Canada can already grow lettuce under LEDs in January. The real question is whether the power bill lets anyone afford it. Angle 2 of our food security series is live.
If we must use fossil fuels to normalize climates for agriculture, would it not be more productive to apply them directly to growing food rather than channelling them through hyper data centres purportedly built to solve problems of productivity? And on which side of the ledger are we counting the massive engineering required to put water where it isn't (https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/glacier-ghosts-of-the-rocky-mountains/) and remove it from where it's not wanted? (Calgary 2013, Edmonton 2026).
Where do we put the costs of engineering inter-basin transfers and the expense of restoring an ecosystem subjected to inter-basin transfers? Who picks that up? The potato growers or the tomato buyers?
And who pays for the water treatment plant built with the steel made using the metallurgical coal that leached heavy metals into the watershed requiring it to to be cleaned up? Who pays for the steel required for the marvels of climate controlled agricultural technology? Who pays for the water needed for the coal to make the steel needed for the war machines and for the water needed for the AI technology necessary for the upcoming and ongoing wars over the dwindling arable land and sources of water needed to grow our food?
The cannabis industry uses a mix of these methods (fully indoor to fully outdoor) and could also be a good source of information and strategies to guide production of food crops.
Good read.
Thanks for writing this.
There must be opportunities for waste heat to be employed more for just this use.
If we must use fossil fuels to normalize climates for agriculture, would it not be more productive to apply them directly to growing food rather than channelling them through hyper data centres purportedly built to solve problems of productivity? And on which side of the ledger are we counting the massive engineering required to put water where it isn't (https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/glacier-ghosts-of-the-rocky-mountains/) and remove it from where it's not wanted? (Calgary 2013, Edmonton 2026).
Where do we put the costs of engineering inter-basin transfers and the expense of restoring an ecosystem subjected to inter-basin transfers? Who picks that up? The potato growers or the tomato buyers?
And who pays for the water treatment plant built with the steel made using the metallurgical coal that leached heavy metals into the watershed requiring it to to be cleaned up? Who pays for the steel required for the marvels of climate controlled agricultural technology? Who pays for the water needed for the coal to make the steel needed for the war machines and for the water needed for the AI technology necessary for the upcoming and ongoing wars over the dwindling arable land and sources of water needed to grow our food?
Yes, it's complicated.
The cannabis industry uses a mix of these methods (fully indoor to fully outdoor) and could also be a good source of information and strategies to guide production of food crops.