A new agricultural technique may have just solved the problem of growing food in some of the world’s most inhospitable places – locations that don’t currently support traditional agriculture.

In addition, the technique can save what are clearly finite resources from extinction, something all of us should clearly favor.

As reported by Natural Blaze, as the world’s population grows, so too does its demand for food. Right now, activist organizations are battling the spread of the genetically modified organisms (GMOs) which have become prevalent in modern agriculture, despite the dangers they pose to our health.

The primary argument for GMO makers like Monsanto and backers in industry and government is that they are necessary because the world is running out of resources, and GMO crops are a better way to boost yields (which is not true, actually). On first hearing it, this argument might sound cogent and believable; after all, it’s “science” and scientists aren’t trying to harm us.

Technology to make agriculture sustainable and environmentally clean

But digging deeper into the impact of GMO crops and the herbicides used to make them most effective, demonstrates well that chemical farming is what’s doing real harm to finite land and soil resources.

So GMOs aren’t a viable, long-term option. Thankfully, however, a new innovation that is efficient and environmentally friendly – as well as productive – has been developed.

A new start-up called Sundrop Farms has developed what can only be called high-tech greenhouses that employ several solutions to grow crops with far less reliance on finite natural resources, even more than conventional greenhouse production. With offices in the UK, Australia and the US, the company is working to educate, enlighten and, most of all, expand.

In order to grow crops, you need land, water and energy – all finite resources. But Sundrop Farms’ technology sort of reinvents the resources.

In 2010, when the company launched its first pilot farm in Port Augusta, South Australia, it was located in the middle of a desert, where it would have been impossible to grow food using traditional agricultural methods. However, by combining seawater and sunlight, Sundrop Farms has managed to change the agricultural dynamic. It is a technology that negates any effects of climate change (real or imagined), land grabs by biotech companies who only want to spread GMOs, droughts, floods and other natural and man-made occurrences.

Using coconut husks, 23,000 mirrors to reflect solar power, and desalinated water on 20-hectares (roughly 49,400 acres), the developers have grown tons of fresh, wholesome, organic food.

As further reported by Natural Blaze, the facility in South Australia uses seawater from the Spencer Gulf, desalinating it and then using it in a massive greenhouse lined with cardboard, thereby eliminating the need to rely on groundwater or rain for growing produce.

Year-round production and tons of food per year – organically

In addition, the facility also grows food hydroponically – which you can also do at home – thereby further reducing the overall need for water and eliminating the need for soil.

Utilizing the mirrors for power to redirect the desert sun, all that is required is sunlight and seawater to grow as much as 17,000 metric tons of food a year.

And none of it is genetically modified.

What’s more, this kind of agricultural operation can produce year-round. During winter months, the greenhouse is fed with 39 megawatts of clean energy that comes directly from the sun. While the $200 million price tag may seem excessive, consider that with the renewable technologies and year-round growing seasons, such operations can quickly pay for themselves.

But the bigger issue is that Sundrop Farms is redefining the way food can be – and should be – grown in a world where the population is only expanding, along with competition for resources.

(Source: naturalnews.com; November 30, 2016; http://tinyurl.com/zeueckr)

One of the worst sources of pollution in New England will be home to clean, renewable energy.

The Mount Tom Power Station in Holyoke, Massachusetts—known as one of the worst polluters in New England—is on its way to a renewable rebirth.

The plant’s owners broke ground on a 5.76-megawatt solar farm in October on the site of the defunct coal-burning power station.

Activists had called for the closure of the plant for years, worried about the health effects burning coal was having on surrounding communities.

“This victory came after more than five decades spent inhaling soot and struggling to breathe and more than five years of organizing to retire and repurpose Mount Tom coal plant,” Claire Miller, lead community organizer for the Toxics Action Center, said in a statement.

More than 17,000 solar panels will be installed on the site, providing power to more than 1,000 homes.

The coal plant, which borders the Connecticut River, has been associated with the region’s perennially poor air quality since opening in 1960. Its owner, Paris-based Engie, decommissioned the plant in 2014 and plans to demolish it next year.

Engie, a $75 billion global energy company, said it shuttered the power plant because of competition from cheaper natural gas rather than as a result of pressure from environmentalists. Still, the company saw an opportunity to repurpose the site as a solar farm.

“For Engie, this project brings the concept of ‘Reduce, Recycle, Reuse’ to life,” Engie North America President Frank Demaille said in a statement. “It’s a unique opportunity to transform this property from a coal plant to a solar farm to serve the local community.”

The owners signed a 20-year agreement to sell the solar-generated electricity to Holyoke Gas & Electric. When the project comes online, the local utility—which provides power to 18,000 homes—will obtain more than 75 percent of its energy from renewable sources.

Now, environmental organizers are hoping Mount Tom will be a model for other communities.

“One of the advantages of a coal-fired power plant site is that it is already connected to the energy grid, so looking into whether a coal site can be used for renewable energy is something I hope every community looks to first,” said Miller.

Images: YouTube

For instance, the coal-fired Brayton power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts, is set to be shuttered next June. Houston-based Dynegy said it is weighing options for the site, including a proposal to convert the plant to a $1.3 billion, 400-megawatt natural gas power plant.

But environmental groups drafted a report outlining how the 234-acre waterfront site could host a 9-megawatt solar farm, a food waste digester, a large-scale battery storage facility, and a port to service offshore wind farms.

“This option would represent a ‘Clean Energy Hub’ scenario in which clean, renewable energy sources are brought together to provide reliable electricity, promote innovative new technologies, and reclaim the waterfront area from polluting large-scale industrial use,” the report stated.

(Source: takepart.com; November 6, 2016; http://tinyurl.com/o4uqgvo)