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Comment by chris_va

Of course, grow-lights in Wyoming will be mostly coal powered, whereas a field in Salinas is renewable energy.

Assuming I am doing the math right, shipping 1 ton of food 1000 miles (refrigerated) is roughly ~30-40kg of CO2, or about 7g-CO2 per tomato (6oz tomato).

A tomato plant is roughly ~40lbs/sqft/year (hydroponic, 40W/sqft), so about 20Wh/g, or about 1.4kg-CO2 per tomato for coal. Maybe more like 1kg-CO2 for the mix in Wyoming.

... depends on what you are trying to optimize, I guess, and how much natural light you can harvest in the vertical greenhouse.

parent chris_va 5 years ago

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