The market research report is a brilliant, complete, and much-needed resource for companies, stakeholders, and investors interested in the global Indoor Luminaires market. It informs readers about key trends and opportunities in the global Indoor Luminaires market along with critical market dynamics expected to impact the global market growth. It offers a range of market analysis studies, including production and consumption, sales, industry value chain, competitive landscape, regional growth, and price. On the whole, it comes out as an intelligent resource that companies can use to gain a competitive advantage in the global Indoor Luminaires market.

Key companies operating in the global Indoor Luminaires market include GE Lighting, Philips Lighting, Osram, EatonCooper, Toshiba, Panasonic, Acuity Brands, Thorn Lighting, etc.

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Segmental Analysis

Both developed and emerging regions are deeply studied by the authors of the report. The regional analysis section of the report offers a comprehensive analysis of the global Indoor Luminaires market on the basis of region. Each region is exhaustively researched about so that players can use the analysis to tap into unexplored markets and plan powerful strategies to gain a foothold in lucrative markets.

Global Indoor Luminaires Market Segment By Type:

,Incandescent Lamp,LED Lamp,Halogen Lamp,Fluorescent Lamp,Xenon Lamp,Others

Global Indoor Luminaires Market Segment By Application:

,Household,Commercial,Industrial

Competitive Landscape

Competitor analysis is one of the best sections of the report that compares the progress of leading players based on crucial parameters, including market share, new developments, global reach, local competition, price, and production. From the nature of competition to future changes in the vendor landscape, the report provides in-depth analysis of the competition in the global Indoor Luminaires market.

Key companies operating in the global Indoor Luminaires market include GE Lighting, Philips Lighting, Osram, EatonCooper, Toshiba, Panasonic, Acuity Brands, Thorn Lighting, etc.

Key questions answered in the report:

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TOC

1.1 Research Scope1.2 Market Segmentation1.3 Research Objectives1.4 Research Methodology1.4.1 Research Process1.4.2 Data Triangulation1.4.3 Research Approach1.4.4 Base Year1.5 Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19) Impact Will Have a Severe Impact on Global Growth1.5.1 Covid-19 Impact: Global GDP Growth, 2019, 2020 and 2021 Projections1.5.2 Covid-19 Impact: Commodity Prices Indices1.5.3 Covid-19 Impact: Global Major Government Policy1.6 The Covid-19 Impact on Indoor Luminaires Industry1.7 COVID-19 Impact: Indoor Luminaires Market Trends 2 Global Indoor Luminaires Quarterly Market Size Analysis2.1 Indoor Luminaires Business Impact Assessment COVID-192.1.1 Global Indoor Luminaires Market Size, Pre-COVID-19 and Post- COVID-19 Comparison, 2015-20262.1.2 Global Indoor Luminaires Price, Pre-COVID-19 and Post- COVID-19 Comparison, 2015-20262.2 Global Indoor Luminaires Quarterly Market Size 2020-20212.3 COVID-19-Driven Market Dynamics and Factor Analysis2.3.1 Drivers2.3.2 Restraints2.3.3 Opportunities2.3.4 Challenges 3 Quarterly Competitive Assessment, 20203.1 Global Indoor Luminaires Quarterly Market Size by Manufacturers, 2019 VS 20203.2 Global Indoor Luminaires Factory Price by Manufacturers3.3 Location of Key Manufacturers Indoor Luminaires Manufacturing Factories and Area Served3.4 Date of Key Manufacturers Enter into Indoor Luminaires Market3.5 Key Manufacturers Indoor Luminaires Product Offered3.6 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion Plans 4 Impact of Covid-19 on Indoor Luminaires Segments, By Type4.1 Introduction1.4.1 Incandescent Lamp1.4.2 LED Lamp1.4.3 Halogen Lamp1.4.4 Fluorescent Lamp1.4.5 Xenon Lamp1.4.6 Others4.2 By Type, Global Indoor Luminaires Market Size, 2019-20214.2.1 By Type, Global Indoor Luminaires Market Size by Type, 2020-20214.2.2 By Type, Global Indoor Luminaires Price, 2020-2021 5 Impact of Covid-19 on Indoor Luminaires Segments, By Application5.1 Overview5.5.1 Household5.5.2 Commercial5.5.3 Industrial5.2 By Application, Global Indoor Luminaires Market Size, 2019-20215.2.1 By Application, Global Indoor Luminaires Market Size by Application, 2019-20215.2.2 By Application, Global Indoor Luminaires Price, 2020-2021 6 Geographic Analysis6.1 Introduction6.2 North America6.2.1 Macroeconomic Indicators of US6.2.2 US6.2.3 Canada6.3 Europe6.3.1 Macroeconomic Indicators of Europe6.3.2 Germany6.3.3 France6.3.4 UK6.3.5 Italy6.4 Asia-Pacific6.4.1 Macroeconomic Indicators of Asia-Pacific6.4.2 China6.4.3 Japan6.4.4 South Korea6.4.5 India6.4.6 ASEAN6.5 Rest of World6.5.1 Latin America6.5.2 Middle East and Africa 7 Company Profiles7.1 GE Lighting7.1.1 GE Lighting Business Overview7.1.2 GE Lighting Indoor Luminaires Quarterly Production and Revenue, 20207.1.3 GE Lighting Indoor Luminaires Product Introduction7.1.4 GE Lighting Response to COVID-19 and Related Developments7.2 Philips Lighting7.2.1 Philips Lighting Business Overview7.2.2 Philips Lighting Indoor Luminaires Quarterly Production and Revenue, 20207.2.3 Philips Lighting Indoor Luminaires Product Introduction7.2.4 Philips Lighting Response to COVID-19 and Related Developments7.3 Osram7.3.1 Osram Business Overview7.3.2 Osram Indoor Luminaires Quarterly Production and Revenue, 20207.3.3 Osram Indoor Luminaires Product Introduction7.3.4 Osram Response to COVID-19 and Related Developments7.4 EatonCooper7.4.1 EatonCooper Business Overview7.4.2 EatonCooper Indoor Luminaires Quarterly Production and Revenue, 20207.4.3 EatonCooper Indoor Luminaires Product Introduction7.4.4 EatonCooper Response to COVID-19 and Related Developments7.5 Toshiba7.5.1 Toshiba Business Overview7.5.2 Toshiba Indoor Luminaires Quarterly Production and Revenue, 20207.5.3 Toshiba Indoor Luminaires Product Introduction7.5.4 Toshiba Response to COVID-19 and Related Developments7.6 Panasonic7.6.1 Panasonic Business Overview7.6.2 Panasonic Indoor Luminaires Quarterly Production and Revenue, 20207.6.3 Panasonic Indoor Luminaires Product Introduction7.6.4 Panasonic Response to COVID-19 and Related Developments7.7 Acuity Brands7.7.1 Acuity Brands Business Overview7.7.2 Acuity Brands Indoor Luminaires Quarterly Production and Revenue, 20207.7.3 Acuity Brands Indoor Luminaires Product Introduction7.7.4 Acuity Brands Response to COVID-19 and Related Developments7.8 Thorn Lighting7.8.1 Thorn Lighting Business Overview7.8.2 Thorn Lighting Indoor Luminaires Quarterly Production and Revenue, 20207.8.3 Thorn Lighting Indoor Luminaires Product Introduction7.8.4 Thorn Lighting Response to COVID-19 and Related Developments 8 Supply Chain and Sales Channels Analysis8.1 Indoor Luminaires Supply Chain Analysis8.1.1 Indoor Luminaires Supply Chain Analysis8.1.2 Covid-19 Impact on Indoor Luminaires Supply Chain8.2 Distribution Channels Analysis8.2.1 Indoor Luminaires Distribution Channels8.2.2 Covid-19 Impact on Indoor Luminaires Distribution Channels8.2.3 Indoor Luminaires Distributors8.3 Indoor Luminaires Customers 9 Key Findings 10 Appendix10.1 About Us10.2 Disclaimer

About Us:

QYResearch always pursuits high product quality with the belief that quality is the soul of business. Through years of effort and supports from huge number of customer supports, QYResearch consulting group has accumulated creative design methods on many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch has become the brand of quality assurance in consulting industry.

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Indoor Luminaires Market Study for 2020 to 2026 Providing Information on Key Players, Growth Drivers and Industry Challenges - Cole of Duty

UV-C technology is nothing new -- it's been used before in consumer devices such as the PhoneSoap, pictured -- but safety concerns are on the rise as companies claim their UV-C light devices kill the coronavirus.

With man-made hand sanitizer in short supply, many people are turning to what's been called "nature's hand sanitizer," or ultraviolet light. UV light is the latest popular tool in the ongoing race to find ways to prevent oneself from catching SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Disinfection by way of UV light is nothing new: The International Ultraviolet Association says it's been a useful technology for over 40 years, contributing to clean water and clean air. Many consumer devices also use UV light to disinfect things, such as self-cleaning UV light water bottles and UV-emitting cases that clean your dirty phone.

When it comes to the coronavirus, though, things aren't so clear-cut. There are risks that come with using UV light devices, especially when using them on your skin. Before ordering the first UV light sanitizer you see, read up on the current evidence about UV light disinfectants and the potential risks of using them on yourself.

A quick primer on UV light: UV light comes primarily from the sun, but there are also man-made sources of UV light, including tanning beds and the currently buzzed-about UV disinfection lamps.

There are three classes of UV light: UV-A, UV-B and UV-C.

UV-A and UV-B light cause sunburns and premature skin aging, and exposure to both is associated with the development of skin cancer. UV-C light, which has the most energy of all three types, is the most harmful, but it fortunately doesn't reach the Earth's surface because our atmosphere absorbs it.

There's man-made UV-C light, too: It's what's in the UV light sanitizers that companies claim kill the coronavirus. According to the National Academy of Sciences, it's probable that this is true, because UV light has been used to disinfect surfaces and water for a long time, and it's generally successful.

It works because UV-C light is strong enough to destroy the genetic material -- either DNA or RNA -- of viruses and bacteria. There's no evidence right now that typical sun exposure can kill the coronavirus, so no, going outside on asunny daywon't reduce your risk of catching it.

Based on the available scientific evidence that UV light can destroy various viruses, it's probably true that UV light can kill SARS-CoV-2 -- but keep in mind that no published, peer-reviewed studies to date have looked specifically at the effect of UV light on the virus that causes COVID-19.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine reported that ultraviolet light probably can kill the coronavirus. "UV light has been shown to destroy other coronaviruses, so it will probably work on the novel coronavirus," the website reads. This includes the deadly Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome coronavirus, aka MERS-CoVand severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus, or SARS.

But there's one huge caveat: "UV light damages human skin, so it should only be used on objects or surfaces," the NASEM continues.

This means you should not use UV light as a hand sanitizer. Stick to washing your hands with soap and water (following proper hand-washing guidelines), or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer when soap and water aren't available.

The WHO echoes this, reporting on its coronavirus myth-busters webpage that people should not use UV lamps to disinfect their hands or other areas of skin, as UV radiation "can cause skin irritation and damage your eyes."

Dr. Tyler Hollmig, director of dermatological surgery at University of Texas Dell Medical School in Austin

Though scientists are working on ways to make these powerful disinfecting products safe for people to use, current devices are not safe to use on your body. This is partly because many (if not most) of these products are not FDA-approved or approved by any governing health agency, for that matter.

This means what you see may not be what you get -- an extremely important consideration, because although very low-dose, far-range UV-C light may not harm humans or animals, using too powerful a dose too close to your skin can indeed be harmful.

These devices "tend to come in many different shapes, sizes and strengths, and thus their antimicrobial ability may be variable," says Dr. Tyler Hollmig, director of dermatological surgery at University of Texas Dell Medical School in Austin. Consequences of using UV-C light on your body can include severe sunburn-like burns and retinal damage.

Plus, Dr. Hollmig continues, as UV light devices "are often not cheap -- especially relative to more standard disinfectants that we know work -- these may not be the most efficacious way to clean. It is also worth at least just reinforcing the fact that no UV light device should be a substitute for hand washing, mask-wearingand distancing."

UV light can damage your skin, so you shouldn't use UV light sanitizers on your body.

Dr. Hollmig helps break down UV light as it relates to skin health. UV light is classified into types based on wavelength, he says, with UV-A light (the longest wavelength) being most associated with skin aging and also with certain skin cancers, and UV-B light (middle wavelength) being associated with sunburn and most skin cancers.

"UV-C light has the shortest spectrum of wavelengths, but is probably the most toxic," Dr. Hollmig says. "Fortunately, the atmosphere filters out UV-C, so our skin and eyes are typically not exposed to it."

UV-C light is what's used by sanitizers to kill or inactivate microorganisms by destroying and disrupting their nucleic acids, Dr. Hollmig explains, so if the device is properly tested and properly used, it works to kill pathogens -- but something that powerful also has the potential to harm skin. Some potential problems? It can cause burns and is a known carcinogen (as is all UV light), Dr. Hollmig says.

All types of UV light, "including those reaching the Earth's surface from the sun and those emitted by tanning beds, have not been shown to be protective against the novel coronavirus and can certainly harm the skin," Dr. Hollmig says. "Additionally, since UV sanitizers employ UV-C light, which can be dangerous, care should be taken to avoid exposure to the skin and eyes. These devices are not designed to be used to disinfect the skin and can be dangerous if used improperly."

Other consumer devices that are intended to disinfect or purify a surface or substance like thisPhoneSoap caseshould be safe to use if you follow the instructions carefully. Self-cleaning water bottles that use UV-C rays to kill germs likeLarqshould also be safe when used properly, because they typically only work when the cap is screwed on tight, so no UV-C light can leak out.

Washing your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds is still the gold standard for disinfecting skin, and there's no risk of giving yourself a severe sunburn-like reaction.

Consumer devices aren't the only place to find UV light sanitization. Some brick-and-mortar businesses are installing UV light fixtures in their facilities in an attempt to completely disinfect the building and mitigate the risk of contracting COVID-19 through air or surfaces.

Again, because UV light is the primary germ-killer in the natural environment, it makes sense to take this approach. This practice, called "ultraviolet germicidal irradiation," has long been used in hospitals where pathogens abound.

New York-based Magnolia Bakery is one such business, claiming to be the first business in the city to install human-safe UV light fixtures, including a portal through which all customers walk in an attempt to destroy any pathogens that may be living on the skin. In a press release, Magnolia Bakery says the dose is low enough to avoid health complications such as burns or eye irritation.

The Healthe Cleanse Portal that Magnolia Bakery has installed in its New York locations.

While the effectiveness of environmental UV sterilization on surfaces such as floors has been confirmed, however, further research is needed about the safety of indoor UV light fixtures, as well as its efficacy at sterilizing clothes and human skin.

Plus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sayUV light "germicidal effectiveness and use is influenced by organic matter; wavelength; type of suspension; temperature; type of microorganism; and UV intensity." To effectively kill viruses, UV-C light must be emitted in a range of 200 to 280 nanometers, which has potential for harm.

That's a lot of stuff to consider, and something that manufacturers who are trying to quickly create UV lights may inadvertently (or purposely) ignore. It's happened before: In the past, the Federal Trade Commission called out manufacturers for making false claims about what their light-based products could do.

The International Ultraviolet Association concurs with the CDC, reporting that inactivation of viruses with UV light has been "demonstrated under controlled conditions in the laboratory," and that "the effectiveness of UV light in practice depends on factors such the exposure time and the ability of the UV light to reach the viruses in water, air, and in the folds and crevices of materials and surfaces."

In sum: Don't use any UV light devices directly on your skin. Be careful about using UV light devices on in-home surfaces. Do your research before going to establishments that have installed UV light fixtures. And definitely do not try to get any form of UV light (or any disinfectant, for that matter) inside of your body.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

Continue reading here:
Using UV light to kill coronavirus: The benefits and risks - CNET

By Marc J. Rauch Author of THE ETHANOL PAPERS Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher THE AUTO CHANNEL

Hi Jennifer -

Regarding the article you wrote for Popular Science magazine in October 2018, " Ethanol is renewable, but that doesn't mean it's good for us," I'm confused as to why you chose to do so. If you did it because you were assigned to it, then you should have done some real research into the issues. If you did it because you felt you had some valuable information to share, then you should have made certain that you had some valuable information to share. If you did it because you were offered some money by an oil industry entity, then you didn't do yourself any favor since it may ultimately cost you more in reputation.

The reason I'm contacting you today, in 2020, is because yesterday I received a message from a reader who disagrees with my advocacy of ethanol based upon your article. In my reply to this reader, I said that I could appreciate why he would cite your article, after all, it's in Popular Science magazine...a publication that many of us grew up with thinking that they know what they're talking about.

Unfortunately, this is another sad case of bursting a perception bubble, like finding out that the New York Times isn't fit to wipe your... um, to wrap fish in. I rate the level of information in your article to be somewhere around junior high school (now known as middle school).

Your main complaint with ethanol fuel is the issue of summertime smog and the claim that E10 somehow causes more low-level ozone to form than E0 (gasoline with no ethanol blended in). We know positively that E0 causes smog (proven by the decades of terrible smog in cities like Los Angeles and New York in the years preceding the use of E10). Moreover, we know that gasoline causes many other safety and health problems due to carbon monoxide, benzene, and the other junk added to the formula.

Ethanol burns so clean that people could be in a closed room burning ethanol (without any extraneous type of equipment to clean the fumes' emissions) and survive the experience quite handily. As I'm sure you know, ethanol is used safely for indoor lighting, heating, and cooking.

Therefore, the question is: What makes E10 hazardous (that it can create low level ozone smog)? There is only one answer: The cause is the 90% gasoline and aromatics that are contained in the E10 blend. The burning of all petroleum oil fuels produce nitrogen dioxide (NO2). This includes natural gas, which is a primary gas used for cooking and heating in the U.S. and in some other countries. (EPA's Basic Information about NO2)

"The Asthma Handbook" written by Jenny Lewis with The National Asthma Campaign (published by Vermilion Press 1995, Random House 2012), states this about nitrogen dioxide:

Moreover, if E10 was discontinued, in order for oil companies to produce a fuel to power the newest internal combustion engine vehicles (which require greater octane), they will have to add more oxygenates (benzene, toluene, xylene, etc.) to the finished gasoline. This would increase - not decrease - the amount of poison emissions in the air. This would not be beneficial to anyone.

Is it possible that the combination of clean burning ethanol with gasoline and aromatics in an E10 blend can produce more NO2 than just gasoline and aromatics (E0)? I don't see how, but for the moment let's say it does. In that case, the solution to the problem is to skip E10 altogether and go straight to E15 and higher blends. Studies show that E15 causes less ozone than E10, and the ozone continues to decrease as the ethanol level increases to E85 and beyond (proof that the problem is caused by gasoline and aromatics). And, we know from tests conducted by the EPA and U.S. national labs, as well as decades of ethanol-gasoline blend use in Brazil and Europe, that E15 and higher blends have no negative effects on internal combustion engines (despite irresponsible claims that ethanol causes greater damage1 to ICE parts and components than gasoline and aromatics).

The following are some links to studies that relate to higher ethanol-gasoline levels reducing E10 ozone:

Jennifer, you go on to write that ethanol contains only two-thirds of the energy content of gasoline. While this is true from a statistical perspective, the energy content comparison of the two fuels is entirely irrelevant. I provide all the reasons (and proof) why this is irrelevant in the these two reports:

You wrote "While all cars can run on E10, only specially designed vehicles and passenger cars that are model year 2001 or newer can use E15." This is untrue. Every internal combustion engine vehicle that can run on E10 can also safely, efficiently, and economically run on E15 and higher ethanol-gasoline blends. This is proven by Brazil's mandated use of E27 on ALL vehicles (regardless of model year), and by the six-plus decades of use of ethanol-gasoline blends in Great Britain and other European countries. SEE:

You may be confusing the issue of "warranty" with "ability," and therefore you may think that pre-2001 vehicles can't use E15 from a technical or mechanical perspective. If so, forget about it. Automobiles and boats that are only warrantied for E10 in America are warrantied for E27 in Brazil. Manufacturers typically only warranty their products for no more than is legally necessary in any given country. Since the fuel mandate in Brazil is a minimum E27, they warranty the vehicles/engines for E27. In the U.S., they can get away with E10, so they mostly draw the line at E10.

You then wrote, "Although ethanol was used to power the Model T Ford at the turn of the last century, gasoline soon replaced ethanol as the fuel of choice. However, after the additive used to improve octane ratings in gasoline was found to contaminate the drinking water supply, ethanol emerged as a cheap replacement to increase octane ratings, which is important for controlling combustion speeds. When blended, ethanol helps prevent the gasoline and air in the cylinders from burning too quickly and damaging the engine."

This is a horrible mish-mash of information; perhaps the single dumbest paragraph I've ever read about the engine fuels issue. The Ford Model T was designed to run on multiple fuels (I published a definitive report of this subject), and it is true that the first internal combustion engines were powered by alcohol fuels. However, the primary internal combustion engine fuel from the late 1800's until today was gasoline, not ethanol - so gasoline never "replaced ethanol as the fuel of choice." The reasons for all this are set forth in these two reports:

The additive added to gasoline in the 1920's to mitigate engine knock in high compression engines was tetraethyl lead (TEL). TEL may indeed contaminate water, but then it is a terrible poison so it contaminates everything. But the bigger problems caused by TEL was as an airborne poison that then falls to the ground and remains for long periods of time until it is disturbed and again circulates into the air. On top of TEL's poisonous characteristics, in order to mitigate the horrendous corrosiveness of TEL, ethylene bromide was added to the mix. Ethylene bromide is another poison. So if you're going to write about fuel additives that are poisonous, this is where you should have concentrated. Regarding water contamination, you should be referring to MTBE, but this wasn't used until after TEL was finally banned from use in most fuels (mid 1990's). Ethanol should have been the original ICE fuel, or at least the additive added to gasoline to stop engine knock 100 years ago, and then the exclusive additive once TEL was banned. Instead, the oil industry convinced governing politicians to let them use MTBE. The "convincing" was by way of bribing the politicians with campaign donations and other inducements. Ethanol finally emerged as the oxygenate solution because it is the safest, cleanest, most powerful, healthiest, and least expensive option. Ethanol doesn't help engines by slowing down the speed of gasoline's burn rate, it helps because it burns clean with no carbon debris and it helps to remove the debris that is caused by gasoline and aromatics.

You wrote, "In 2007, the US produced about 8.4 billion gallons of ethanol. Since then, production has almost doubled to 15.7 billion gallons in the 2016-2017 year, according to Department of Agriculture data." Yes, there has been a remarkable increase, but unfortunately you turn this wonderful achievement into a negative by claiming that the increase was due to excessively bad use of land, water, and fertilizer. In fact, the increase was due to innovations in agriculture that have provided far better results with less land, less water, and less fertilizer.

Lastly, you have the absolute effrontery to end on the food vs. fuel issue with the closing sentence: "...corn producers might be better off using the land to grow foodnot fuel." The overwhelming majority of corn grown to make ethanol is grown specifically for this purpose. However all of the corn used to make ethanol can also be used to feed animals...the animals that we eat. Only the starch of the corn is used for ethanol, the protein remnants are used for dry distillers grains (ddgs) and fed to cows and pigs. In case you haven't noticed, there is no shortage of corn for humans to eat: Corn on the cob, canned corn, corn tortillas, corn chips, and popcorn are as plentiful as ever.

You should be ashamed at yourself for writing that article for Popular Science, and Popular Science magazine should have been ashamed to publish it.

In any event, I hope you have a great memorial Day Weekend.

1 Regarding engine damage, READ:

Every Spark-Ignited Internal Combustion Engine Ever Produced Has Been Damaged By Gasoline

Why Do Small Engines Suffer From Ethanol Problems?

More here:
Just Because It's in Popular Science That Doesn't Mean It's True - The Auto Channel

As the world emerges from a pandemic that has kept about one in five people in their homes for weeks, it's little surprise that the idea of indoor farming is gaining traction. After all, we've had a lot of time to think about what we can do indoors and maybe even ponder what we may have done outdoors that contributed to this mess.

You wouldn't think farming, one of humanity's oldest and most crucial endeavors, would be on that list. But as the number of mouths that need to be fed has grown, so too has the need for arable land. To meet that demand, industrial farming, with its reliance on large-scale, intensive production of crops and chemical fertilizers, has dramatically transformed much of the Earth's surface. Along the way, it has erased vital wildlife habitats, addled our atmosphere with greenhouse gases and undermined the health of communities living near those lands.

Indoor farming, on the other hand, isn't as land intensive. In fact, new technologies and advancements in hydroponics are making it possible to grow crops without pesticides, soil or even natural light. And since indoor crops can be stacked vertically, there's no need for vast tracts of land. Imagine farms as downtown office towers, offering floor after floor of fresh produce.

A recent study from the World Wildlife Fund confirms that indoor farming can save land and water. But it also identified a few hurdles. In the absence of sunlight, indoor operations have to rely on powerful artificial lights that use a lot of energy and produce so much heat that some indoor farms have to rely on air conditioning year-round. Ramping up the scale of those farms may only shift the burden from land to energy use although, as the study notes, we can expect technology to improve energy efficiency.

In fact, the WWF puts so much stock in its potential, it's helping the city of St. Louis transform its network of abandoned caves into indoor farms.

At first blush, it may seem like an unlikely partnership. What does an organization dedicated to wilderness preservation have to do with the development of farms? But part of the WWF's mandate is to find ways to reduce the environmental imprint of growing food, especially since vital habitats like forests are often cleared to make space for farmland.

"We're looking for new business models, new strategies and partnerships, and different ways of approaching things that are financially profitable as well as environmentally sustainable," Julia Kurnik, the WWF's director of innovation startups, tells Fast Company. "Our goal as an institute is to find things that can happen quickly and at scale, so that's why we're interested in making sure they can really take off and live beyond our investment."

Advances in hydroponics and technology have made it possible to grow more of our food indoors. (Photo: Yein Jeon/Shutterstock)

But will indoor crops whether housed in sky-spanning towers or intricate caves ever fully replace their outdoor counterparts as breadbasket to the world?

Probably not. Even vertical farms stacked as high as skyscrapers will eventually run into the same space constraints unless, of course, we find a way to stack them to the moon. And we're just talking about a perfect vegetarian world here. No one is thinking about confining animals to caves and towers.

Besides, we're all relatively new to the trade. After all, humans don't have a lot of experience growing their food indoors like they do with traditional farming.

As investment banker Erik Kobayashi-Solomon writes in Forbes, "Humans have 12,000 years of experience growing food, but only a generation or so worth of experience growing crops indoors. We are still progressing up the technology learning curve, to the extent that there is a lack of good data about basic questions comparing crop yields for plants grown outdoors in soil, inside a greenhouse, and indoors using hydroponics, for instance."

But indoor operations may be able to ease at least some of the pressure industrial farming puts on our sorely overtaxed Earth.

The best part about an indoor farming revolution may be that it's already begun with individuals. The lockdown has seen a massive surge in the grow-your-own food movement, as people look not only for something to do with their time but also reduce their reliance on grocery stores.

(A shame we still haven't found a way to grow our own toilet paper.)

In the U.S., as Mashable reports, garden centers and seed delivery services have seen sales grow 10-fold during the pandemic, with Walmart selling out of seeds completely.

There's much breathless enthusiasm, and understandable optimism, to the indoor movement as people look to do things a little differently in the post-pandemic era.

"Thanks to giant leaps forward in the science of hydroponics and LED lighting, even people in windowless, gardenless apartments can participate in the revolution," writes Chris Taylor in Mashable. "With a number of high-tech consumer products on the way, the process can be automated for those of us without green thumbs."

And some farmers, like Benjamin Widmar, didn't need a pandemic to be the change he wanted to see. He's trying to grow enough tomatoes, onions, chillies and microgreens to meet an entire town's needs. All from his indoor farm in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, about 650 miles south of the North Pole.

"We're on a mission to make this town very sustainable," he tells the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Because if we can do it here, then what's everybody else's excuse?"

Take a tour of Widmar's operation in the video below:

Why the indoor farming movement is taking off

Indoor farming still has a few hurdles, but it could reshape the entire industry and ease the damage caused by traditional farming.

Go here to see the original:
Why the indoor farming movement is taking off - Mother Nature Network

Suaad Al Suwaidi believes that photography is an important outlet for creativity.

Eid has always been particularly inspiring to the Emirati photographer, who has spent previous years capturing the spirit of the occasion. However, with people practising social distancing and celebrating the holiday at home this year, both Ramadan and Eid have been rather different.

However, the photographer has taken it in her stride, seeing it as a new challenge to capture the spirit of the occasion while staying safe at home.

[Social distancing] should by no means dampen the passion around photography and capturing celebrated moments and stunning images says Al Suwaidi. Indoor photography, while presenting its own set of challenges, can be quickly aced with the adoption of a few tips and tricks, allowing you to document the season and tell a powerful visual story.

Below, she shares some tips on how to capture powerful images from the comfort of your home

It is important to understand how ISO settings a camera setting that can brighten or darken a photo affect the quality of images.

"In most cases you should aim to have high ISO numbers indoors as these will lead to sharper photographs, especially in low light conditions," says Al Suwaidi. "Indoor lighting adds to the complexity, especially when it is dark outside. For instance, you can set the Aperture at /2.5 in combination with a shutter speed of 1/20 and an ISO of 5000.

"Try these settings out but it is also worth playing around with them until you get the image quality you prefer."

The great thing about natural light is that it's not only limited to outdoor shoots.

"First, place the items you want to capture on a table next to a window or door with plenty of natural light. The more items you have the more creative you can get, while fewer objects can be a little more challenging," says Al Suwaidi.

Keep in mind that shadows can be very distracting.

To soften shadows, keep the window or curtains closed. But if it is still too strong then, place a diffuser in front of the items you wish to photograph.

"Alternatively, you can also put a white board or large piece of paper opposite to the sunlight to help soften the shadows," says the photographer.

Play around with the placement of the items. Get creative with placement and angles to see how they turn out. Then add or remove items to see how that impacts the image.

Essential camera accessories include a strong and sturdy tripod, while some great filters can come in handy for those not looking to spend too much time editing.

"To really see how good your photos are, it is better to transfer them to a computer to allow you to view them on a larger screen. That way you can pick out finer details or get more ideas on composition," says Al Suwaidi.

"Use an editing programme to crop or manipulate your photographs with post-production effects so they look their best. Free editing tools are easily available and are great with basic or complicated edits right from correcting colors to erasing blemishes and much more."

Do not leave the storage of your photographs and data to chance. If you are filing your photographs locally it is recommended that you have one dedicated storage drive in addition to your computers internal drive.

"One popular option is an external SSD with enough space to save thousands of high-resolution raw files and hours of high-bitrate 4K video like the SanDisk Extreme Pro portable SSD," recommends Al Suwaidi

Updated: May 24, 2020 11:38 AM

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Emirati photographer Suaad Al Suwaidi captures spirit of Eid by showing objects at home - The National

Researchers at the Roman fort of Vindolanda in northern England recently discovered a mouse-shaped strip of leather while sorting through previously excavated materials, reports Dalya Alberge for the Guardian.

The find, which dates to between 105 and 130 A.D., is thought to have been a toy or a practical joke, according to a statement from the Vindolanda Museum.

Measuring around five inches long and one inch wide, the swatch of leather boasts ears, four legs and a long tail, as well as scratches along its body perhaps meant to simulate fur.

Its a fabulous little piece. We werent expecting to find something like that, curator Barbara Birley tells the Guardian. If you were working in a dark Roman room, because they didnt have a huge amount of indoor lighting, you could definitely see it as a little mouse, especially because its not [like] Mickey Mouse with big ears. It looks very realistic.

Vindolanda sits one mile south of Hadrians Wall, a 73-mile stone barrier constructed around 122 A.D. to mark the edge of the Roman Empire and defend against incursions by the unconquered tribes of Scotland, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

The fort itself predates Hadrians Wall. Established as a permanent outpost by the late 80s A.D., Vindolanda was a classic turf and timber example of the Romans playing-card shaped military complexes, wrote Mike Ibeji for BBC History in 2012. The fort acted as an important base when the wall was under construction, keeping the project supplied with materials and labor.

Between its creation and the end of the Roman occupation of Britain in the early fifth century, Vindolanda was demolished and rebuilt nine times, according to the museum. After Romes exit, the site remained occupied for some 400 years, but by the ninth century, it had fallen into disuse.

To date, excavations have produced an archaeological bonanza of military equipment, personal effects, andperhaps most significantlywooden writing tablets detailing daily life at the fort.

Archaeologists are still sorting through the array of artifacts discovered at the site.

[Researching] the collection is an ongoing process, the museum notes in the statement. [I]t can take years after the excavation for every scrap and offcut to be examined.

With the fort and other British heritage sites closed due to COVID-19, staff have had ample time to revisit previously excavated objects.

In this case, the leather mouse emerged from a bag of scrap leather first discovered during a 1993 dig at the residence of a commanding officer. The strata of the find dates it to the second century, when the first Tungrains (inhabitants of what is now Belgium) were stationed at the fort.

Delicate artifacts like the leather mouse and the wood writing tablets are rare, as these materials are prone to rapid rot and degradation. At Vindolanda, such objects were sheltered from the ravages of time by a layer of oxygen-free soil created when heavy clay and concrete were laid down during construction, reported Alberge for the Guardian in a 2017 story on past finds at the fort.

Archaeologist Andrew Birley tells the Guardian that mice were common pests in and around Vindolanda. When staff excavated the forts graneries in 2008, they unearthed the skeletons of thousands of dead mice that had likely survived on fallen ears of grain.

It is perhaps therefore rather wonderful that someone 2,000 years ago made a toy mouse from leather, says Birley, crafting something to play with from their immediate environment.

The museum says the leather mouse will go on permanent display once pandemic restrictions are lifted.

Originally posted here:
Ancient Leather 'Mouse' Highlights the Romans' Sense of Humor - Smithsonian.com

When it comes to indoor lighting elements , LED lights use up to 90 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and also last up to 25 times longer-making them a sustainable option that can replace the traditional lighting tools. Also, an LED bulb tends to produce less heat than incandescent models which can reduce the indoor cooling costs as well. LED bulbs are one of the most popular products in the market and a number of them also come with smart lighting features that can be operated through the smartphones. If you are changing the lighting system in your home or are simply looking for options to increase indoor lighting, consider investing in an LED bulb. Check out our recommendations below: Overly bright light can cause damage to the eyes and the Philips LED bulb comes with a lower Flicker Index and SVM less than 1.3 which ensures that it does not cause any physical discomfort to the eyes. This energy-efficient home appliance features no visible flickering, glare reduction technology, and it is also eye safety compliant. This LED bulb can be used over a work or a study area for optimum brightness and also around the house to save electricity consumption. '; var randomNumber = Math.random(); var isIndia = (window.geoinfo && window.geoinfo.CountryCode === 'IN') && (window.location.href.indexOf('outsideindia') === -1 ); //console.log(isIndia && randomNumber A WiFi enabled device ensures extremely accessible operation and this LED bulb from Wipro can be controlled remotely with the help of the Wipro Next Smart App. This LED light bulb is also equipped for changing brightness and white light between Warm White (2700K) and Cool Day White (6500K) with Wipro Next App. The bulb can also be adjusted to change into a million Colors with color options available in App. This single LED bulb can be used for changing the ambience of room for partying, reading, sleeping and more. This LED bulb is also compatible with voice assistants and can be grouped to operate together. This smart LED bulb from Philips is also WiFi enabled, which gives you the access and comfort of operating it from your smartphone. With the help of the Wiz App, this LED bulb can be switched to change between a million installed colours and preset themes. Be it a cozy dinner gathering or a group study session, this LED bulb will provide seamless lighting that accommodates the lighting needs of both. The bulb also features a dimming setting along with cool and warm lighting mode. This innovative LED bulb from Syska is equipped to emit Ultraviolet Germicidal Irradiation (UVGI), that uses short wavelengths to effectively kill germs around its surroundings. With zero UV or IR radiations, this LED bulb gives light emissions of the wavelength 400nm to 420nm, which is completely safe for human exposure. The 2-in-1 bulb comes in two modes-lighting and anti-bacterial and just antibacterial to give you flexibility for usage. The HomeMate Smart LED bulb can be controlled through voice commands and the operations range from turning it on and off to dimming and switching to a preset. The LED bulb can also be controlled remotely with the help of a Smart Life app, that can be downloaded on both iOS and android smartphones. The smart bulb also enables you to schedule its switch on and off times through the App. This LED bulb can also be used in group and synchronized together to achieve a desirable lighting effect. The Syska Mosguard 2-in-1 mosquito killer bulb is a chemical-free product which can kill mosquitoes while providing you with energy efficient, adaptable lighting indoors. The LED bulb comes with two modes- a Mosquito Killer Mode and Lighting plus Mosquito Killer Mode, where the lighting aspect of the bulb operates as a regular light bulb. The mosquito killing aspect is a blue LED bulb that attracts the mosquitoes and kills them. As the LED bulb is designed for indoor use, it is ideal for installation in schools, colleges, commercial spaces as well as homes. DISCLAIMER: The Times of India's journalists were not involved in the production of this article.

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LED bulbs: A sustainable lighting option for your home - Times of India

Analysis of the Global Remote Control Smart Lighting Market

The report on the global Remote Control Smart Lighting market reveals that the market is expected to grow at a CAGR of ~XX% during the considered forecast period (2019-2029) and estimated to reach a value of ~US$XX by the end of 2029. The latest report is a valuable tool for stakeholders, established market players, emerging players, and other entities to devise effective strategies to combat the impact of COVID-19

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The competitive landscape section offers valuable insights related to the business prospects of leading market players operating in the Remote Control Smart Lighting market. The market share, product portfolio, pricing strategy, and growth strategies adopted by each market player is included in the report. The major steps taken by key players to address the business challenges put forward by the novel COVID-19 pandemic is discussed in the report.

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The regional landscape section provides a deep understanding of the regulatory framework, current market trends, opportunities, and challenges faced by market players in each regional market. The various regions covered in the report include:

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Market Segment AnalysisThe research report includes specific segments by Type and by Application. Each type provides information about the production during the forecast period of 2015 to 2026. Application segment also provides consumption during the forecast period of 2015 to 2026. Understanding the segments helps in identifying the importance of different factors that aid the market growth.Segment by TypeBluetooth Remote Control Smart LightingZigBee Remote Control Smart LightingWi-Fi Remote Control Smart LightingOthers

Segment by ApplicationIndoor LightingOutdoor Lighting

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Essential Findings of the Remote Control Smart Lighting Market Report:

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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Business Impact Remote Control Smart Lighting Market Industry Analysis, Trend and Growth, 2019-2028 - News Distinct

In 2018, the market size of Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System Market is million US$ and it will reach million US$ in 2025, growing at a CAGR of from 2018; while in China, the market size is valued at xx million US$ and will increase to xx million US$ in 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during forecast period.

The report on the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market provides a birds eye view of the current proceeding within the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market. Further, the report also takes into account the impact of the novel COVID-19 pandemic on the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market and offers a clear assessment of the projected market fluctuations during the forecast period. The different factors that are likely to impact the overall dynamics of the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market over the forecast period (2019-2029) including the current trends, growth opportunities, restraining factors, and more are discussed in detail in the market study.

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This study presents the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System Market production, revenue, market share and growth rate for each key company, and also covers the breakdown data (production, consumption, revenue and market share) by regions, type and applications. Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System history breakdown data from 2014 to 2018, and forecast to 2025.

For top companies in United States, European Union and China, this report investigates and analyzes the production, value, price, market share and growth rate for the top manufacturers, key data from 2014 to 2018.

In global Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market, the following companies are covered:

Market Segment AnalysisThe research report includes specific segments by Type and by Application. This study provides information about the sales and revenue during the historic and forecasted period of 2015 to 2026. Understanding the segments helps in identifying the importance of different factors that aid the market growth.Segment by Type, the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market is segmented intoCentralized control typeNon-centralized control type

Segment by ApplicationFire TunnelIndoor

Global Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System Market: Regional AnalysisThe Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market is analysed and market size information is provided by regions (countries). The report includes country-wise and region-wise market size for the period 2015-2026. It also includes market size and forecast by Type and by Application segment in terms of sales and revenue for the period 2015-2026.The key regions covered in the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market report are:North AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeGermanyFranceU.K.ItalyRussiaAsia-PacificChinaJapanSouth KoreaIndiaAustraliaTaiwanIndonesiaThailandMalaysiaPhilippinesVietnamLatin AmericaMexicoBrazilArgentinaMiddle East & AfricaTurkeySaudi ArabiaU.A.EGlobal Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System Market: Competitive AnalysisThis section of the report identifies various key manufacturers of the market. It helps the reader understand the strategies and collaborations that players are focusing on combat competition in the market. The comprehensive report provides a significant microscopic look at the market. The reader can identify the footprints of the manufacturers by knowing about the global revenue of manufacturers, the global price of manufacturers, and sales by manufacturers during the forecast period of 2015 to 2019.The major players in global Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market include:TigerFire(Guangzhou) Lighting TechnologyhenZhen Hocen Emergency LightingGUANGDONG DP COLoseZFEMPNDP

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The content of the study subjects, includes a total of 15 chapters:

Chapter 1, to describe Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market driving force and market risks.

Chapter 2, to profile the top manufacturers of Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System , with price, sales, revenue and global market share of Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System in 2017 and 2018.

Chapter 3, the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System competitive situation, sales, revenue and global market share of top manufacturers are analyzed emphatically by landscape contrast.

Chapter 4, the Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System breakdown data are shown at the regional level, to show the sales, revenue and growth by regions, from 2014 to 2018.

Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to break the sales data at the country level, with sales, revenue and market share for key countries in the world, from 2014 to 2018.

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Chapter 10 and 11, to segment the sales by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2014 to 2018.

Chapter 12, Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2024.

Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System sales channel, distributors, customers, research findings and conclusion, appendix and data source.

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Weekly Update: Global Coronavirus Impact and Implications on Intelligent Fire Emergency Lighting and Evacuation Indication System Market 2020- Global...

NOTE FOR 2020 READERS: This is the eleventh in a series of open letters to the next century, now just 80 years away. The series asks: What will the world look like at the other end of our kids' lives?

Dear 22nd Century,

For all the pain, grief and economic hardship the 2020 coronavirus pandemic has sown, a handful of green shoots seem to have taken root in its blighted soil.

Green being the operative word, because many of these developments could be a net positive for the planet. In lockdown, many of us are seeing what our cities look like without smog. Office workers are experiencing office life without the office; just last week, Twitter announced that most of its employees could work from home forever, while much of Manhattan is reportedly freaking out about what could happen to commercial real estate. Thousands of companies just discovered they can still function, and maybe even function better, when they dont chain employees to desks or force them to make a soul-crushing, carbon-spewing commute 10 times a week.

And what do more people do when theyre spending more time at home? Well, if youre like my wife, you start literally planting green shoots. Our house is filling up with them as I write this: lettuce, chard, tomatoes, basil, strawberries, to name the first five shoots poking out of dozens of mason jars now taking up residence on every windowsill. Shes hardly alone; garden centers and seed delivery services are reporting as much as 10 times more sales since the pandemic began. Even the mighty Wal-Mart has sold out of seeds. Ifviral Facebook postsand Instagram hashtags are any guide, pandemic hipsters have moved on from once-fashionable sourdough starters to growing fresh fruit and veg.

Another one of our cyclical back to the land movements seems to be underway, just like during the 1960s and the Great Depression before that. Only this time, we dont need land. We dont need soil. We dont need pesticide of any kind. We dont even need natural light. Thanks to giant leaps forward in the science of hydroponics and LED lighting, even people in windowless, gardenless apartments can participate in the revolution. With a number of high-tech consumer products on the way, the process can be automated for those of us without green thumbs.

In previous letters Ive discussed the inevitable rise of alternative meat, a process that has been acceleratedby the pandemic. I talked about the smaller, more nutritious plant-based meals we're going to need for life extension; I assumed such meals would be delivered by drone. But now I see a future with no food deserts, in which every home is filled with rotating space-station-like hydroponics run by artificial intelligence a cornucopia of push-button farming providing the side salad to your plant-based meat.

Even if you dont grow your own, robot-run vertical farms and community agrihoods, now springing up everywhere, will make amazing-tasting produce abundant and cheap. The locavores of our era like to boast about their 100-mile diet. Yours will look more like a 100-yard diet.

Its worth remembering that it wasnt supposed to be this way. The 2020s, in fact, is when we were slated for starvation, food riots, and big business quietly processing our corpses into food.

Thats the plot of the 1973 movie Soylent Green, set in the year 2022. Fruit and veg have all but vanished. In one scene, Charlton Heston's detective hero smuggles home a single tomato and a wilted stick of celery, enough to reduce his roommate Sol (Edward G. Robinson) to tears. On the other end of the future, in a lighter but equally depressing vein, the 2006 comedy Idiocracy showed the Americans of 2500 running out of crops because they couldnt figure out that water, not "Brawndo" (a spoof on colorful sports drinks), is what plants crave.

But these dismal future visions are receding thanks to the science of hydroponics which dates back to the 19th century, no matter its present-day association with growing marijuana. By the 1930s, wed figured out that what plants crave is surprisingly minimal: nitrogen, a handful of minerals, something to anchor the roots like rock wool or coconut husks, and H2O. Early hydroponic farms helped feed U.S. soldiers as they hopped through the Pacific during World War II.

Minimalist methods multiplied, and are still multiplying. Were tweaking the spectrum of LED lights for maximum growth, and figuring out ways to use progressively less water and nutrients. My wifes mason jar seedlings use something called the Kratky method, where you don't even need to change the water. It turns out this method wasinvented by a Hawaiian scientist as recently as 2009. And its the closest science has yet given us to a free lunch.

Im nowhere near as excited by hydroponics as my wife is. But during our quarantine time, even my head has been turned by the Rotofarm, which Ive come to think of as the iPhone of gardening. Its a beautiful device inspired by NASA research on growing plants in space. It uses anti-gravity literally, when the wheel rotates around its LED light source and the plants are hanging upside down to grow plants faster. A magnetic cover reduces the glare and increases the internal humidity. You manage it via an app.

Humankinds oldest technology turns out to be the most efficient use of space for growing plants; even in this 15-inch-wide wheel, you can really pack them in. At the bottom of the wheel, plants dip their roots into the water and nutrient tanks. An owners only job is to refill the tanks every week or so, and to snip off their dinner with scissors a few weeks after germination. Some leafy greens, like my favorite salad base arugula, can be regrown without replanting.

Still, to be fully self-sufficient, a future apartment is going to need to have multiple Rotofarm-style devices on the go at once but theyre designed to live anywhere you can plug in, on coffee tables, on desks, on walls, as eye-catching as artwork.

The main problem with the Rotofarm: It isnt actually on sale yet. It feels like weve done everything in reverse, Rotofarm creator Toby Farmer said when I reached him via video chat from his home in Melbourne. Weve got the patents, weve got the design awards, weve got the customers. Now we need to finish the prototypes. (One key tweak: reducing Rotofarms energy requirements, which as it stands could double many users household electricity bills.)

Still, orders have come from as far afield as Japan and the Netherlands, from retailers and regular users alike. Farmers biggest regret: When Ron Howards production company called, hoping to use eight Rotofarms in an upcoming Nickelodeon show set in space, Farmer didnt have enough to spare.

Rotofarm has been in the works for a few years, but acrowdfunded Indiegogocampaign that closed last month exceeded its $15,000 goal by a third of a million dollars. Farmer, despite his name, had no experience in this area; just 23 years old, he had been a web designer since the age of 12. But hes scaling up fast, hiring teams in LA and Singapore, soaking up their knowledge (he was keen to assure me hed hired a lot of 40-somethings for this very reason).

After a projected 2021 release date, Rotofarms business model involves making money on proprietary seed pods though Farmer admits that theres a DIY aspect where customers can make their own. His hope is that official Rotofarm pods will be competitive because theyll have fewer germination failures, but he'd rather see a world where more people own the device itself. In that spirit, hes making it modular the LED light bar can be upgraded separately, for example, rather than making customers buy a whole new device. (As for cost, Farmer says he can't comment yet though Indiegogo backers were able to secure one for $900 a pop.)

Might the Rotofarm fail? Of course, just like any other crowdfunded project. Much depends on its price point, as yet unannounced. But its far from the only next-level, set-it-and-forget-it hydroponic station taking aim at your kitchen. Theres a Canadian Kickstarter called OGarden that also grows food on a wheel, albeit a much larger wheel. The OGarden was funded in its first six minutes online and is set to cost around $1,000 per unit. Theres Farmshelf, a $4,900 pre-order hydroponic device that looks like a see-through refrigerator, backed by celebrity chef Jose Andres. Users will pay a $35 monthly subscription to get all the seeds they need.

One of these models is the future; maybe all of them are. Right now, these are high-end devices aimed at early adopters (and restaurants, which get a lot of benefit out of showing off how fresh their produce is as customers walk in). But with scale, with time, and with the growing desire for grow-your-own food that Rotofarm and its brethren have revealed, they will get cheaper and more widespread.

After all, the first Motorola cellphone, in 1983, cost $4,000. It looked like a brick and had 30 minutes of talk time. Now sleek, supercomputer-driven smartphones are accessible to pretty much everyone. The same process will happen in home hydroponics.

Give it 80 years, and I can see apartments with built in hydroponic farms provided as a standard utility, much as a fridge is seen as a standard feature today. As more humans move to urban environments two out of every three people will be in cities by 2050, according to the latest UN estimate the need for such devices will only grow.

We strongly believe the future of gardening is indoor gardening and more individual gardens, OGarden CEO Pierre Nibart told us last year. Stopping mass agriculture and starting to produce their own little stuff at home. He said this while demonstrating his family's daily OGarden routine: His kids harvest most of what they need for dinner from the spinning wheel.

Mass agriculture hasnt exactly covered itself in glory where produce is concerned. And in the post-coronavirus age, we are surely going to become less tolerant of the disease its intensive farming methods have caused.

Food poisoning caused by romaine lettuce, which makes up a quarter of all leafy greens sold in the U.S., has become depressingly familiar. The 2018 E coli outbreak was the worst it sickened 240 people in 37 states, hospitalized almost half of them, and killed five. But the CDC has logged 46 E coli outbreaks since 2006, and says that every reported case of infection is likely matched by 26 unreported ones. And theyre only just starting to figure out the most likely cause: groundwater contaminated by nearby cattle manure. There could also be infection from passing birds, another major vector of bacteria.

Never mind the wet markets of Wuhan that likely caused the coronavirus pandemic. Were already sickening ourselves on the regular with a problem that is baked directly into our food system and its affecting vegans as much as meat eaters.

I have no doubt youll look at our barbaric farming methods and shake your heads. Why did they use so much water? Why did they transport produce an average of 1,500 miles? Why did they grow it outdoors, where its vulnerable to pests, and then use pesticides that had to be washed off? Why did they think triple washing did anything to remove bacteria (it doesnt)? Why did they bother using soil, for goodness sake? Didnt they know what plants crave?

The force of legacy agriculture is strong, but an increasing number of companies are figuring out a better way: the vertical farm, so named because they can stack hydroponic produce in shelves or towers. As I write this, there are more than 20 vertical farm operations being constructed and tested around the country. They use around 90 percent less water than regular soil farms, can grow roughly 10 times more food per acre than regular soil farms, and using precision software they can harvest their produce 30 percent faster than regular soil farms.

Sure, theyre spending more on electricity, but theyre also spending nothing on pesticide. The economics seem irresistible.

Last year, less than 20 miles from where I write this, in highly urbanized South San Francisco, a company called Plenty unveiled its flagship operation, a vast vertical farm named Tigris. Its sheer scale invites the correct usage of Californias favorite word, awesome. Tigris can grow a million plants at once, harvesting 200 of them every minute. With $226 million in funding, Plenty says it has already farmed 700 varieties of produce. Right now, the cost to consumers is comparable to non-hydroponic products (I can get their baby arugula at my nearest Safeway for a dollar an ounce); in the long run, it should be cheaper.

And they are far from the only success story. A Chinese startup, Alesca Life, is turning disused parking lots into vertical farms as well as selling plug-and-play shipping container farms. Back in Silicon Valley, a company called Iron Ox is developing robot arms for indoor farmwork. The future looks green, and bountiful, and mostly automated (which is yet another reason youre going to need Universal Basic Income).

Which is not to say that outdoor agriculture is going away completely; its just going to shrink to the size of a community garden. Thats the basis of new urban developments called agrihoods, or multihome communities centered around a professionally managed farm; a just-published book called Welcome to the Agrihoodrepresents their first directory.

Rooftop organic farms, urban allotments: These are places where city dwellers can connect to the land and feel the satisfaction of nurturing their seeds from scratch. Soil may not be necessary to feed us, but sometimes its good to feel the dirt in your fingers. Similarly, farmer's markets are unlikely to go away. In a world where grocery stores are increasingly becoming delivery centers for services like Instacart, there will still be value in meeting and buying direct from the growers of high-end produce.

With big agribusiness heading indoors, with our apartments growing much of what we need and vertical farms providing backup in every city, well also be able to let most of our present-day farmland go fallow. That in itself should take care of a chunk of climate change, considering the amount of carbon-soaking vegetation that springs up on fallow land. Lab-grown and plant-made meat will remove the need for those disease-ridden feedlots. Aquaponics, another discipline where the science is expanding by leaps and bounds, may even let us grow our own fish for food, reducing the strain on our overfished oceans.

No doubt it wont be all smooth sailing. No doubt we, as humans, will stumble upon fresh ways to mess up the planet and make life worse. But from where Im sitting, surrounded by soilless germinating jars, the future looks very green and nutritious indeed.

Yours in leafy goodness,

2020

Read the rest here:
The indoor farm revolution - Mashable SE Asia