While floating farms are already an indication of what agriculture might look like in the future, underwater farms are just starting out.
The prospects these farms have for increasing food security around the world look very promising.
Just recently, the world's first underwater farm started producing fruit and vegetables after a "running-in" period.
Nemo's garden
The first of the world underwater farms is called Nemo's Garden, “Nemo's garden” (I imagine in honor of the famous little fish created by Disney). It is a complex that includes 6 mini submarine greenhouses off the coast of Noli, a Ligurian town in the province of Savona.
The underwater farm uses solar energy as well desalinated sea water to produce various aromatic herbs, lettuce and strawberries, eight meters below the surface of the water.
Underwater farms, a great opportunity
"If we continue to exploit and reduce our forest reserves and our green lung, the process of climate change will accelerate, with the consequent sea level rise", He says Gianni Fontanesi, coordinator of the Nemo's Garden project.
We can now look to our oceans as a resource that must be sustainably protected. And we can explore them at the same time as an alternative to traditional agriculture.
Gianni Fontanesi
The sea naturally provides ideal temperatures for plant growth, but there is more to growing plants under water.
According to Fontanesi, the underwater environment, in addition to giving tastier harvests, protects the plants. “It's a laboratory and nothing can reach the plant unless it's brought in from the outside,” he says.
For now, Nemo's Garden is primarily an underwater research laboratory, but food security in coastal areas is expected to increase (with other farms of this type) in the future.
