Underground Farming in Japan

There’s something unusual going on inside a former bank vault hidden beneath a high rise building in Tokyo, Japan: farming! And no, not the illicit kind:

While we’re on the subject of things agricultural and of things covered by just about everyone long before today, there is Pasona O2, a subterranean farm cultivated inside a former bank vault beneath a high rise building in one of Tokyo’s business districts.

Though walled in from sunlight, weather and geology, it’s unbelievably verdant. Tomatoes, lettuces, strawberries, and other fruits and vegetables, as well as flowers and herbs, are grown in an area covering almost a square kilometer. There is even a terraced rice paddy.

This is all done, by the way, in a very hi-tech fashion. Computers control the temperature and light, which in this case is artificially generated by LEDs, halide lamps and sodium vapor lamps.

Is it a secret lab to genetically engineer the crop of the future? An agricultural experiment so human can survive a doomsday scenario? No, actually it’s to show what farming is like to jobless urban youths in Japan!

Pruned blog has the story (with more pics): Link – via Tokyomango