you are looking at the most
sophisticated technically Advanced
Greenhouse farming operation in
existence
125 Acres of glass structures just an
hour north of La this is howling
nurseries what the space shuttle is to
Aviation this is to farming so would it
be fair to say that this is probably the
most high-tech state-of-the-art
Greenhouse in the country in the world
inside are endless rows of perfect
tomatoes growing in a nutrient-rich
liquid diet diet a diet that requires no
soil none at all we feed it the nitrogen
and the potassium and all the other
elements such as iron and zinc Computers
monitor everything so it's really quite
a step away from the field farming to a
much more scientific level where you'll
get 20 times the production per acre in
a facility like this and the waste in
the field nearly half of all Tomatoes
don't meet consumer standards here only
2% are rejected this holds water it's
essentially inert it's also um a very
porous media the plants sink their roots
in coconut fiber it drains it and it's
also a natural product when we're done
with it it goes out to green waste and
it can be composted and recycled these
Vines grow about a foot a week and since
it's all enclosed there are no bugs no
weeds no fungus that means no pesticides
no herbicides no fungicides all those
things that none of us really want to
use the greenhouse basically eliminates
98% of of the use of those products but
these tomatoes are not organic the real
position on organic is then you can't
feed them fertilizers liquid fertilizers
or chemical fertilizers which we do here
you do feed fertilizers but we think of
ourselves as being better than organic
While most Farmers gauge the seasons and
watch for Chang ing weather kcy
howling's green houses have just one
season the growing season crops are
grown year round in an environment that
can only be called tomato Nirvana what
makes this greenhouse more advanced than
any other are the computer systems that
control the temperature the humidity and
the carbon dioxide levels when do I
start the water how much water do I give
them what's the nutrient levels there is
a huge amount of factors so why aren't
other Farmers copying this operation
Professor Terry Fujimoto runs a
hydroponic Greenhouse at Cal Poly Pamona
so hydroponic farming is so fantastic
then what what is keeping it from
spreading across California money and
it's very expensive to to let's say take
an acre and convert it into a hydroponic
uh operations the most recent expansion
of the howlings nursery cost $50
million and there are still some
circumstances beyond their control in
2000 before better screens were
installed a tiny but powerful pest got
through we had a plague here it was
called the white fly plague we ended up
having to clean the whole facility out
and replant it all and that that was a
pretty significant uh hit that we took
but not only did that happen that was
also the same time that the uh black
outs were happening in California so it
was almost like the perfect storm they
have since built their own power source
solar panels now give them nearly total
energy Independence this one's done
these tomatoes do cost a bit more but
customers are
buying Greenhouse farming is still a
very small part of California's $ 36
billion agriculture economy but experts
say it's growing by a healthy 10% a year
and its productivity is unmatched if
these Tomatoes were grown in fields you
would need 24 times as much land and
that's why the future of farming may
look like this