{"id":20220,"date":"2022-10-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=20220"},"modified":"2022-10-27T15:44:22","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T13:44:22","slug":"a-view-from-the-farm-with-adam-henson-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/2022\/10\/13\/a-view-from-the-farm-with-adam-henson-5\/","title":{"rendered":"A view from the farm with Adam Henson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A view from the farm<\/span><\/em><\/h4>\n\n

Adam Henson<\/h2>\n\n
\n\n

HYDROPONICS IS THE NEW FARMING REVOLUTION<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n

A new<\/strong> agricultural revolution is underway in Britain, and it\u2019s set to cause the biggest change in farming for 300 years. Forget the 18th-century innovations of seed-drill inventor Jethro Tull and crop-rotation king \u2018Turnip\u2019 Townshend, because this time ingenuity is being stretched to the limit by the three-pronged challenge of climate change, protecting the environment and a booming world population. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s called hydroponics, an idea that is hundreds of years old and a term that was first used as long ago as the 1920s. It comes from the Greek words for water, hydro, <\/em>and work, ponos; <\/em>literally, working with water. It\u2019s a system of growing plants in water without any soil, which means there\u2019s no need for vast fields of seasonal crops grown in the conventional way on everprecious fertile land. So the very concept of what a farm looks like is immediately turned on its head. If you don\u2019t need fields, food can be grown anywhere and farms don\u2019t necessarily need to be in rural areas. <\/p>\n\n

One of the UK\u2019s hydroponic innovators is growing a range of salad crops and herbs beneath the busy streets of Clapham in an urban farm the like of which I\u2019ve never seen before. Using the aptly named trademark \u2018Growing Underground\u2019, the produce is grown 12 storeys down in an abandoned tunnel that was used as an air-raid shelter during the Blitz. On my visit, it took me a while to get used to the subterranean surroundings and the rumbling sound of tube trains on the Northern Line above my head, and the growers wore lab coats and hairnets.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\u201cHydroponics could ease the food supply and security issues we face\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

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At Growing Underground, micro-greens are grown using hydroponics and coloured lights below Clapham\u2019s busy streets <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
PRECISION GROWING <\/strong><\/h5>\n\n

In this unlikely environment, parsley, celery, coriander, salad rocket and about 20 other plant types were growing in long rows of shallow trays fed by nutrientrich recycled water and lit by LEDs. The lights are crucial. Changing the range of colours that bathe the plants not only promotes growth but also affects the flavour. I have never tasted such punchy garlic chives in my life! In such a controlled setting, everything can be precisely monitored: CO2, temperature, nutrient and pH levels. And precision means efficiency. <\/p>\n\n

This might all sound a bit far-fetched. But hydroponic technology has been developing fast in recent years. It is attracting huge amounts of investment and those tasty greens grown in Clapham (or under it, to be precise) are already being sold by some of the big high-street grocery chains. And this summer, one of the biggest vertical farms in Europe opened in Bedford, on a site capable of growing 20 million hydroponic plants a year, including strawberries, peas, peppers and cherry tomatoes. <\/p>\n\n

As she cut the ceremonial ribbon at the official launch, the-then DEFRA minister Jo Churchill, said she expected such farms to \u201cplay a large part in the future\u201d of farming. Of course, hydroponics aren\u2019t right for everyone; it\u2019s not suitable for many fruit and arable crops, and it will never replace conventional farming completely. But with an ever increasing population and a finite amount of good arable land available, it\u2019s seen as a possible way to ease the food supply and security issues we all face. It could even put a stop to the practice of flying salad leaves thousands of miles to appear on our shelves. And that can\u2019t be a bad thing! <\/p>\n\n

\n\n

Ask Adam: What topic would you like to know more about? <\/strong><\/em><\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/em>
Email <\/em>your <\/strong>s<\/span>uggestions to editor@countryfile.com<\/a> <\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

Photo: Alamy <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new agricultural revolution is underway in Britain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":20573,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"14","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"14","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_14-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_14-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"March-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_external_id":"March-2022-14-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"November-2022-41-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000084064||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000084064||","purple_android_product":"com.im.countryfile.196","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.countryfile.196","purple_ios_product":"com.im.countryfile.196","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.countryfile.196","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"91da22fd-9e7f-40d1-a93f-fc46e9516d91","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-10-12T15:38:19Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"26c1d0fa-bfea-45d2-8f18-7cb73ddf77cd","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-10-27T13:44:29Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AJsHQ-r_qRdKPGHy3Pd93zQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[19],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/PAW49J_preview.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/PAW49J_preview.jpg",1600,1063,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/PAW49J_preview-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/PAW49J_preview-300x199.jpg",300,199,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/PAW49J_preview-768x510.jpg",768,510,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/PAW49J_preview-1024x680.jpg",800,531,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/PAW49J_preview-1536x1020.jpg",1536,1020,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/PAW49J_preview.jpg",1600,1063,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A new agricultural revolution is underway in Britain","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20220"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20220"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20773,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20220\/revisions\/20773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}