Cave Pharming Yields Big Crops

Caves are the new Midwestern farmlands. A former limestone quarry and underground warehouse grows crops better than greenhouses or the outdoors, and could host pharmaceutical crops. By Kristen Philipkoski.

It's not the bucolic, sun-dappled landscape you might envision when picturing American farmland. But a chilly, damp cave with no natural light just may be the most productive agricultural environment around.

Some researchers believe that growing drugs in crops could be a cheaper and easier way to get biotech drugs than growing them in vats of genetically modified bacteria, as it's done today. But companies pursuing this approach have suffered setbacks due to government regulators, protests from environmental groups, and at least one incident in which a pharmaceutical crop nearly slipped into the food supply. ...

Source: Wired News