Food and Farming

                              Boutique Farming


       In North America the family farm has been shrinking for two hundred
     years. Now the possibility of a renaissance is on the horizon. A new
     development may increase the number of small farms. With such naturally
     occurring plants as potatoes, eggplant, celery, corn, and cabbages,
     anyone who buys the seed can grow and sell the plants. Not so with
     patented plants developed through biotechnological methods. These plants
     are protected under patent regulations and may only be grown by private
     arrangement with the patent holder.

       One possibility is that small "boutique" farmers may in future operate
     similar to owners of McDonald's franchises. They will enter into a
     contract with the patent holder to handle the "product," the way a car
     dealer handles Honda or BMW. The boutique farmer will purchase the seed;
     plant, grow, and market the product; and agree to participate in broad
     advertising campaigns supported by all growers tied in with this product,
     which is what happens with a McDonald's franchisee. In return the farmer
     will have the right to be the only grower of that product in a given area
     -- perhaps as few as five or ten farmers per state or province.

       The real innovation lies in a product developed by manipulating genes
     into a new plant. It might look like a carrot, but it might be green or
     red, and it might also offer relief from a particular allergy. The
     technique of transferring genes from one plant to another is already well
     established. Imagine the implications of transferring a gene from the
     insect, animal, or human world across the gene barrier into the plant
     world. Theoretically, any gene from any living organism can be moved into
     another living thing. As mentioned, researchers have succeeded in
     transferring the gene that causes the glow in a firefly into tobacco
     plants. And the University of Guelph Agricultural Department has hatched
     chickens -- with the heads of quails!

       Along with the possibilities of unusual, nutritional, and perhaps
     medically potent foods produced in this manner, new methods of growing
     such products will develop. Many fruits and vegetables will be grown
     inside, year round, and in vertical rows. Plants can be grown in what
     appears to be a large, vertical sewer pipe with open "windows" encircling
     the pipe at regular intervals. The patented seed is planted within these
     windows and grows out through the openings to reach super-pure sunlight
     collected on the roof of the "farm" by a device, similar to a satellite
     dish, that tracks the sun. Fresnel lenses collect and intensify the
     sunlight and feed it down to the plant through fiber-optic cables. On the
     way down, a process called a "light shift" removes the infrared band of
     light, which is redirected to help warm the building. The harmful
     ultraviolet portion of the light spectrum, which burns tomatoes and
     people, is discarded; only pure sunlight reaches the plants, allowing
     them to carry out photosynthesis. Solar panels on the roof collect
     additional sunlight and turn it into electricity. This is stored until
     the hours of darkness to provide the additional light required to bring a
     total of twenty-two hours of "sunshine" each day to each plant.

       Irrigation of the plants requires far less water than on flat, open
     land where much of the water evaporates or runs off. The same applies to
     fertilizer that runs off in heavy storms or filters through to the water
     table when the plants do not take in the quantity applied to the soil.
     The vertical drip system ensures that each plant receives precisely the
     moisture and fertilizer it requires.

       There are other advantages. These farms can operate year round and thus
     can contract with hotels, restaurants, and grocery stores to provide a
     known product every day of the year at standardized prices through the
     seasons. With this type of operation, a ten-hectare indoor farm should be
     able to produce the equivalent of what is now grown during five or six
     months on a 400-hectare farm.