People like science and technology,food and presenter Dara Briain, but it still felt like quite a long hour. Plus: film-maker Matthew Heineman was accurate where the bullets are flying in Storyville: Cartel LandDara Ó Briain is in a greenhouse, or admiring the tomatoes. A very large greenhouse as it happens,about the area of 49 football pitches (football pitches I can picture; it’s Wales I have a problem with). This is a place called Thanet soil in Kent, a hi-tech indoor farm that grows millions of fruit and vegetables throughout the year. The exhibit is Tomorrow’s Food (BBC1).
Everything at Thanet soil is controlled: the temperature, and the weather,the insects. There’s no soil, no soil at Thanet soil; tomatoes are grown in a dense wool made of volcanic rock. It holds water better, and doesn’t have any unsafe bacteria and gives the grower more control. Precise amounts of nutrients and water are drip-fed to the plants along pipes,all controlled by computer. The plants are tricked into producing more fruit, using sudden drops of temperature. It means four or five times the yield of a more traditional method of growing tomatoes.
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Source: theguardian.com