Japan is famous for a lot of things—some good, some bad—and one of those things is their love of infatuation with vending machines. So it’s no surprise that the Japanese have come up with a lettuce dispensing vending machine now is it?
The thing is, this vending machine grows heads of lettuce without any sunlight. 20,000 heads of it a year to be exact.
The machines create their artificial photosynthesis with fluorescent 40-watt bulbs. The lettuce seeds are implanted in sponges which are kept in one of five nutri-culture beds, each of which has their own set of controls to regulate temperature, lighting and culture solution.
And much like the Japanese themselves, these vending machines are incredibly productive, yielding a whopping 60 heads of lettuce…per day.
Created by Dentsu, the aptly named Chef’s Farm goes for $90,000 per machine, and the company is focusing their marketing campaign towards restaurants who want to serve locally produced vegetables. Besides lettuce, the Chef’s Farm can grow five different types of vegetables at the same time, all without the benefit of sunlight.
Sorry about that, Mother Nature—science wins again.
