The future of vegetable farming in upstate New York might be under plastic.
Behind a century-old yellow farmhouse on Route 11, an electric water pump bubbles away beneath translucent plastic sheeting on top of a simple metal greenhouse frame. The water is home to schools of tilapia, a hardy freshwater fish known as the species that miraculously fed the Biblical multitudes.
The pumps lift the nutrient-rich water to three rows of troughs where floating plastic trays hold thousands of tiny baby arugulas, kales, cabbages, kohlrabies, red amaranth, cress and spicy mustard that can fetch $30 a pound from fine-dining restaurants in New York City.