Amongst the gadgetry on The Plastiki  (a pressure cooker is very important at sea!) we couldn’t forget about the food for the expedition. And what a cool way to solve the problem of surviving at sea.

The ‘rotating cylinder garden’ was developed to grow as many plants possible on a small footprint and still expose all the plants to sun light for photosynthesis. We developed a suspended version of this concept for the plastiki, the garden is clamped on to the mizzen mast and the cylinder is enclosed in a clear covering of srPet to create a greenhouse effect and to keep the saltwater off the plants. The top of the cylinder was designed to capture rain water to help replenish the reservoir to minimize adding fresh drinking water to the plants. The garden will grow chards, kale, spinach, bok choy, mustard greens and other leafy greens for your trip.

The important message of this garden is educate people to the fact that you can grow food without soil, without land space and with very little water. For the billions of people that are experiencing ‘hydraulic poverty’ , ‘food Insecurity” depleted soils, there is a good way to produce clean safe food. The garden that Inka produced for the Plastiki is built with aluminum supports and the same plastic that the boat was built from. In third world applications these gardens can be built from locally available materials, i.e. coconut fibers, bamboo, hemp fibers, grasses, etc.

Take a look at the brackets being made. They have been installed on the mizzen mast. The seeds have been planted and are currently being stored in a green house in San Fran. It is planted with 98 plants! Thanks to all the wicked guys at Inka and Object Assembly, there work is beautiful.

Having spent sometime researching how the Pacific Islands are adapting to rising sea levels, which results in crop fields holding too much salty content to grow food for the local communities the walled gardens provide great food for thought.

A bit about the wonderful people at Inka who made the garden for The Plastiki:”Inka Biospheric Systems is a socially conscious company that has created a series of solutions in response to the global “water, food, and housing” crisis. There are nearly 2 billion people that are currently facing hydraulic poverty, food insecurity, and housing shortages. By combining the arts, science and technology, Inka has developed the new science of “Biospherics”, the art of living in balance with Earth’s delicate biological systems. The ensuing cluster of inventions, “Micro Farms” and technologies may have far reaching implications on the state of the world that our generation will leave behind for our children and for the generations to come.”

For more info about Inka

Jo Royle