Farming is moving indoors, where the sun never shines, where rainfall is irrelevant* and where the climate is always right.

    The perfect crop field could be inside a windowless building with carefully controlled light, temperature, humidity*, air quality and nutrition*. It could be in a New York high-rise, a Siberian bunker*, or a complex in the Saudi desert.

    People say this may be an answer to the world’s food problems.

    “In order to keep a planet that’s worth living on, we have to change our methods,” says Gertjan Meeuws, of PlantLab, a private research company.

    Meeuws and three other Dutch bioengineers have taken the concept of a greenhouse a step further, growing vegetables, herbs* and house plants in enclosed* and regulated environments where even there is no natural light.

    In their research station, strawberries, yellow peppers and banana plants take on an eerie* pink glow under red and blue bulbs of Light-Emitting Diodes, or LEDs. Water trickles* into the pans when needed and all excess is recycled, and the temperature is kept constant*. Lights go on and off, simulating day and night, but according to the rhythm* of the plant — which may be better at shorter cycles than 24 hours — rather than the rotation of the earth.

    The Dutch researchers say they plan to build a commercial-sized building in the Netherlands of 1,300 square meters with four floors of vegetation by the end of this year. After that, they plan growing vegetables next to shopping malls, supermarkets or other food stores.

    They use no pesticides, and about 90 percent less water than outdoors agriculture. While LED bulbs are expensive, the cost is steadily dropping.(SD-Agencies)