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Certainly for commodities at scale, no beating the agricultural infrastructure.

But for a premium produce for a premium product, it can pay. You may not even be able to get from a grocery store, what you can grow for your own needs.



Yes, but you can also grow that premium produce with traditional agriculture at a lower cost than these alternatives.

It's just that most big farms want the most cost-effective use of their land.

There's an argument that this process facilitates some market for people to pay a premium for produce grown inefficiently, but people also pay a premium for their local farmers markets to grow exotic stuff too. Traditional agriculture still wins, all things being equal.

I dabbled in Aquaponics for 10+ years.


Most restaurants don't have a farm. And land costs are quite high right now - out here in Iowa it averages $7500 per acre. Most of it not for sale anyway. Planting/harvesting machines can be half a million.

The flexibility of e-ag may yet have a place. Weather, season, rain don't have to matter.


Companies are already selling LED growing units for inside the home for food (like aero-garden). The interest is there, what's missing is for it to make significant inroads into the grocery/restaurant food chain.




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