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The Future of Farming

© Klaus Thymann

Meet the desert farmers. In the Jordanian desert, set in the epic red desert landscape we see what looks like a Mars colony.

Climate change, freshwater overuse as well as an unsustainable international food supply chain mean current farming methods are riddled with problems, but there are solutions.

In greenhouses revolutionary agriculture take saltwater from the red sea, use solar energy to power the desalination process and grow vegetables in the desert. This is what the future of farming looks like and it provides food to a country in desperate needs. Jordan currently imports 98% of its food. Desert farming also provides jobs and boosts the local economy.

Sizeable parts the Saharan desert were formerly vegetated, but Caesar’s army conquered part of African territory north of the Sahara, turning forests into farmland supplying two-thirds of Rome’s total grain supply. This resulted in deforestation, increased salinity in the soil and loss of minerals.

By solving the food crisis, the trend of desertification will be reversed with restorative growth. This is done by combining existing and proven environmental technologies, such as the evaporation of saltwater to create cooling and distilled fresh water (i.e. in a saltwater cooled greenhouse) and solar thermal energy technologies.

The project is designed to utilise what we have enough of to produce what we need more of by using desert land, sunlight, saltwater and CO2 to produce food, freshwater and energy. It is titled The Sarah Forest Project and has been in beta-mode since 2015 but have very recently scaled up to real production.

It is working! They have greenhouses, solar panels and are up and running, tomatoes, lettuce and aubergines are already on people’s plates. So we could also visit farmers market and maybe a family or restaurant using the produce.



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