freight farming?

Have you read about freight farming? In Boston, this is where food may be coming from now. Wow. This is the future! Freight cars transformed into aquaponic vegetable gardens. Lights, nutrients all delivered artificially. It removes the variables of weather, airborne disease spores and sunlight availability. Amazing.

As an outdoor gardener, I question this approach. Do we want to eat vegetables raised in a "freight car" environment? Yes, I do buy the aquaponic tomatoes and lettuce in the grocery store IN THE WINTER in New England. But has our environment become so pathogen infested that this is needed year round? In cities like Boston, the pathogen level plus the transportation cost must be benefit by this?



What about food nutrient levels of the artificially tended produce? Do these compare with organic field-raised vegetables? And the expense of air conditioners and year-round artificial lights? Does this make the difference useful? I am imagining a ring of freight cars full of salad growers around cities. Not a bad image, but why not a ring of farm fields around cities? Are giving in to the fight for easy food production?

It doesn't just happen! To grow food without chemicals and WITH natural light and air takes some effort. But it produces food that provides flavor (!!), nutrients, visual pleasure. Variety. Traditional. -- I can't imagine all those year round AC's balance out.