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FARMING: Agriculture
Vegetable and Fruit Production:
Due to a singular lack of land intensive farming of
land-based crops will be needed. A wide variety of crops last for a season,
crops such as lettuce, spinach and peas. Owing to the placement of Oceanic City
within one degree of the equator, it is expected that there will be a yearlong
growing season affording the inhabitants yearlong fresh produce.
Many crops can be grown on the vertical instead of the
horizontal Great success can be had with trellising such crops as vine beans,
tomatoes and even squashes. The practice of espalier methods utilized since the
17th century to raise such crops as grapes and to train trees including
fruit trees to grow on a trellis in a single plane would most likely be used.
Mono-agricultural practices on the land (where one type of plant is raised by
itself on acreage can not be done on the limited space provided in Oceanic
City. Companion planting will be necessary with intercropping methods, such as
planting lettuce among rows of onion. Lettuce grows faster and has a shorter
life expectancy of onion. The harvest of the lettuce crop leaves room for the
onion crop to mature. An advantage of this is that many pests dislike onions
the protection would therefore extend to the lettuce crop.
The Machinery and tools used in Oceanic City Farming would
be smaller and track based, most likely operated remote control. Monorail
tracks will run above the crop, slung below would be smaller versions of farm
equipment already in use today. Instead of having a tractor pulling the
equipment across and on the soil, the equipment will be powered by a small
electric “engine” and would reach down to the plant and soil as necessary.
Much of the tedious work such as plowing, turning and
cultivating the soil could readily be done automatically as the tracks would
run along the rows and never be moved. The tracks would be spaced 10 to 20 feet
apart with arms extending from the tool as needed, at each end of a length of
track cross tracks allowing the machinery to move side to side to other tracks
along row. It is probable that computer or robotic design will be incorporated
into much of the agricultural needs since the equipment will be following
stationary tracks instead of requiring a tractor driven up and down acres of
rows and furrows. Modern Agriculture tools are already mostly automatic
requiring one driver to drive the tractor while the machinery behind sorts, weeds,
plows, even harvests the crop itself.
Orchards composed manly of dwarf and miniature varieties of
trees would be supplemented by the planting of bearing fruit trees on all of
the other platforms. Those trees not only providing shade and beauty would also
serve as a food source. Since residential areas will include soil-covered areas
providing lawns and gardens for residents, it is expected that a majority of
residents will choose to raise herbs, or some vegetable varieties for their
family diet. Further incentives and a program of harvesting from privately
owned fruit and nut trees will be in place so the residents may have these
varieties of tree for their beauty, but not have to fuss or harvest themselves
or sell/trade the produce of the trees.
The above is only utilizing half of the real land area of a
platform. Most of the platforms will have a second lower level, one that will
contain nearly as much square feet as the surface. With ceilings nearly 15 feet
above the floor these hidden areas could be utilized in many ways.
Oceanic City will strive to balance itself with ecology
while finding sustainable practices to provides for its needs. There will be a
need to raise land based livestock, such as chickens for their meat and for
their by products. Providing room for these animals and as natural an
environment as possible would be one of the many goals of Oceanic City.
Although Oceanic City by its very nature is not a natural environment, its
design and incorporation of natural and organic facets will in nearly all
aspects of its functionality become as close to natural as possible.
Through solar, wind and Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion
(OTEC) power plant technologies electricity will be abundant. Further the
technology already exists to move light, natural light from outside of
buildings into the inside not only in the form of windows, but also in directed
light tubes where sunlight is gathered and magnified on roofs, and is shunted
down a mirrored tube and is demagnetized through a diffuser spreading the light
out from the source.
In yards across the world there are grasses that grow well
in the shade beneath trees. With the combination of shunted natural light and
the use of artificial light using low energy florescent grow lights the lower
deck can be well lit and provide a wide area of grassy pasture. A layer of soil
no more than 12 inches deep with appropriate drainage would suffice to meet the
needs of most grasses and grains such as wheat and barley.
Beneath the Civic, residential and agricultural platforms
for each neighborhood will be a deck making up an area of 4.5 million square
feet or 103 acres. Although a small percentage of that area will be used in
utilities, storage and various infrastructures, the majority of the area is
still left open for use.
The combination of using plants (chiefly grass) plus the
ability to move great volumes of air, and to a great extend air condition the
air tapping into the refrigeration potential of Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion
(OTEC) power plant technologies. Live stock habitats can be maintained below
deck providing land space and comfort for those animals.
Since the area will be built with its utility in mind,
animal waste removal and utilization will be high priority. Further the
processing of raw sewage, taking the soils from both sources and composting
them into soils will greatly reduce the potential for environmental pollutants.
It is expected that meat and animal products will be lower
in the average diet of residents of Oceanic City, thus there will be a much
lower ratio of animals to humans than in land based civilizations.
An alternative to animal husbandry may be in the form of
raising a few crops. Certain berries and even a few leafy greens can be raised
rather well in dim light settings. The black berry bush naturally grows under
the canopy of trees, early and late season “cool” crops such as lettuce do
rather well with lower levels of light since the spring and autumn usually mean
more cloudy days.
It is probable that the allotment to agriculture in this
proposal is much more than is actually needed considering that Oceanic City
will strive and will develop mariculture as a primary food source. However I suspect that most people will
desire to keep such stables in their diet as they are already accustomed to and
moving to an ocean based diet will take a few generations.
Future structures such as Oceanic City’s airport will
provide even more lower level deck space allowing the raising of even more life
stock in a space that would otherwise be in disuse.
It is expected that mariculture (See Mariculture Platforms)
will supply the larger percentage of food for the inhabitants. Cultivation of
marine organisms such as fish and kelps and algae within the surrounding ocean
will offset the dietary needs of the inhabitants. One of the project goals of
Oceanic City will be to extend mariculture practices to raise not only food
used for the community but also raise enough to export to land based nations.
Mariculture Platforms:
The design of these platforms will be in the form of rings,
or be designed with a majority of their top deck below sea level.
Raising fish inside of these rings with a mesh or net bottom
taking advantage of the natural circulation of water and providing an exit for
wastes. Many species of fish could be raised in schools, their natural behavior
being such that they would survive farming better. Feed in the form of by products from alcohol production (alcohol
fuels will most likely be the most economical of fuels for motor boats and
small internal combustion machines), human sewage solids and the leftovers of
mariculture and agriculture.
Although there are species of fish that do not naturally
school together, it is possible that new techniques of raising such species
will be developed. Part of the goals of Oceanic City is to research and develop
industries to utilize the ocean effectively while moving away from the practice
of fishing wild stocks.
Algae tanks and marine plant tanks would utilize platforms
which are shallow bowls, being a ring of above sea level “walls” most likely
tens of feet wide with support structures and building on top, surrounding a
shallow pool with a solid bottom to grow marine plants. Water would either be
allowed to flow freely from the sides or water could be pumped from the
surrounding sea.
The greatest depth of such a structure would be about 30
feet below sea level. It is possible that sediments, sand and sea soils could
be spread across the bottom providing a foot hold for rooted plants such as
some variety of sea weeds and kelps.
A wide variety of species could be grown in the tropics
regardless of the surface temperature of ocean water at the equator. Since
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) power plant design will be utilized,
pumping or siphoning cold deep ocean water for the purposes of creating
electrical energy and for the condensation of fresh water out of the humid
tropic air, the technology will already be in place to provide colder water for
cold water marine life forms such as kelp which grows naturally in “forests” in
colder more northern and southern latitudes.
Further research demonstrates that deep-sea water is rich in
nutrients, effectively providing all of the fertilizers needed to raise marine
plants without having to artificially add chemicals to the water.
It is possible that varieties of fish adapted to colder
waters could be farmed as well through pumping of deep ocean water. Since some species prefer shallow water a
combination of mesh or netted bottoms with solid bottom fish tanks will be
used.
Dolphin and Porpoises and other Marine animals:
Although our ancestors hunted the whale to near extinction
and has, through the fishing industry killed many dolphin and porpoise, we have
in modern times marveled at their beauty and have, in captivity, trained these
majestic creatures of the deep mostly for entertainment purposed, however much
research has been done in training these creatures for practical purposes as
well.
Oceanic City will endeavor to utilize the oceans to their
fullest potential in harmony with the ocean. Part and parcel of that will be a
need to form friendships with the marine life for our mutual benefit.
Wild dolphin and porpoise have been known to be attracted to
human activities, such as swimming at the bow of our vessels, or swimming with
us at our beaches. Oceanic City will most like draw dolphin and porpoise and
other marine mammals to its shores. Will domestication take place? Or will we
enter into a partnership that is more equal? Either is possible and it is
expected that at some point our relationship will be a working relationship.
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