Giovanni Sena – a principal investigator – are using them to change the future of vertical farming. The secret sauce in this bold new approach is the electrodes that flank either side of each cube.
Salvalaio and Sena’s experiment is one of a growing global constellation of projects that aim to boost agriculture using a variety of electrical interventions. The last decade or two have seen a proliferation of ways to electrically stimulate seeds, crops and fields: increasing yield under the influence of an electric field; shocking seeds to hasten germination; even zapping the water they are doused with….In China, the government is backing agricultural projects that use giant rigs to draw electricity into the soil to boost crop yields. In Canada, a commercial grower has been experimenting with cold plasma to fertilise its lettuces. Now startups are entering the scene, like Vivent, a Swiss company whose “EEG” can eavesdrop on plants’ inner electrical lives and is being aggressively courted by the ag industry…The proliferation of new projects would look very familiar to the practitioners of a strange 19th Century obsession: electroculture, in which electricity was liberally applied to plants to make them produce better flowers, leaves and fruit, or even rid them of pests – with decidedly mixed results. (Read more from BBC Future about the eccentric pioneers of vegetable electricity.)
The new crop of researchers shuns the word “electroculture”, favouring terms like “smart farming” or “fourth agricultural revolution”. But the underlying mechanism remains the same, and advocates are united in the conviction that, after centuries in the desert, electricity for plants is finally ready to bear fruit. The hope is that these futuristic systems can be enlisted to combat the global food crisis…Agricultural companies are asked to thread a difficult needle: feed a fast-growing population but without polluting pesticides or fertiliser run-off, while lowering energy costs, using less land, and constantly increasing crop yields in an increasingly unpredictable, warming world.
Many researchers at the vanguard of the new wave of electrical agriculture think it can play a role in improving each of those aspects of food production…..
In his experiments, Volkov saw increases in harvest of 20-75%, depending on the plant. Treating seeds in plasma for less than a minute led to a 40% increase in potato harvests. “One cabbage farm let us experiment, to get statistics,” says Volkov. “We increased cabbage production by 75%. It also tasted better.” The flavour, he said, was sweeter.
Volkov was not alone. A smattering of seed-zapping studies have reported a range of benefits, from helping plants grow faster and bigger to resisting pests.
“The plasma acts by waking up the seed, to the best of our knowledge,” explains Lopez.
Thanks to innovations in agriculture, such as the Green Revolution, malnutrition in recent years has been at its lowest level ever.
Scientists recently grew watermelons during Antartica’s bitterly cold winter.
Researchers are also working on lab-grown meat that has less impact on the environment than raising livestock. Investors are pouring money into lab-grown meats.
There is other good news for the environment. The amount of vegetation growing on the earth has been increasing every year for at least 30 years,” notes Human Progress. “The greening of the earth means more food for animals and greater crop yields for humans,” observes Matt Ridley.
And fracking technologies could lead to lots of clean, geothermal energy.
