Nemo’s Garden is the world’s first underwater cultivation system of terrestrial plants. Located off the coast of Noli, Italy, southwest of Genoa, the farm consists of an array of suspended, transparent, dome-shaped greenhouses called biospheres, anchored to the bottom of the sea.
“The mission of this technology is to change agriculture, to give it an added possibility for growing produce on the huge amount of coastlines of the Earth, while being sustainable and not affecting the environment,” co-founder Luca Gamberini tells CNN.
His father and founder of underwater gear company Ocean Reef Group, Sergio Gamberini, came up with the idea by combining his two passions – scuba diving and gardening. In 2012, the project began with planting basil in a balloon underwater. Ten years on, Nemo’s Garden is growing strong.
With the global population expected to reach roughly 10 billion by 2050, the UN estimates food production will need to increase up to 60% to meet this demand.
“We have a finite amount of resources, and our (current) way of harvesting those resources is unsustainable,” Gamberini says, “and we believe that underwater gives us some advantages (over) traditional agriculture.”
Floating six to 10 meters underwater, plants in Nemo’s Garden are separated from any outside pathogens and pests, while still having access to freshwater that occurs as a result of desalinated condensation within the biospheres, Gamberini says. Also, he notes, the relatively steady temperature of the sea water is an ideal environment for plant life.
Nemo’s Garden uses hydroponics – a technique that uses water-based nutrients instead of soil, the same method used in most indoor vertical farms. Sunlight does reach the plants, but supplemental growing lights are used when needed.
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