"Floating farm" design could see vegetables grown at sea

Record ID: 1145718

  • Title: "Floating farm" design could see vegetables grown at sea
  • Date: 20th August 2018
  • Summary: FALMER, ENGLAND, UK (JULY 16, 2018) (REUTERS) LEILAH CLARKE, SUSSEX UNIVERSITY GRADUATE, PLACING FLOATING FARM IN FALMER VILLAGE LAKE FLOATING FARM ON LAKE CLOSE-UP OF FLOATING FARM (SOUNDBITE) (English) LEILAH CLARKE, SUSSEX UNIVERSITY GRADUATE, SAYING: "Over the next hundred years due to climate change we're going to see a rise in sea levels, which is also going to lead to a reduction in the amount of land that's available. The land that is then available is going to be more of a precious resource. We're also going to have an increase in population. So I kind of want to tackle two birds with one stone - the population is going to need more food to support them and also they're going to need somewhere else to grow our food since the farmland isn't going to be available anymore." VARIOUS OF FLOATING FARM IN LAKE CLARKE WATCHING FLOATING FARM (SOUNDBITE) (English) LEILAH CLARKE, SUSSEX UNIVERSITY GRADUATE, SAYING: "The basic idea is this sits in the water, water comes up inside the plant area. Then the condensation will rise, land on the domes outside, so the plants get fed the pure water."
  • Embargoed: 3rd September 2018 10:50
  • Keywords: Desalination floating farm University of Sussex water evaporation prototype Nemo's garden growing vegetables at sea
  • Location: FALMER AND BRIGHTON, ENGLAND, UK/VARIOUS FILE LOCATIONS
  • City: FALMER AND BRIGHTON, ENGLAND, UK/VARIOUS FILE LOCATIONS
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Science
  • Reuters ID: LVA0018TZS21N
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A British design graduate has created a prototype 'floating farm' that would allow people to use water evaporation to grow vegetables at sea.
    Leilah Clarke believes such projects will become more necessary in the coming years, as scientists predict rising sea levels will render much land on Earth potentially uninhabitable. With a possible increase of the world's population of 50 percent by 2100 foreseen by the United Nations (U.N.), pressure on food supply will grow.
    "I want to tackle two birds with one stone," Clarke told Reuters. "The population is going to need more food to support them and somewhere else to grow our food since much farmland isn't going to be available anymore."
    Her Floating Farm project, designed at the University of Sussex, involves eco-friendly sea rafts with a self-watering system for plants.
    When set afloat at sea, water vapour would rise through the middle of the raft and condense as fresh water on the inside of the dome. The water would then trickle down the sides to hydrate crops growing in containers around the circumference.
    "The basic idea is it sits in the water and water comes up inside the plant area. Then the condensation will rise, land on the domes outside, and the plants are fed the pure water," explained Clarke.
    The natural desalination process means there's no need for pumps or filtration systems.
    "In desalination processes and reverse osmosis machines we use now to provide ourselves with water to drink and for irrigation needs for farming, lots of electricity and energy goes into that process," Clarke told Reuters. "The Floating Farm just allows physics to take care of it - things heat up, they evaporate, they cool down, they condense."
    As the weather gets hotter, more water evaporates, therefore reducing the risk of the plants dehydrating.
    Clarke says that, in fact, the higher the outside temperature, the better the system works because more water vapour is produced.
    The Floating Farm is designed in two sections, with an inner and outer ring, to provide stability and prevent the raft tipping over in stormy weather and choppy waters.
    Clarke has grown chard and spinach on her prototype and says that radishes would also be able to grown quickly and on a large scale.
    She was inspired in part by the Italian Nemo's Garden project, which aims to make underwater farming economically viable.
    She said: "I did three months of growth experiments quite early on because unlike the Nemos project which is obviously underneath water, mine is on the sea level I had to check the differences in rates of condensation. I then did two months of wave testing using various methods - from just being in my bathtub to being at the sea. I actually ended up making my own rig on a rocking chair with a large glass fish tank which was actually the best because I could record things most consistently."
    She's only made one small prototype so far, but is hoping to elicit commercial funding to scale up the project and increase the size of the domes.
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