Food thrives in underground farm
Flums SG/Regensdorf ZH – The Hagerbach Test Gallery in Flums in the canton of St.Gallen is working on the food supply of the future. Under the direction of the Amberg Group, scientists are growing lettuce and vegetables – in combination with fish farming, no less.
The Hagerbach Test Gallery, located in the St.GallenBodenseeArea, is a modern research facility where companies and scientists from around the world carry out their experiments. It is operated by the Amberg Group, which is based in Regensdorf in the canton of Zurich.
One of the institutions working in the underground test gallery is the Swiss Center of Applied Underground Technologies (SCAUT), which is creating “a utopia of food production”, according to an article in the “Wirtschaft regional” newspaper.
One of SCAUT’s areas of work is aquaponics. To this end, it launched the Underground Green Farming pilot project in Flums, where it can grow crops in an underground conditions protected from heat, drought, hail, precipitation and crop pests.
“We are currently in a test phase, but the results so far are promising,” said Klaus Wachter, managing director of SCAUT.
Aquaponics combines aquaculture with hydroponics, which means it is possible to cultivate plants and fish together. The fish excrement serve as the basis for the nutrients of the plants in a closed biological cycle; as a result, only the fish feed has to be added externally. Rainbow trout are currently being bred in Flums in addition to lettuce, herbs and cabbage.
While the concept itself is not new, SCAUT is working towards implementing it on a new scale. “We want to develop an industrial concept here that will create the basis for industrial-scale production,” said Wachter. “Humankind will continue to grow, but resources are limited.”
In his opinion, two trends could have a significant influence on how this is implemented in the future: urbanization means that agricultural land close to consumers is becoming more and more scarce, while car sharing could leave underground parking garages empty, making them suitable for underground green farming.
SCAUT wants to develop the circular principle even further: it is now planning an underground data centre, where the resulting heat could be diverted to the farming area, making it possible to grow strawberries and the like in underground farms.