A government proposal aiming to turn Britain into a low-carbon economy aims to create more than 400,000 new ‘green’ jobs by 2015, according to a plan presented by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Government ministers. The White Paper will plough nearly £100 million into developing renewable energy sources and, in the process, create scores of new ‘green’ career opportunities. The government’s goal is to supply up to 40 per cent of Britain’s electricity from low-carbon energy sources, such as wind and water power, by 2020.

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Key job opportunities created by the proposal include the construction of 7000 on- and offshore wind turbines by 2020; the installation of ’smart meters’ in more than 26 million homes by that date; and undertaking more than seven million ‘pay as you save’ energy makeovers to British householders. Smart meters will allow families to see exactly how much energy they are using; it will cost nearly £7 billion to do so. The ‘pay as you save’ system will allow money to be lent to families to implement energy-efficient home improvements such as solar panels.

In addition, ministers proposed the implementation of a green transport system with the introduction of an electric train network and low-carbon buses, and offering discounts on the purchase of hybrid electric cars.

Plans such as the “Wave Hub”, a socket on the seabed near Cornwall that is connected into a power grid to allow large-scale testing of wave power. Carrying out and implementing the various energy-saving plans will create hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout Britain.

Ministers disclosed that in order to fund the “green energy revolution”, millions of British families will be hit with a £92 additional annual levy on their fuel bills by 2020, though the UK Energy Centre predicts the increase could be more than twice the official estimate of £92 per family. Energy companies will be directed to subsidise rising bill costs for the poor and elderly, by charging more for wealthier customers.

Ed Miliband noted that creating jobs to implement the green measures would pay for themselves in the long term, as well as protecting Britain from the possible damage of fluctuating global oil and gas prices. ‘We could become more and more dependent on that and quite insecure in our energy,’, said Miliband. ‘Or we can go for more homegrown energy which will also cost, but I actually think the costs will be less in the end, because the costs of climate change if we don’t stop it are going to be enormous.’

On the other hand, TaxPayers’ Alliance reasearch director Matthew Sinclair claims wind farms have not illustrated their ability to deliver energy in a reliable fashion and questioned whether the government was pushing the agenda ‘to line the pockets of renewable energy firms.’ Consumer Focus energy expert Jonathan Stearn also noted that the ‘cost should be shared with Government and industry, who will also benefit from these measures.’

One couldn’t say that the concept of vertical farming isn’t controversial, but they could say that it has serious merits that need to be considered on both sides of the issues.

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What is a vertical farm?  The basic premise, as you see in this image, is to be able to grow food in urban areas by creating tall buildings where, instead of each floor having offices, each floor is in essence its own super greenhouse, where different crops can be grown to feed people within its own community.  The idea is to not only be able to feed the community, but to protect the land that’s being damaged by over-farming and making sure that there will still be enough food for an ever growing population.

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Of course, not all designs would be the same, but this model of a design for the city of Seattle helps us to see how it would work.  It’s integrated into a city plan so that it fits in, and has areas where people can go inside to not only tend to the plants, but could actually buy their produce at the same time.

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Thinking of vertical farm in terms of super stores fits a model like this one, where the ground floor has everything a traditional supermarket would have,

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While upper levels would contain areas for growing produce.  This particular example tries to highlight how power might be created for all the energy needed to grow crops in urban areas, as the designs for vertical farming wouldn’t be able to provide natural light for all of the crops, so they’d need enhancement from artificial lighting.  It’s one of the major criticisms of trying to have vertical farms.

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As you can see from this image of what the inside of the vertical farm in Seattle might look like, not only are there people who tend to the plants, and in some cases can pick their own produce, but it’s a place of beauty and tranquility that many in urban areas have to leave the city to enjoy.

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In a city like New York, for instance, one could see a design like this in either lower or upper Manhattan, where they have dense populations and no land areas to grow their own products, making it expensive to get produce into the city.

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This is another design for the Roosevelt Island area of New York City, built not only to be productive, and not only to help generate its own energy with a combination of solar and wind power, but can also be a popular meeting place in the city, with a supermarket, restaurant, and even kind of a virtual indoor park in the middle of the city.

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This design was made for the city of Toronto, and was estimated to be able to feed around 35,000 people a year.  It would be a 58 stories high, becoming the fourth highest building in the city if made, but it’s design is still sleek enough to fit in with the culture of the city.  And,

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this gives us an idea of how the builders see different products being produced on the different levels.

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In this design for a city like Dubai, where fresh water isn’t as readily available, seawater is sued to cool the greenhouse and also create humidity, which not only helps the plants grow, but then produces more fresh water that can be used for not only the crops, but if produced in significant amounts could be used for the city’s water supply.

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The initial testing of the vertical farm system is already in place in a much different way.  One test is in El Paso, TX, where above you see how this type of farming concentrates certain types of plants close together, yet requires less water and needs almost no fertilizer for the crops to grow.

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Another real test is presently going on at Paignton Zoo in the United Kingdom, where they’re trying to cut the zoo’s overall costs by growing their own produce.  Both of the last two examples are outside, yet they still qualify as vertical farms because the idea is growing produce in limited space, not expanding space.

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Could you imagine a city like Las Vegas, which is not only landlocked but also has no true vegetation growing around it for hundreds of miles, being able to grow their own produce in a building like this one, which was designed as a prototype for them?  This design could easily capture enough sunlight, though there would still have to be modifications to keep the temperatures down, especially in summer months.

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Not all urban areas are the same around the world, however.  Vertical can still take up a lot of area, and as this image shows, it can be a planned community where everything is self contained and the farm can be a mixture of internal and external, as well as retaining certain elements of a culture.

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This was an idea for a vertical farm in Vancouver, which was drawn up in 2003.  This idea even comes with a plan for a grazing plain and a dairy farm, right in the city.  The energy for it would come from wind turbines and geothermal heat pumps.

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There are no end to the types of designs that vertical farms could be.  This is another one for Dubai, this time in the middle of the city, being powered by wind turbines and, once again, creating its own water.

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This one, the pyramid vertical farm, is a favorite of the guy who helped come up with the concept, Dickson Despommier, a professor of environmental health sciences and microbiology at Columbia University.  It’s not only a vertical farm, but a tourist attraction as well as a peaceful park of sorts.

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Something like this, a proposal that won 3rd place in an international competition, is the concept of an actual farming community right within the confines of a large city, in this instance Manhattan once again, where residents who would normally inhabit the city still live there, but share the space with farmers on alternate levels around the city.

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Even designs like this could be used, where, instead of taking over land that could be used for residential or commercial space, one could build vertical farms right into the waterways, where they would still be a popular attraction.

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If cities needed to be redesigned to fit a changing environment, a design like this one for the city of San Francisco would not only be environmentally friendly, but this one is estimated to be able to feed over 7 million people.

The world of vertical farming could offer so much to the world as it concerns food, the environment, and our living space issues, as its estimated that we could have as many as 9 billion people on the planet by 2050.  It will take a lot of planning, and a lot of energy, but if most of these buildings can be somewhat self energy sufficient, vertical farming could be viable within a relatively short period of time.

Land-Force director Rob Faulkner said:

“NAAC members provide services across many land based sectors and we are confident that this new alliance will see a wide variety and number of different jobs available via our online recruitment service.”

Jill Hewitt, NAAC Chief Executive, added:

“By teaming up with Land-Force our members will benefit from access to an effective and targeted recruitment facility that allows access to high calibre candidates at low cost.”

The Agricultural Wages Board (AWB) is the independent body that has a statutory obligation to fix minimum wages for workers employed in agriculture in England and Wales. In June 2009 the Board issued proposals for a new order to come into force from October, when it is proposed that the Grade 1 pay rate for workers over compulsory school age should rise by 1.2% from £5.74 to £5.81 per hour. For Grades 2-6 the proposed pay rate rise is 2.2% thus taking the rate for a Grade 2 Standard Worker from £6.26 to £6.40 per hour. These proposals are now subject to public consultation.

Joint venture reached with Agvendor.co.uk

In what has been a busy month Land-Force has also agreed a joint venture with agvendor.co.uk to become their recruitment partner. Agvendor.co.uk is a new website dedicated primarily to the agricultural?community and offers links to established suppliers for the purchase of agricultural products and services. We look forward to working with them to offer our unique online recruitment services to a wider audience.

Do you have THE most unusual job in the Land-Based industry?

We’ve racked our brains here in the land-force office this afternoon and we can’t come up with a really unusual job, so we are passing it out to you good people to tell us if you know of any really unusual jobs and what they involve. We know they’re out there, so get your thinking cap on and email us back any unusual job or story you have heard.

Land-Force announces alliance with Tenant Farmers Association

Land-Force has recently signed an agreement with the Tenant Farmers Association to become the recommended recruitment service for TFA members. The move will see TFA members being offered discounted rates when they place job advertisements on the Land-Force website and will hopefully brings lots of new exciting job adverts to our site, raising awareness and attracting more candidates – for the benefit of all our advertisers.

Commenting on the move, Rob Faulkner, Land-Force director, said:

“We are delighted that we are able to offer this special service to TFA members. Our online recruitment site offers access to great candidates and has facilities to enable employers to browse and purchase CVs and filter applicants, making the otherwise complicated recruitment process much simpler.”

Hannah Houstin-Lacey, Membership Co-ordinator at the TFA added:

“Our new alliance with Land-Force is a great addition to our range of member benefits, adding value to TFA membership and providing a great service to any of our farmers who are looking to recruit staff.”