Sunday, January 23, 2011

Vending Machine Grows 20,000 Heads of Lettuce a Year Without Sunlight

The Chef’s Farm, a Japanese lettuce-growing vending machine, doesn’t require sunlight and can churn out 60 heads of lettuce a day, or over 20,000 a year. The Chef’s Farm was developed by Dentsu and uses 40 watt fluorescent lighting housed in chrome that can be stored conveniently in any restaurant. It can grow other kinds of veggies as well.

The portable fluorescent garden is on sale for $90,000, with the target market ostensibly being restaurants that want locally manufactured, sun-free vegetables on site. Chef’s Farm comes with five nutri-culture beds, which are each installed on long and thin metal frames. The lettuce seeds are planted in sponges in frames that have to be moved manually. The lighting equipment, culture solution and temperature can be controlled for each bed and five different vegetables can be cultivated at the same time
 
(Source: http://www.treehugger.com/)

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