Californian professor creates world's first wearable vegetable garden, which grows as you urinate
The Quai Branly Museum vertical garden planted by French botanist Patrick Blanc. Professor Gabrielian is inspired by Blanc. Pic/ Getty Images
An assistant professor at the University of Southern California, Aroussiak Gabrielian, recently came up with a novel project consisting of a vest with a vegetable garden growing on it. Her project draws inspiration from French botanist Patrick Blanc's gardens, which were both soilless and vertical. The vest has a layer of moisture retention fabric on it because the garden is fuelled by the wearer's urine. "The idea is to capture the urine via a catheter filtered through a process called forward osmosis, which is developed by NASA technology that is currently used in space, and delivered to the crops as irrigation," said Gabrielian.
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The vest garden grows as the wearer continues to keep wearing it. Microgreen seeds are placed on the vest and they take two weeks to grow to the level that they can be harvested.
Gabrielian has tried to grow 22 varieties of crops so far including cabbage, strawberries, and peanuts. She aims to contribute to the conversation around the earth's depleting resources and the human quest for sustenance in such a world. By bringing the conversation to the level of the human body, literally, she hopes to push people to think about these things.
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No. of crops prof has grown on wearable garden
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