I ran across this mention of this subterranean farm in an old bank vault under the busiest part of Tokyo . This blog explains how the farm works has has lots of great pictures showing the different grow rooms.
Though walled in from sunlight, weather and geology, it’s unbelievably verdant. Tomatoes, lettuces, strawberries, and other fruits and vegetables, as well as flowers and herbs, are grown in an area covering almost a square kilometer (!!!). There is even a terraced rice paddy.
This kind of farming can’t be an efficient use of energy, but interesting to see how urban farming experiments are taking shapes in other parts of the world.
actually if they used natural light from light tubes and/or fiber optics in con-junction with solar energy it would be energy efficient… if there is natural undergrouns water this would be a wonderful use of natural resources… given the location there should not be worries of bugs or rodents either or control thereof would be much easier….
Why are we so afraid of using energy? Japan is sitting right on a fault line, perfect for geothermal energy, and perfect for subterranean gardens. Its a limitless source of energy, the earth’s internal heat, and its really a shame we aren’t using more of it. You could produce hydrogen at geothermal stations and ship it to areas where geothermal power isn’t available.
Overall, I applaud the Japanese once again for pushing technology to its limits and not letting “green-itus” to infect their desire to advance their society. Also, we can’t colonize space if we can’t learn first how to farm here on earth within a sealed environment.
This is something I would love to do if I had the money, the advantages are so great, year round veg, flowers, and Herb. No bugs, exact metering of water usage ( from rain water storage tanks ) Sun light from fibre optic bundles, nutrients from household compost. Bananas, rice and mangos in the ‘tropical’ room, apples, oranges and herb in the subtropical room. One would need fans to give the plants the natural wind movement to strengthen them Bees would also be good, perhaps a cow some chickens and other birds then it’s good by radioactive rain, by by supermarkets and rising food prices, see ya later power grid, and best of all if you feed the grid they pay you so no more land tax!
wow sounds great to me!!!