A lot of discussion in shipping focuses on fuel efficiency and decarbonization, but crew wellbeing still seems overlooked.
After several weeks at sea, access to fresh vegetables becomes limited on many vessels. I’ve recently seen container-based vertical hydroponic systems being tested on long-range research vessels to grow lettuce, herbs, and other greens during voyages.
Honestly, the idea is pretty interesting.
Fresh food onboard could potentially:
Improve morale
Reduce dependence on refrigerated supplies
Lower food waste
Support healthier diets during long contracts
Has anyone here sailed on a vessel using onboard growing systems?
Curious whether crews would actually appreciate this or see it as unnecessary extra equipment.
Can You provide picture of. such an interesting contraption?
Last time i checked salty spray and salt in the air at sea had a very damaging effect on steel , machinery not to mention all kinds of electronic or electrical equipment not to mention human skin.
So is that lettuce GMO stuff , kinda T’rex lettuce or what?
Has this research vessel visited artic areas or was only in moderate climates??
The nuclear-powered icebreakers we built in the late 1980s were delivered with hydroponic greenhouses for growing fresh vegetables onboard during long Arctic deployments. I don’t know how long they survived after the vessels had been delivered, but when we asked a Russian ice pilot in 2012, he didn’t even know they had once existed.
Had absolutely no idea about this. Just have checked the AI and it looks it is used in cargo fleets of Berge Bulk and some cruise lines . Interesting stuff.
We actually had an herb garden on a boat I was on once. The cook used it extensively in his cooking and it smelled amazing walking past it as you entered the house. Right before I left he was trying to figure out how to get some romaine and some cabbage growing too, no idea if he succeeded but I 100% agree with you!
I know this to be true with the right type of crew on board. I once grew habanero plants on board & the crew loved it. When I told my relief about it he was skeptical at first but when I relieved him two months later he was talking about that first plant as if it were a pet. Every so often some jackwagon would come on board & start harping about the environment & ecosystems but we kept the habaneros growing. That AHTS wasn’t going into New Zealand or Australia though. I can’t imagine NZ or AU would allow such an operation. NZ has a problem with foriegn peanuts & pistachios. They’d probably prevent entry over a whole freaking garden.
We have peppers and lettuce growing now. I don’t know if it’s the bracing sea air or the ME exhaust, but the jalapeños were above where you would expect them to be in spice level last season.
Growing lettuce is super easy with hydroponics on board as are tomatoes. We had a Carolina Reaper pepper plant once but those peppers make jalapenos seem like ice cream and the cooks could never get the portion small enough to make chili edible so they were discontinued.
We used these Styrofoam boxes and cups to start out with but anything similar works. Got the fertilizer from Masterblend. Fill once and 45 days later fresh lettuce. Tomatoes and peppers need a bigger container and a pump to cycle the water in a few times a day. Super easy and everyone gets into it. Lots of info on the internet. I think they call the boxes for tomatoes Dutch boxes.
Can not imagine foreign flag vessel & crew calling US ports not only with “freaking garden” and " peanuts & pistachios" but with a "freaking " frozen meats, tinned products, dry & fresh provisions, that has not been bought in USA .
Summarising : if NZ & AU rules can be considered as crazy then in USA beyond crazy is huge understatement.
But rules are rules and one can do nothing about them .
You’re not wrong… and then it’s even worse depending on the state. Hawaii is absolutely insane about it even if it comes from another US state or territory.
I was describing my hands on experience in ECUSA, SCUSA und WCUSA.
But have experienced also counting every tablet/pill by Drug Enforcement Admin of Nigeria in ships hospital medicine chest including my safe content where drugs were stored so my scale of craziness is quite big let alone patience.
The difference is, the Nigerian problem can be fixed with gifts ,while the US problem requires sealing all except daily rations or buying fm local chandlers. Luckily less then 24 hrs port stay eases the pain.
Coming back into the channel I am not sure gardens of eden vegetable or not on foreign ships can survive the US or NZ/AU test.
