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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

December 2025

Better Farming Magazine

Farms.com Breaking News

Winter Farm Meeting with Keynote and Networking

Friday, November 21, 2025

The Grey Soil & Crop AGM and Winter Meeting , as well as Social Tradeshow will take place on December 18, 2025, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Bognor Community Centre in Bognor, Ontario. The evening format is new this year, offering participants a warm and welcoming environment to connect... Read this article online

Canadian Farmers Seek Fair Succession Tax Reform

Thursday, November 20, 2025

Family farmers across Canada are urging the federal government to update tax rules that they say no longer reflect the reality of modern farming families. Current laws under the Income Tax Act allow farmers to transfer their farms to their own children without immediate tax... Read this article online

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