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• David Hamilton
• Santa Clarita, CA
• United States

Foolish Marketing Solutions

TEDCRED 50+

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Use mirrors to increase crop diversity, and land productivity, in regions of low light.

I had difficulty deciding if this was an idea or a question... I settled on idea, because I googled it, and found nothing. As a novice in the field of botany however, I also have some questions.

Could an acre of mirrors, be used, to increase the crop diversity, and or harvest season, of an acre of unproductive land, in Russia, Norway, Siberia... etc. Could major cities built in such climates, cut down on imports, and provide more diverse crops for their people, by creating a suburban sprawl of sunlight concentrating farmers?

I have to think I'm way to stupid to answer these questions... but, someone on ted, might not be. If this idea is theoretically possible, and simply untried, than I probably have some work to do. If it's just nonsense, I'd rather know now. Google didn't know... So, like any member of my generation, I'm completely lost now : p

It seems to me however, that a plant is a relatively mechanical life form. There is no shortage of water in northern Europe, or Greenland, or Canada... there is a shortage of light... What if we could double the light while the sun was out?... Could it be enough to keep something alive that would have otherwise died? Could we grow banana trees outside St. Petersberg, by quadrupling the amount of light an area gets during a season?

So... Nonsense, or innovation?