Jeremy Ford hates wasting water.
As a mist of rain sprinkled the fields around him in Homestead, Florida, Ford bemoaned how expensive it had been running a fossil fuel-powered irrigation system on his 5-acre farm — and how bad it was for the planet.
Earlier this month, Ford installed an automated underground system that uses a solar-powered pump to periodically saturate the roots of his crops, saving “thousands of gallons of water,” he estimated. Although they may be more costly up-front, he sees such climate-friendly investments as a necessary expense — and more affordable than expanding his workforce of two.
It’s “much more efficient,” said Ford. “We’ve tried to figure out ‘How do we do it?’ with the least amount of adding labor.”
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