Monday, August 11, 2014

Open Source - The Way Ahead

Some good news among the bad: an inspiring story reminding us of the many possibilities available to us in a socialist world community - and of the way in which good ideas will be shared and utilised for the benefit of all.


The news about our global food supply is not good.
Around the world - from the Middle East, across much of Africa, to California - wars over water and food are already occurring.
Billions of people already lack adequate supplies of potable water on a daily basis, and by 2030, nearly half the world's population will live in "water-stressed" areas, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Environmental Outlook 2030 Report.

The corporate answer to the food crisis has been to introduce genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in an effort to expand crop sizes and yields. The outcomes and implications of this, however, continue to prove detrimental to both the environment and human health.
However, on a local level, scientist Joe Breskin seems to have found a solution for dramatically increasing vegetable yields in greenhouses, doubling the length of growing seasons and feeding more people for less money - all while using cutting-edge energy efficiency techniques.
"Heated greenhouses are not new, but the way we are doing it is," said Breskin, who describes himself as a "senior generalist, engineering design consultant" who likes to "fix complex, interesting things that don't work."
It might sound too good to be true, except that the facts are speaking for themselves.

Utilizing excess heat generated by fans circulating air through a greenhouse, Breskin's system uses hot metal coils within a massive water tank to heat water, which is then piped underneath vegetable beds, where more heat translates directly into larger, tastier, more abundant produce.
"The idea is to capture high-value heat and use it for the plants, rather than throwing it into the atmosphere," Breskin told Truthout. "I had to figure out how to do all this. This is an invention."
The warm water flow rate from his heated tank has had to be reduced by half. "Otherwise the veggies grow faster than they can keep up with," Breskin says with a laugh.
In addition to producing "too much" food, his system produces very little waste: The excess heat generated in his primary greenhouse is then bled into nearby greenhouses, so that no energy is wasted.
"This greenhouse then becomes the hub for three others," said Breskin, who has named each greenhouse according to the atmosphere generated within.

Acutely aware of our planet's precarious time, coupled with government's inability/unwillingness to change it, he knows all too well the poignancy of his project.
Breskin has worked and continues to work as an engineering design consultant and architect, yet describes his greenhouse project as "the most important thing I've ever done in my life."



Breskin's project has already increased the overall profitability of the farm where it is implemented. It has reduced total energy costs by 50 percent by running on around $2 per day; appears likely to have generated a 10-month growing season; has caused productivity increases per square foot and per plant - and appears likely to be expanding soon.
The entire project was built for $10,000, and it has already produced more than that amount in food alone.
But rather than aiming to make money on it, Breskin is more concerned about improving the system and getting it into the hands of more local farmers as quickly as possible.
"I'm open source," he said. "The only reason to patent this is to keep someone else from patenting it in order to monetize it."


As the dual crisis of the destabilized global economy and ACD intensifies with time, world governments' ability to mitigate disasters, let alone respond to them, is waning dramatically.
As a large segment of the population in New Orleans knows from being essentially abandoned by the US government during and after Hurricane Katrina, a move to a more efficient and sustainable life support system of food, housing and energy is critical.
Breskin is acutely aware of this, and it drives his work and ideas, as it has been doing for decades.

As for future plans, Breskin said he will continue to refine and expand his greenhouse work, in addition to building hyper-energy-efficient homes for people in need.
"I am designing a low-cost, easy-to-manufacture, permanently affordable 'zero energy house' that actually works in this challenging climate," he has written in his blog. "It is unabashedly low-tech but is based on several highly detailed computer models of airflow and heatflux and leverages work done decades, and in some cases, centuries ago. Design integrates cheap, relatively low temperature heat storage, multiple loop thermosiphons, trickle-down open loop SDHW collectors, air heaters and multistage heat recovery at every exit point, avoiding PV, wind, and other high cost and high embodied energy technologies entirely. I'm also working on a compost-powered, 'living machine' aquaponics system based on black soldier flies."
When asked to clarify these housing plans in laypersons terms, Breskin laughed and said this means he is "designing zero-energy houses for single moms, as opposed to for rich people."
Given the destructiveness and poisonous consequences of GMO foods and agribusiness's ever-expanding global agenda, Breskin's work may well already be filling a critical void. Every day, he is building a new, free-thinking, sustainable path to feeding the planet - and having fun along the way.

taken from a longer article here


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