Chang Chen-kai is part of Taiwan’s new generation of high-tech farmers that is harnessing the country’s technological edge in light-emitting diodes to grow vegetables indoors under bright LED lights.
Chang works in a “grow-room,” an air conditioned area at a plant factory operated by Arwin Biotech Co (雅聞生技), where plants grow in nutrient-filled water instead of soil and the temperature and humidity are controlled. LED lights imitate the cycle of night and day.
These high-tech indoor farms yield more crops in the same amount of space than soil and do not need pesticides. Plants grown under LED lights grow twice as fast because of the intensity of the lights and nutrients provided in the water, growers say.
“To grow vegetables in the water [under lights], you need less land,” Chang said, adding “you don’t need pesticides.”
Such plant factories are gaining popularity for raising everything from common lettuce to the exotic ice plant, a thick leafy vegetable from South Africa that looks like it has water bubbles on its leaves and can fetch US$400 per kilogram.
In recent years, Taiwanese manufacturers have been able to produce cheaper LED lights that consume less electricity and give off light that mimics the intensity and spectrum of sunlight.
Tingmao Agricultural Biotechnology Co (庭茂農業生技) was an early pioneer, starting its plant factory in 2007, while today it is the leading producer of LED-grown vegetables in Taiwan. It has also set up its own restaurant using vegetables from its factory to allow consumers to taste the produce themselves.
However, Lily Chang (張瑀庭), a food writer and professor at Taoyuan Innovation Institute of Technology, is not convinced that LED-grown vegetables are as nutritious as those grown in soil.
“Natural soil-based plants get nutrients from soil ... [that are] extremely difficult for us humans to manufacture,” she said.
Consumers should insist that the government draw up regulations on the chemicals used in the water of LED-grown plants and hygienic standards, she said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
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