“You need to progress those issues together with tackling climate change. Our response to that was, well, let’s take what we have enough of to produce what we need more of.”
One resource Jordan needs more of is water. The second most water-poor nation in the world, it has less than 150 cubic meters of water per person, per year. (The US has more than 9,000). Part of the problem is that the country is three-quarters desert...
The project’s concept is elegant in its simplicity: Jordan’s solar energy desalinates the seawater, the desalinated water grows the crops (and the run-off cools the greenhouse) and the crops help plough carbon from the atmosphere back into the soil. Three tentpole challenges, tackled at once.
And along with being a sustainable use of resources, the project could bring another benefit. Once scaled up and commercialised – and especially if its methods are adopted by other farms in the country – it could give Jordan another list of valuable exports. Currently, the country imports 98% of its food...
They’re currently preparing studies to show how a pipeline could create value not only for a commercial-scale Sahara Forest Project, but for the rest of the community, such as by creating job and business opportunities. The level of support for the project – including, crucially, endorsements from the royal family and royal courts of Jordan – mean they have reason to think it may move forward, perhaps with a pipeline beginning as soon as the end of 2018.
(via BBC - Future - How vertical farming reinvents agriculture)
