V.3 Polydome Concept Overview Why it Works Self-Supporting System The basic principle behind the success of a Polydome system is that it is largely self-supporting. Most elements provide a variety of beneficial functions in addition to just producing marketable products: pollination, CO2, shading, heat, and nutrient exchange, among others. This internal exchange of materials and services reduces the need for many technological inputs as well as certain kinds of labor. This same principle also structurally avoids the wastage of resources, space, and time. For example, CO2, which would normally be a waste product in mushroom production alone, becomes a valuable resource in the context of a greenhouse. For these self-supporting functions to operate properly, all available spatial “niches” within the greenhouse must be adequately occupied. This also results in greater production density. Low-Tech When Possible A second principle within Polydome is that lowtech solutions are used whenever possible. For example, if shading can be achieved using colocated plants, then that is considered preferable to installing a more precise mechanical shading mechanism. These low-tech solutions are supplemented with high-tech options only when technology truly provides added value, justifying its additional complexity and cost. Economic Advantages From an economic perspective, the key advantage of a Polydome system is that rather than focusing 26 on the large-scale production of a single, relatively valuable crop (tomatoes, peppers), it produces many high value crops that usually have a limited local market (herbs, mushrooms, berries). This effectively translates into the large-scale production of a single valuable crop. The economic surpluses of this strategy allow for additional, slightly lower-value local markets to also be captured. The production of many crops in one location is potentially well-suited to local, direct sales. A small Polydome greenhouse could be located in or near a residential neighborhood, in which case it could easily have a shop for direct sales, reducing the costs associated with packaging and transport. Shrinking the distance between producer and consumer also translates into higher profits. Such high crop diversity provides additional benefits to the local community and reduces dependence on products shipped from distant parts of the globe. This can often translate into environmental benefits as well. Finally, there is an economy of scale in greenhouse production, even when there is a large variety of crops being produced. For example, pruning, weeding, and mulching can all be done simultaneously for a variety of crops. Flexible Performance One of the benefits of the Polydome greenhouse is that it is designed to be fairly flexible in terms of its crop output. The greenhouse can respond to changes in market conditions from year to year (particularly in the annual and hydroponic crop modules), and adjust better to local demands than a traditional greenhouse. This is much easier in a polyculture system than in a monoculture, where switching production to a significantly different crop requires readjusting the entire production facility. Ideally, the Polydome system’s productivity would be able to adjust responsively to the exact demands of the local market. Diverse, Social Labor Several papers have been published on the topic of agricultural labor. There are some activities, such as many kinds of fruit picking, for which mechanized labor does not yet exist. One of the biggest problems with this category of work is the psychological drudgery and physical strain of performing the same action repeatedly, which is often required with large scale farming. If there are five hectares of tomatoes to pick, the activity is necessarily repetitive and tiring. With a polyculture system, the problem of repetitive labor is largely alleviated. Any single crop occurs in a much smaller patches. Even visually, the greenhouse much more closely resembles a natural ecosystem, which alleviates some psycho- Pagina 25
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