agriculture Archives

January 3, 2019January 3, 2019

Chernobyl Green Houses for Contaminated Land

Upon a recent visit to the evacuated towns around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster a picture of this abandoned green house used by the former residents of the town struck a chord. At Plantimate we are developing a food growing system independent of the surroundings so as to avoid issues with soil contamination, this example in an area with high levels of radioactive soil is an extreme example but given communities are starting to move back it only inspires us to work harder on Plantimate and make it as accessible to as many people as possible.

December 30, 2017January 17, 2018

Permaculture and Food Growing in the Arctic Circle

Check out this great project: Polar Permaculture is bringing fresh food and permaculture to the harsh climate of Svalbard in the Arctic Circle. At Plantimate we believe that improving the ability to grow food in some of the world’s harshest environments is essential if access to healthy food for as many people as possible is to be realised. This project is a great example of such an effort:

“On Svalbard, the soil is extremely poor and unsuited for growing food, so if it were not for the worms and compost, soil would literally have to be shipped in.”

permaculture dome

December 11, 2017December 11, 2017

Informal Settlements in Sao Paulo

Check out this article and the aspiration to legitimise informal settlements: reignited debate about whether urban development should aim at gentrification or helping the growing ranks of people forced to live on the street and in the periphery.

We at Plantimate have been involved in research regarding a partnership between business and informal settlements in Sao Paulo and where collaboration on both sides may be found. Check it out here.

November 10, 2017November 14, 2017

Reducing the Impact of Pesticides

Plantimate aims to eliminate the need for pesticides. However on the larger scale pesticides can still be necessary evil so check out some inspirational work being done by Agrospheres in reducing the impact of these pesticides in the growing process!

AgroSpheres aims to solve these problems. Developed by University of Virginia students Zach Davis, Joseph Frank, Payam Pourtaheri, Ameer Shakeel and Sepher Zomorodi, AgroSpheres is an enzyme delivery system that allows farmers to degrade pesticides on their crops in a matter of hours instead of days. Soon the startup will also be able to protect crops from frost damage.