Op- Ed by Cassius Methyl

June 9, 2015

(ANTIMEDIA) Did you know that it’s actually possible to harvest electricity from plants?

Dutch scientists have been developing this technology for the past 6 years. Now, it’s at a point where large rice fields can be utilized to provide power to people. In the near future, areas of extreme poverty will have a very simple way to obtain electricity.

“It’s based on the principle that plants produce more energy than they need,” said Marjolein Helder, co-founder of Plant-e.

“The advantage of this system over wind or solar is that it also works at night and when there’s no wind.”

The technology harvests energy from organic matter expelled from the roots of plants—matter that would normally be consumed by bacteria.

Carbon electrodes are placed near the roots of the plants and electrons are harvested.

“It’s just the beginning and lots of things still need to be greatly improved, but the potential is enormous,” said professor of Sustainable Innovation at Utrecht University, Jacqueline Cramer.

“If the system becomes good enough, it could provide electricity for isolated areas or even be installed in our cities and countryside to produce clean electricity,” she explained.

This development is more relevant than ever: currently, many people around the world harbor a desire to fully employ current technology and resources with the goal of creating societies we actually want to live in.

Creating new structures and ways for a society to function is a natural reaction to what we see in the world today. Oligarchy and injustice are problems that run rampant while the solutions stare us in the face.

If we fully utilized everything we could, we could create our own ideal communities based around agorism, self-sufficiency, self-governance, and whatever core principles each individual society wants to adopt.

Many people have a vision for a new world, new archetypes of societies. Many want to be self- sufficient again and need to know what alternative energy sources they can actually harness. Add this to the list of many viable options you don’t hear about and please share it with everyone.

Watch the video below to see how this system works.

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