Led Lights Farms
Many consumers around the world have noticed new LED lights popping up in their local grocery stores, making food LOOK better, and now food producers are looking to LED lights to help food GROW better. With hunger rates around the globe at astonishing high levels and demand for food increasing, some farmers have turned to LED lighting to help increase production. Incandescent or CFL lamps, although well suited for humans, do not provide the same light spectrum as sunlight. The unique light spectrum from the sun directly affect stress, nutrition, rhythms, nutrition, mortality, and production rates of many animals such as cattle, fish, swine, and crustaceans. Unlike older traditional bulbs, LED lights do a much better job of mimicking sunlight and at the same time require much less energy than halogen or other bulb types. In addition, LED bulbs have a longer lifespan, are more durable, and are resistant to extreme heat and cold – all which come in handy in a farm environment.

At a recent Strategies in Lighting Event, studies were released that showed how using LED lighting in poultry farms, increased musculoskeletal development and weight gain, induced earlier maturity in layer chickens destined to produce eggs, improved feed conversion, altered melatonin production, increased egg ouput and quality, regulated reproductive cycles, and increased length of reproductive life.

The farm uses 17,500 LED lights spread over 18 cultivation racks reaching 15 levels high.

The farm uses 17,500 LED lights spread over 18 cultivation racks reaching 15 levels high.

Other exciting developments are occurring when LED lighting is used to assist in plant growth. A Japanese plant physiologist Shigeharu Shimamura, converted a former Sony semiconductor factory into the worlds largest indoor farms – illuminated 100% with LED’s. “No longer can a freak summer storm, drought, or Tsunami ruin a well planted harvest” said Shimamura. His farm is half the size of a football field, and produces 10,000 heads of lettuce per day. His system of LED lights allows him to maximize photosynthesis by day and breathing by night and grow plants two and a half times faster than an outdoor farm. This system has also reduced discarded produce from 50% of the harvest to only 10%. Another amazing statistic is that his farm requires just 1 percent, yes only 1% of the water needed by outdoor fields.