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Better Farming Ontario Featured Articles

Better Farming Ontario magazine is published 11 times per year. After each edition is published, we share featured articles online.


Farming electricity from plants

Sunday, June 7, 2015

A Dutch start-up company, Plant-e, is harnessing electricity from living plants to power cell phone chargers, Wi-Fi hot spots and even LED street lights in two sites in the Netherlands. The goal is to provide electricity to the quarter of the world's population that doesn't have it.

Plant-e uses a byproduct of photosynthesis, collecting electricity from plants growing in two-foot square plastic containers. As explained on the website inhabitat.com, growing plants produces more sugar through photosynthesis than the plants can use. The excess is cast out through their roots into the surrounding soil where it breaks down in protons and electrons. Plant-e electrodes in the soil collect that electricity.

Company founders want to use plants growing near rice paddies and wetlands. The company is a spinoff from the sub-department of Environmental Technology of Wageningen University. BF

Current Issue

May 2026

Better Farming Magazine

Farms.com Breaking News

Tom Green bringing celebrities to his Ont. farm

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

A Canadian known for his comedic chops in Hollywood is bringing some friends to his Ontario farm. THE TOM GREEN FARM, starring Tom Green, whose movie credits include Road Trip and Charlie’s Angels, begins airing on May 29 on Crave. The backdrop of the show is Green’s 150-acre farm in... Read this article online

Rising Waters on the Canadian Prairies and Beyond

Monday, May 11, 2026

Spring flooding is intensifying across large portions of Canada, placing farms under growing pressure during one of the most important windows of the agricultural year. From the Prairies to Central Canada and into Atlantic regions, saturated soils, elevated rivers, and damaged rural... Read this article online

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