((PKG)) HIGH--TECH TOMATOES
((Banner: Plants))
((Reporter: Crystal Dilworth))
((VOA Persian))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: Camarillo, California))
((Banner:
Houweling’s grows tomatoes in a 50 hectare sustainable greenhouse
The greenhouse is 24 times more productive than a conventional field))
((Banner:
The greenhouse is 24 times more productive than a conventional field))
((Casey Houweling, Owner, Houweling’s Inc.))
Obviously there’s glass up there. That’s to let the sun through. There’s nothing better than the sun. There’s no artificial light that can replicate the growing capabilities of the sun and all the other great things that a man-made light bulb can do. We turn everything from the nutrients, combined with the sun, into the plant factory, which actually is alive, and it moves and it does all kinds of things, and that transforms it into tomatoes. It’s really quite a complex system because plants have balances. They either want to produce leaves, or they want to produce fruit. You want to encourage the fruit but not too much, because you need leaves, because these plants that are in here will last for a year. So, we want the ‘factory’ up top to continue to produce the sugars to keep that plant going, but we don’t want to starve it of sugars and say we’re going to steer it all to the tomatoes. These rows, from one end to the other, are 125 meters long. But every plant down here is the same, and that’s the key to growing in a system like this.
((Banner:
Water for the greenhouse is collected from rainfall on the roof))
((Casey Houweling, Owner, Houweling’s Inc.))
So, every drop of water the plants get, they use and what they don’t use gets recycled, sterilized and resent out to the plants. We use high quality fertilizers, which is nutrients, you know that. I mean, basically what the plant gets is what we as humans need to survive. Through that whole process, we use probably about 10 percent of what a field farmer uses to produce the same amount of product. I think one of the biggest challenges in the world, from a food perspective, is the imbalances of the rich and the poor countries. Really, (with) this kind of technology and other technologies, we have the capabilities to feed the world, to feed double the population of the world, easily with utilizing what it is. But it takes money. It takes planning. It takes foresight. And you know, do we, as a world population, take this seriously enough to work together for the common good and do it in a manner where you can do this profitably? Because I think often times what gets left out of this is the economics behind it. You know, it has to generate wealth. My heart goes out for the people that can’t feed their kids, right? I can do a little. You can do a little. I think that together if we all do a little, then we can start making some really big differences.
((NATS))
