Become a valuable resource. And intelligent windows heating and cooling with glass facades. Welcome to the show. In many countries farming has become an industrialised process. Machines do the work and chemicals are used as both fertilizers and weed killers. But more and more people are rejecting industrial agriculture. Today were asking why and what are the alternatives. Here in normandy is back in a small plot of land thats been called frances most successful alternative Vegetable Farm the land was bought by charlotte and now they create in two thousand and three they wanted to start a new life as organic farmers got to like almost say when we started out people said you cant feed the world with organic farming we were confident that you could but first and foremost we wanted to be selfsufficient. We didnt have a clue at first people thought we were just city people dreamers but eventually they were impressed with our productivity. At first paper in concentrated on organic farming but with limited success. Then she discovered pam a culture this is tim originated in australia it aims to maintain sustainable closed loop agricultural ecosystems. The couples garden covers fourteen hundred square meters of land where they grow more than seventy types of fruits and vegetables. We dont do monoculture we have an abundance of crops for. Thats key to maintaining the balance and thats why we have flowers and onions alongside let it onions pungent smell protects the lettuce and the mess that likes lettuce follows the center is attracted to a color. But when it gets a whiff of onion while looking at a lettuce its confused the vegetables protect one another really gives support. To many varieties also attract a lot of different insects which keep certain other past at bay meanwhile where birds are becoming an increasingly common sight here and in back in one of the food crops upon unaided by wild bumblebee. The farm with its broken pond also provides a kind of natural habitat for farm animals they feed on the fruit and vegetable gardens leftovers nothing he has to waste its all recycled. Fossil fuels whether used to produce fertilizer or drive machines are strictly banned the couple tend their plants by hand the garden is dotted with small hilly plant beds if. You create a mound like this and planted very densely. Plants that will grow to be quite tall with low growing ones. The point is to create a plant community. The ground is full of roots each mound and develops a microclimate. When it rains the soil doesnt get washed away because its full of roots and life forms from worms to bacteria and fungus and so forth and the ground becomes more fertile with every harvest. The pentagon sort of going to prison for fifteen. Diversity is also the point of this radially shaped mandolin field inspired by similar gardens charlotte had seen in asia these plots faced the sun at its zenith and to make optimum use of the lands natural topography the more efficient the layout the less manual work needs to be done. Or more yet on average we produce fifty five euros worth of vegetables per square metre thats almost ten times the revenue from a standard track to run Vegetable Farm. Is back into our model for Sustainable Agriculture to find out fast while easy from the National Institute for Agricultural Research conducted on long term investigation. Of the gardeners it became one grow three to four times as much produce as a similar sized conventional Vegetable Farm. On the roof of the institute lesia is exploring the reasons for the impressive you. Dont let your first call first theres a range of different plant species. Their interaction increases the yield and if you plant vegetables manually you can plant more densely. That also increases yield. Its not that each plant individually has a higher yield there are just more of them the more plants there are the higher the yield that you produce you look on the young book approved a plan for similar products a present of. Low overheads also help make back in profitable fifteen people working but theres no expensive machinery and savings are also made on artificial fertiliser pesticides and irrigation. The mulch produced on the farm protects the ground and also boosted fertility. On the back and while Vegetable Farm has been a resoundingly success vacant land has been turned into a natural paradise and a high yield habitat thats almost completely selfsustaining. The study in paris is still ongoing the key question is could this model lend itself to large scale farming. Dont get responses the system works on a small area and also on one is biggest sixty hectors the ballad but its different if youre farming sixty hectors then youll have room for trees such as fruit trees or animals. Can large scale perma culture also makes financial sense. Something among you that if youre clever and youve taken the ecological factors into account then you can get the same yield on sixty hectors maybe a bit less but your production costs will be lower and it will be more resilient if the Economic Risks are lower the crops are less vulnerable to weather factors the business is less risky and costs are lower. Perma culture farming is designed to use the juror ability and intelligence of natural Living Systems rather than taming nature humans should adapt to it observing organic processes learning from them and interacting with them. Shocking and pain f. T. V. Create sell their produce themselves its in demand in local markets and restaurants not least because a locally sourced produce has traditionally always been popular in france. Currently trying out the next step in keeping with perma culture principles hes planted thirty varieties of grain hell have to wait and see how they grow but even now his farm is a robust example of sustainable eco friendly agriculture. Many are critical of industrial farming one reason why the excessive use of chemical fertilizers pollutes the environment. Old methods of fertilising soil were better for it they work through a process of natural recycling. My foot on earth is all about re secularization what Goes Around Comes Around the nutrients in the soil for example fuel the growth of our plants. Until they wither away and die and pass those. Nutrients back to the soil natural recycling. Where plants did not die a natural death. And they used for animal fodder. The cycle of regeneration can still be completed provided the pharma returns the resulting manure to the fields. Fodder crops are often growing where animals dont graze. And are therefore transported miles if not continents away before actually being eaten in factory sized sheds and pens. Its the end of the road with no return for the nutrients as they pile up in mountains of down and liquid when you are concentrated animal populations mean the fields and pastures in that area are able to absorb the massive quantities of nutrients in them and you are and the surplus ends up in the ground water in the form of nitrates it would make sense to return that manure to where it comes from a good idea no longer a practical one. So who or what will fill the gap in the soil where the nutrients were extracted artificial fertilizers are obvious except supplies are not inexhaustible phosphorus from africa for example is used around the world to produce fertilizer but supplies are starting to dwindle and that could lead to conflict. For the time being those Raw Materials are in plentiful supply so everybody is happy for now. But over time that unused excess builds up in the soil and eventually finds its way into our rivers. This is where we hit a dead end on the one hand a surplus of nutrients. Elsewhere the deficit. Things were far more straightforward when plants and animals were farmed side by side surely its time to let nature take back control over its nutrients. Reducing our Meat Consumption would be a step in the right direction less meat means less factory farming and less manure giving the soil and groundwater the chance to recover. And beat us. Lots of ways to do that on facebook we asked do you abstain from meat and what do you think about it. Coverage of war he likes the idea and says less meat and moderate consumption can help keep soil and water clean. Edwina gonchar rich agreed that a balanced diet is important but said giving up need is too drastic a solution. Simons one case says he eats meat almost every day but not too much of it. And florrie on a mug on the other hand things we could feed more people if we all just ate veggies and that it would cut down on the use of chemical fertilizers thanks for the comments. So agriculture could definitely be improved one way to do it. By better integrating Animal Husbandry and crop growing that would help bring the natural cycle of food and fertilizer back into balance. And theres a way that science can help. Farmers across europe might want to use free of charge liquid manure instead of expensive artificial fertilizers but due to declining livestock breeding it has to be transported from farms over considerable distances thats where these researchers in stuttgart come in theyre developing a technique to make manure use more efficient they want the advantages of natural fertilizer without its ecological drawbacks and head simi valley quitman or contains a lot of water and transporting waters expensive and the other hand there are regions with an insufficient supply of nutrients so we have the idea of extracting the nutrients from the liquid manure. And then transporting them elsewhere to other regions. The team has already conducted successful tests in a pilot facility the manure is slightly acidified to help separate the nutrients from the liquid then the solid elements are filtered out. First the valuable phosphorus is extracted in the form of a phosphate salt. The ammonia a nitrogen compound is turned into the fertilizer ammonium sulphate. Its just how the method works is of course a trade secret. The end products are a clear liquid and an odorless powder. Weve managed to obtain products from the liquid manure this is ammonium sulfate which is a nitrogen fertilizer we also phosphate salts and we can also granulate these minerals to make them easier to apply on fields. Its convenient for the farmers but what about the quality of the recycled fertilizer. Its a question answered by a team at the university of iowa and haim they use a wide range of mixing ratios to conduct a greenhouse experiment under controlled conditions. We have high the fertilizer from the manure to a variety of plants in this case ryegrass we compared the effect with conventional phosphate fertilizer and as a reference we use a control pot with no fertiliser and here you can see how similar the plants look like theyre bigger and greener than the unfertilized ones. And plan to get us to do that however was merely the first phase after all farming doesnt just take place and greenhouses. We did field mates and winter wheat here and hohenheim and with projects partners in spain under different climatic conditions in both cases the recycled manure worked just as well in practice as mineral fertilizers. So it could just be a matter of time until Livestock Farmers take to recycling liquid manure. Thus for five months the method is not yet profitable in terms of the product of him but bearing in mind how much money farmers spend on disposing of liquid new or it is an investment that will pay off. All parties stand to benefit lower costs less foul smelling slurry on the fields and fewer nitrates and other harmful substances in the soil and groundwater. Time to sit back and daydream about a Tropical Vacation our viewer question this week comes from the philippines. Trench stole it from davos city wants to know. Why do you hear the sound of the ocean when you put your ear against a sea shell. The effect is most noticeable with a large cock the uncanny sound of rushing waves. Its even there when youre thousands of kilometers away from the beach. And the whisper of the ocean as a vacation souvenir sadly that isnt so because sea shells cant record and reproduce sounds so wheres the noise actually coming from. Many people believe theyre hearing the sound of their own pulse echoing inside the shell nice idea also wrong. Because even a microphone placed against the shell picks up the sea soundtrack and it definitely doesnt have a pulse so whats the real reason its actually just the sounds of everyday life going on around us. The show captures ambient noise. Its which echo inside the cavity. The strongest frequencies combine together to create the rushing sounds so the shell becomes a kind of resonance chamber. But the salty symphony coming from the shell is so convincing its hard to believe its not a recording of a past blissful visit to the city. If you have a science question go to our website and send it in if we answer your query on the show youll receive a copy of our d. V. D. That explains albert einsteins most famous theories in interesting and amusing ways. The most important thing is to never stop asking questions. Who knew. Their historical masterpieces of architecture highly decorative stone facades. Modern architecture on the other hand approaches things differently many facades are now made from glass. A great element in many ways but researchers see plenty of room for improvement. This bubbling tank isnt an aquarium that hasnt been cleaned in a while its a vertical alkies thats part of a building facade. Moxon canna is the inventor of the bio intelligence quotient or b. I. Q. Building and humbug the sites facing the sun featured last time that contain algate the structure has drawn lots of international attention. Doesnt the other department we call the panels bio reactors because of the biological processes taking place inside them. Blow air into the foot of the panels to create big bubbles with a fork and as they drift upwards they pull water with them and create an upward stream of algae. Ive made. The tapi alliance eventually brings all the algae cells to the front of the panel where they absorb. Nor the algae have to be supplied with nutrients and c o two so we channel the liquid containing it through pipes into the Energy Management center where its processed and gets and caught up with. The allocate generate heat for the fifteen apartments in the building. Its beating heart is this installation room which is packed with cutting edge Climate Control technology. Here comes out of us on the water enters here and is guided through the pipes and into the heat exchangers. Extracted from the algae solution here is later used to provide the buildings hot water for the environment from if i dont go nuts income don vito the solution is then sent back via the saturation device back into the facade of you know if youre going to go to work in the fourth. Until all systems were up and running it was a long and testing time to buy the engine on the residents of the building but its creator is confident all the teething problems have been resolved. Is imposing humans and in addition to being a functioning facility in its own right and its also designed to assist development but were doing a lot of research here when it comes to figuring out standards and after three years we can now say that its a dependable concept. To fall asleep. The system is currently still too expensive for the commercial market but it certainly has Promise Energy conversion efficiency is already a forty six percent. Disapprove good bit of money in this Technology Gives us the option of turning tomorrows maker cities from places of resource consumption into places of resource production so in summary from those who will be able to use urban facades to generate heat energy and also high quality raw biomass your muscle cities will become producers. To the. Point okeefe. The basic idea of capturing sunlight in a facade to create biomass will soon become a living and breathing reality and paris to. This is the Award Winning all go house its i catching organic facade stretches over seven hundred square meters. And not the only organic material with the potential to make buildings more energy efficient. Technical Glass Solutions in the german city of supplies industry and Research Institutes with customized glass. Head precision robots cup one millimeter deep grooves into a glass substrate this pioneering kind of glass is a prototype for a small facade. The second layer is a way for thin panel carved out of larger sheets of glass. The combination was ordered by material scientists no top hundred he perceives research at the citys university he and his colleague benyamin heights envisage windows themselves one day being used to directly heat or cool buildings the hidden secret to the set up is water circulating inside the panel. Of dozens of. Them and we have two components on the. First there is this ultra thin pane of glass is still polluted and this textured pain with micro grooves of it done for one reason when theyre stuck together the top pane puts a ceiling over the grooves. Creating capillary structures through which fluid can circulate. To. Different designs of the new system being tested worldwide. Booker t. Is quickly forced irvins of the school board in simple terms imagine the building completely enveloped in these elements and it would be like the inside of a waterfall so as the temperature of the water would call the building so youd basically have a thermal barrier to the exterior climate where the holes are too long cooling in the summer and heating in the winter supplementary functions for transparent facades and small windows. At some point there might be windows that store energy and make a direct contribution to the Buildings Energy balance and they might be full Service Monitor displays two point one moment you can look through them to the outside the next youd be looking at an image of a beach in the tropics even if its raining outside futuristic but possible. To think. That vision might still be some way from realisation that progress is being made the scientists and you not believe for example that innovations in the near future will help reduce the c o two footprint of buildings in our cities. For more from the world of research and Technology Head to our website and get in touch through twitter or facebook we love to hear from you. Thats all for today but next week we head for the stars where Gravitational Waves are shaking up gala. Since their discovery scientists have been using these waves to learn more about space tune in next time to find out what theyre discovering. On tomorrow today. Argentina for decades farmers here have been using a controversial herbicide like to say. Now cancer and birth defects are on the rise as are the voices protesting against the use of chemicals in agriculture people here are speaking up. To say the Sick Children of argentina. Fifteen minutes. The fast pace of life in the Digital World shift has the lowdown on the web showing new developments and providing useful information the wittiest finds and interviews with makers and users. Shifts in forty five minutes on. The other one in two unofficial estimates more than one point two million venezuelans live in colombia legally and illegally. But already a couple more than what id return to vast. To visit friends yes i dont think id ever go back there to live you know what i live there again i dont know so im not sure. Witness global news that matters. Made for mines. Or home like because of persecution. Starting from scratch in an unfamiliar country. Five people who found a new home in a foreign land. With their stories books and music theyve built bridges to the past to the future. After the escape starting december seventeenth d. W. We are watching a positive train now in the water the forest of the poor in poor countries started valuing education they are demanding good quality education for their children the cost what it wanted also realize that if they have to have good quality products and good quality consumers they need to look quality Skilled Workforce im very confident that in two thousand and fifty no child or no ive got to build a man illiterate that is the one moment human rights that is the divine right which the nature of the body has given to us and those are just legend of it that i had to learn those was touching of it that i had the freedom dead against nature that against dog. The u. S. Supreme court has allowed child ministration to fully enforce of fan