That's right, G5; everytime we try to cut a corner or insinuate what we think Nature should be doing into the process we change it, and almost NEVER for the better...
Gixx, I know my points sound a little harsh, so I'm not suprised to see your response venture a bit into the realm of sarcasm, but look at some of the systems you talked about. A conveyor moving plants through a nutrient bath. Sounds cool, but where is the energy coming from? We have a conveyor, pumps to run the nutrient bath, bet that greenhose had controlled louvres and fans to maintain airflow and temp, and for most of our country we would need heating for winter months. And all the plastics that go into this, that's energy too. Plastics are petroleum.
Are we putting one in every backyard? Then we will need more energy to ship the food around as well. All this energy use on a planet with 29 years of reliable petroleum reserves. Hmmm...
You want to see the real garden of the future, Dono? Walk out of your back door and gaze about you, my friend. There it is in all it's glory. Julie is spot on; the real gardens of the future are the ones where we cut the pipeline down to the most minimal shipping distance. We currently talk about food miles; we will want to be talking in food feet pretty soon. Food that travels only paces from production to table will be the real future.
[url=https://www.dervaesgardens.com/]This[/url] is the real garden of the future, and you have already started your version, Dono. Is there a greenhouse or a poly tunnel in your future garden. Hey yeah there is, mine too, but it's passive solar and I'm not heating it and I'm growing cold tolerant crops and harvesting solar heat, using latent heat from other sources (maybe my dryer vent goes here). Passive greenhouses aren't a problem. Thinking technology is going to get us out of the issues we are facing? THAT'S a problem.
Permaculture teaches us that we ALWAYS look first at natural systems to solve ANY issue, and only when we have exhausted those possibilities do we look to technology. We have based our whole culture on the internal combustion engine, so over the next three decades we are going to experience an upheaval of our infrastructure, economy, and way of life. Technology can never build truly sustainable culture because it's nature is to constantly make itself obsolete. Permanent culture can only build on permanent systems; this is where the word comes from...
The gardens of the future look WAY more like your backyard than that ride at Disney, my friend. Remember you heard that hear first; we'll revisit this in thirty years... deal?
HG