Rebirth: I am Sai, but the animation Three Body

Chapter 23 Vertical Farms and Space Breeding

"Tell me, the others should be quiet first." Sai immediately pointed at the professor.

"My method is to build a vertical farm, I believe you should know this kind of cultivation method."

Sai shook his head and said, "I know a little bit, but please explain."

"Okay, vertical farming is actually not a very new thing. It was proposed before the 21st century, and now both Singapore and the United Arab Emirates have adopted vertical farming."

"Essentially, vertical farming is indoor farming that focuses on controlled-environment agriculture and soilless cultivation techniques such as hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics."

"Its feature is that more than a dozen planting layers are stacked vertically together, providing light to the plants through artificial light, and watering with water mist or drip irrigation systems, which can achieve high yields throughout the year."

While the professor was explaining, he began to project pictures of vertical farms on the screen.

In the picture is a building that looks like a factory building, and the rows of shelves inside are used to grow crops, which makes Say think of the shelves in the mall.

"The advantages are obvious. It can be planted throughout the year regardless of seasons and pests. The water consumption is less than one-tenth of traditional agriculture. The consumption of arable land is zero, and a high degree of automation can be achieved."

"But its disadvantages are also obvious. Because crops rely entirely on artificial light instead of natural light, the energy consumption is extremely alarming, and it is difficult to pay back."

"There are some gangsters (mainly in the US) who use vertical farms to grow illegal crops because it's a huge profit to sell, even with artificial light."

"Energy consumption is not a problem." Sai waved his hand and said, "We are already researching deuterium-helium 3 fusion, and we will be able to get rid of expensive tritium after a while."

"Now that we have a space elevator, we will soon be able to mine helium-3 on the moon on a large scale. Once we get rid of tritium, the energy will be extremely abundant."

"Okay." The expert continued: "Then according to what you said, vertical farming is almost perfect."

"It can save a lot of arable land, and at the same time greatly optimize the efficiency of agricultural production. For the first time, it turns low-density agriculture into high-density industry. I won't go into details here."

"A typical labor-intensive industry. I didn't expect agriculture and industry to become one soon." Sai nodded and said, which reminded her of a modern assembly line factory.

Because these densely packed shelves require many people to look after them, and these new-age "farmers" will gather to work in vertical villages that are far smaller than farmland.

So vertical farms have an obvious benefit, because vertical farms can provide a lot of jobs, so the unemployment problem can be buffered.

This makes the G more acceptable, although vertical farms can accommodate far fewer farmers than traditional agriculture.

But compared with fully intelligent GM crop farms, the number of jobs provided by traditional crop vertical farms is still acceptable.

"Stupid idea, this is tantamount to turning agriculture into a labor-intensive industry." After the professor finished speaking, a Monsanto expert suddenly whispered disdainfully.

"Do you have any better advice?" Say asked, pointing to the outrageous Monsanto expert.

The Monsanto expert said: "Of course, this kind of low-efficiency labor is not only a waste of electricity, but also has little significance for improving agricultural production."

"It's just moving the field that was outside to the house. It's useless except to save arable land, avoid pests and environmental hazards."

"Our main direction should be transgenic. Of course, it's not just relying on humans to directly embed foreign genes into crops. This method can only be used as an auxiliary."

"If you don't embed foreign genes, how can you do genetic modification?" Say wondered.

"Let nature choose, such as establishing a space test field for breeding, or irradiating plants with high-intensity radiation, so that the genes of crops can mutate themselves."

"Of course the most important thing is what you said about being out of nature. Then the focus of mutation should be on self-pollination first, so that crops can get rid of pollen carriers, such as bees and other insects."

These words resonated with many people. In the past, space breeding could not be used on a large scale due to the limitations of aerospace technology.

But now that there is a space elevator, the cost of going to space for humans is even lower than that of civil aviation aircraft if the cost of building a space elevator is not considered.

In this case, space breeding can be vigorously used to establish a large number of agricultural college laboratories in the outer space of the earth.

"It's worth considering, but it doesn't seem to conflict with that gentleman's plan just now." Sai nodded and said, "Does anyone have any good suggestions?"

All the experts present shook their heads, although according to Say's request, everyone who could come in had prepared their own plans.

But in fact, most of the plans are just different in details.

After all, there are not many agricultural development routes, and they are generally in the direction of intensification and high yield. It is impossible to grow silicon-based crops on the moon.

"Then take the three roads together." Sai knocked on the table and said: "First focus on the construction of vertical farms for natural crops, and then gradually replace them with ecological cycle systems and genetically modified crops."

"This cost is too staggering, and we may not be able to operate so many projects." The minister reminded.

"You have to consider that PDC is very rich. Ed Bass only gives you tens of millions of dollars, but I can give you hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars." [Note]

"Tens of millions of dollars are enough to build Ecosystem 2. The money I gave you is much more than this. Is it enough to launch thousands of projects of the level of Ecosystem 2?"

"Chairman Say, you'd better not let the reporters hear this, or they will start laughing at you." The minister joked.

"I know you're already laughing at me for being an illiterate who thinks money can be used to advance science."

"No one laughs at you like that. As long as it is used correctly, money can indeed promote scientific progress." The Monsanto expert just said hastily.

The expert managed to convince Say, so he was naturally reluctant to let this big benefactor go. You must know that she is a Wallfacer, and the resources in her hand are probably enough to buy 10 Monsantos.

"That's good. The two professors who gave core suggestions just now are the leaders of the Fourth Agricultural Revolution project. The others either give their own suggestions or work under their research institutes."

"As for asking for money from the nine council members, leave it to me. You are responsible for using the money to implement the plan. Let's adjourn the meeting. I want to see the detailed policy on the computer tomorrow."

After Say said, he left the conference room without caring about the people who were arguing.

Those two lucky ones fell into a daze immediately, they didn't expect that they would reach the sky in such a single step, at this moment, the eyes of the experts present looking at them changed.

Because these two people suddenly became the top leaders from their colleagues.

　[Note: Ed Bass is an American environmental financier who once invested in Biosphere 2]

　　
　
(End of this chapter)