The Plant Explained: A Tour Of Chicago's Amazing Vertical Farm (PHOTOS, VIDEO)

In April, the Associated Press reported on The Plant, an urban "aquaponics" farm in Chicago that's situated in an old meat-packing warehouse in the middle of a food desert.

The Plant is a fish hatchery, hydroponic garden, commercial kitchen, and brewery for both beer and kombucha tea. Perhaps best of all, the waste from one part of farm serves as raw material for another, making it a net-zero energy system, according to Arch Daily. Everything is recycled, making it a kind of "green factory."

A new informational video produced by Today's Green Minute briefly explains the complex network of relationships that make up the farm's man-made ecosystem.

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For example, fish feed on spent barley from the brewery, and plants feed on waste from the fish. Kombucha cultures feed off oxygen produced by plants, while plants feed off carbon dioxide produced by the kombucha cultures.

But the "heart" of the operation at The Plant will be an anaerobic digester, which will convert waste to biogas, which will then be used to power turbines that create electricity. Once the anaerobic digester is installed, The Plant will be completely off the grid.

According to a spokesperson for the Plant, who e-mailed The Huffington Post, the anaerobic digester may be installed by June 2013.

"[We are] in the process of finishing the permits and beginning to order equipment, but [it's] a massive piece of machinery," she wrote.

Correction: A previous version of this story implied that the anaerobic digester had already been installed.

WATCH: The Plant's Net-Zero Energy System Explained

LOOK: A Quick Tour Of Chicago's Amazing Green Factory

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• Hydroponic Garden Under UV Light

  Light that shines on the Plant's hydroponic gardens is powered by electricity generated by an anaerobic digester. (Flickr: The Plant Chicago - http://www.flickr.com/photos/plantchicago/)

• Arugula Beds

  Oxygen produced by plants benefit kombucha cultures; Carbon dioxide produced by kombucha cultures benefit plants. (Flickr: The Plant Chicago - http://www.flickr.com/photos/plantchicago/)

• Tilapia At The Plant

  Tilapia are an ideal fish for an urban hatchery. They are fast-growing, lean and short-lived, with a primarily vegetarian diet. (Flickr: The Plant Chicago - http://www.flickr.com/photos/plantchicago/)

• Fish Tanks

  Waste from fish is used as fertilizer for plants. Plants produce clean water for the fish. (Flickr: The Plant Chicago - http://www.flickr.com/photos/plantchicago/)

• Brewery Demolition

  Spent grain from the brewery "feeds" the Plant's anaerobic digester. Spent barley literally feeds fish in its hatchery. (Flickr: The Plant Chicago - http://www.flickr.com/photos/plantchicago/)

• Greens To Feed A Kitchen

  The Plant's greens will be used to prepare meals in a commercial kitchen located on-site. This kitchen will provide jobs and nourishment in a food desert. (Flickr: The Plant Chicago - http://www.flickr.com/photos/plantchicago/)

• The Plant, Exterior

  What was once a meat-packing warehouse is now an urban farm. (Flickr: The Plant Chicago - http://www.flickr.com/photos/plantchicago/)

• A Salvaged Air Compressor

  Situated in an 87-year-old meat packing warehouse in Chicago's distressed Back of the Yards neighborhood, the Plant's location was a boon for salvaged material. (Flickr: The Plant Chicago - http://www.flickr.com/photos/plantchicago/)

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Comments

[cultiv8or]

06:42 PM on 12/13/2012

It's interesting how people can simply assume they know how much power the lights will need, and how much power the biodigester can put out, without actually knowing anything resembling the numbers that will be involved.

I can't say, from my seat at my computer, whether this place can truly operate in a completely self-sustained manner, but I also can't say that it won't. And neither can anyone else who doesn't have access to the inputs and outputs the system will be handling.

I CAN say that it is entirely possible to run something like this fully self-sustaining, given the right conditions. Look outside the window. That's the ecosystem. It does this every single day. We can do it indoors, too. It's merely a question of scale.

[Colle Davis]

06:45 PM on 05/08/2012

With the lights they are using to grow their crops with they will never break even on the energy cost. Even with the best lights having the garden inside is very energy expensive. Aquaponics needs to be in a greenhouse with access to at least six hours of sunlight per day to have a zero or near zero carbon footprint. The biodigester will help reduce their energy consumption from the grid, but the numbers they are using are based on faulty assumptions.

To see what real commercial aquaponics that is truly energy efficient please look at the outfit called Portable Farms. They have reduced the energy requirements to the point that a relatively small solar system will support a 10,000sq ft installation and feed 240 adults their vegetables year round forever.

[Russ Klettke]

10:46 PM on 05/08/2012

I've had the chance to tour The Plant and you should know it's very much a work in progress. I found it to be very exciting and I wish great success to the people investing time and treasure into the venture.

My question is about fish being raised inside a building with no direct sunlight. Can real full-spectrum light sun be replicated indoors? What is lost to the fish who never see the sun?

[Treehuggindirtworshiper]

04:37 PM on 05/08/2012

Way cool. I did something similar on a very small scale for a science fair project in high school. No beer though. Maybe that's why it never really did very well.

[Conspiracy2Riot]

10:14 PM on 05/08/2012

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[Scott Howes]

04:08 PM on 05/08/2012

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