Ancient yet new to many is electroculture, which is now flourishing primarily in China. (113, 114) Vegetables thrive beneath bare copper wires hanging from the roof. A high-frequency voltage of tens of thousands of volts pulses through them.
by Udo Pollmer, May 25, 2026
Chapter 10. Electro-cultivation: Perennials under current
The high-frequency fields kill pathogens in the air and soil, so pesticides are the exception. (115, 116) In greenhouses,...
...the fields reduce the need for fertiliser by around 20 per cent. (115, 117) Nevertheless, Chinese growers harvest on average 20 to 30 per cent more. The same system is also used in China in pig, cattle and poultry houses to combat diseases such as African swine fever. (Li04)
The energy requirement of a greenhouse is 15 kilowatt-hours per hectare per day, roughly the same as the electricity consumption of a detached house. Despite the high voltage, very little current flows through the wires— ; per wire, it is just one millionth of an ampere, which is less than in a smartphone charging cable. Nevertheless, the air inside the facilities smells like a summer thunderstorm. (113) By way of comparison: the Earth possesses not only a magnetic field but also an electric field. Thunderclouds and the Earth’s surface form a giant capacitor. The cloud base is negatively charged, the ground positively charged. At voltages of up to a billion volts, lightning discharges the charge.
At the Earth’s surface, the potential is usually between 150 and 300 V/m. Near the ground, the field is subject to considerable fluctuations. The number and type of charged particles in the air depend on the weather, the season, the climate, the time of day and the region. On sunny days, this results in a positive potential at the Earth’s surface, which reverses when it rains. (119, 120) Everything that grows, crawls and flies on Earth is exposed to these forces.
Andrew Goldsworthy of Imperial College London explains that individual cells can detect voltage differences of just 0.5 μV/m and current densities of just 5 nA/cm². Animals use this for hunting prey and navigation (bird migration), whilst plants use it to gauge available water. Of course, cells also detect endogenous currents flowing within their bodies. This is why externally applied currents can stimulate growth or the healing of injuries. (121, 122)
It is likely that electric fields were already being used in ancient times by means of stone obelisks, metal spirals and pyramidal structures. (123) In modern times, the first experiments took place in Edinburgh in 1746. However, the breakthrough did not come until 150 years later, achieved by the Finnish geophysicist Selim Lemström. (124) During his travels through the Arctic, he had noticed that, despite the cold and darkness, plants there thrived more vigorously than in milder climes.
Lemström suspected that the cause was a celestial phenomenon – the Northern Lights. An analysis of tree rings confirmed his theory: the more intensely they shone at night, the more vigorous the growth. (125, 126) The Northern Lights are caused by the solar wind, which ionises the upper atmosphere in the polar regions. More recent experiments show that the effect on growth is likely due to the formation of anions in the air, particularly oxygen anions. (120)
Using a generator and an antenna system, Lemström was able to demonstrate that electrical discharges accelerate the growth of potatoes. Strawberry plants produced their fruit in half the time. The harvest of raspberries and carrots doubled. The method also worked with wheat, oats and barley. (127–129) By 1900, the cultivation of lettuce in greenhouses under electric light was already a profitable business in the USA. (130) Russian engineers reported at the time that electricity had increased yields by up to sixfold. (130)
In 1925, Justin Christofleau replicated Lemström’s findings. To this end, he had developed a sophisticated apparatus specifically for the purpose, which, in his own words, “are condensed all the forces of nature. That is to say: The land magnetism, telluric currents, the electricity of the floating air and that carried by the clouds, the sun, the wind, the rain, and even by the frost, forces which are captured and transformed into energetic electricity by this apparatus which carries them to the soil in a feeble and continous manner, and which renders it freefrom the microbes which attack the seeds and plants”. With this, he even succeeded in restoring vineyards infested with phylloxera. (129)
Many researchers used ferrite magnets or the Earth’s magnetic field instead of electricity. For this passive electroculture or magnetoculture, they laid steel wires in the ground in a north-south direction and fitted them with an antenna that protruded from the ground like a lightning conductor. With wires buried at a depth of 50 to 80 cm, i.e. below the plough pan, the system also worked in open fields. A century ago, Georges Lakhovsky found that a coiled copper wire was sufficient to significantly boost the vitality of plants. (124, 131) According to an Israeli patent, applying electrostatically charged magnetite would protect crops from frost and all manner of pests. (132)
When plants are subjected to electrical or magnetic forces, risks are unavoidable. In Denmark, schoolgirls experimentally tested what experts had so far studiously avoided: they allowed cress seeds to germinate next to two Wi-Fi routers. Twelve days later, the seedlings had stunted or died – in contrast to the shielded controls. (133) “Some types of electricity – such as alternating current –,” warns Robert Nelson, a historian of electroculture, “produce unpredictable effects and are hardly suitable for any applications.” (Ne23) Electroculture, too, requires expertise and experience.
It is said that farmers turned away from the method due to its poor reproducibility and unreliable results. However, it was primarily trials conducted with inadequate technical equipment or those that were terminated after a short period that failed. As soon as they were carried out using suitable technology and expertise and over several growing seasons, the results were generally convincing. (128, 132, 134, 135)
Given the fluctuation in natural field strength, the method still has room for improvement today: quantum sensors could be used to detect subtle electromagnetic fluctuations in the soil of electroculture systems, allowing them to be compensated for in real time. (123)
One might nevertheless ask why, despite its obvious successes over two centuries, electroculture has still not become established today. The sober answer from Professor Sanjay Rout of the Indian think tank DESC is: “Despite its overwhelming success, this knowledge was systematically suppressed as it threatened the corporate-controlled agribusiness, seed monopolies and X synthetic fertilisers Despite overwhelming success, this knowledge was systematically suppressed, as it threatened corporate-controlled agribusiness, seed monopolies, and synthetic fertilizer markets.” (123)
Chapter 11. Magnetoponics: When cucumbers float through the air
The latest craze is magnetoponics. It began quite modestly with magnetically treated water. Its hexagonal clusters are said to facilitate the uptake of nutrients into the cells, which explains the improved growth. (136) In a further step, seeds were treated directly with magnets. This stimulated germination, the roots grew deeper and denser, and the plants produced more chlorophyll. Yields and quality increased. (137) Pond management also benefits from electrically charged water: it slows down algae growth and is said to protect against fish diseases. (123)
But now comes a vision that sounds a bit far-fetched: growing crops by levitation. The idea is for vegetables to float freely in the air in several layers, held in place by magnets, and grow there. The roots are nourished aeroponically, without containers, tubes or substrates. The method is being developed in Delft, the Netherlands. Trials with herbs, leafy vegetables and strawberries are said to have already yielded encouraging results. However, there is no evidence to support this. (138)
The technical principle that lifts leaves and berries is diamagnetism: gravity pulls them downwards, the diamagnetic force pushes them upwards. Water counteracts gravity through strong magnets. When these two forces are equal in strength, the vegetables begin to float. Not to be confused with adjustable electromagnets, as in a magnetic levitation train. In cultivation, the focus is on the levitation of non-conductive materials.
Unlike ferromagnetism (iron) and paramagnetism (aluminium), every material is diamagnetic, albeit usually only weakly, such as water. Whilst the repulsion exerted by a single molecule is negligible, the collective force of billions of water molecules in the vegetable becomes significant in the presence of very strong magnetic fields. (139) The strongest diamagnetic material is bismuth, followed by graphite. (140, 141) If the water is insufficient for levitation, seeds, for examp , are placed in thin bismuth seedling trays that float in the air using opposing magnetic fields.
The magnetic fields required are extremely strong, in the order of 16 tesla, and are currently only available for research purposes. This is on a completely different scale to the millitesla used in electro-cultivation. By way of comparison: a typical fridge magnet has a strength of around 0.005 tesla, whilst a medical MRI scanner operates at around 1.5 to 3 tesla. Such strong magnetic fields require superconducting magnets. These must be cooled with liquid helium or nitrogen.
What can we expect from food that has been exposed to such raw forces during its growth? Perhaps there is a more elegant solution: acoustic levitation. This uses high-frequency sound waves to keep materials suspended. Ultrasound is usually employed to overcome gravity, partly because it is inaudible to humans. (142–144) Levitators are already being used to process microchips without physical contact. Treatment with ultrasound (sonication), though without levitation, has long been used in food production: for preservation, to extract juice from oranges, to emulsify mayonnaise, or to age spirits. (145, 146)
Ants, ladybirds and small fish that have already been levitated acoustically have not lost any of their vitality (147). Small creatures naturally weigh next to nothing, but technological progress is sure to hold a few more surprises. Interest is also fuelled by numerous legends from around the world, claiming that sounds were once used to build cities and monuments. Allegedly, stone blocks were moved using musical instruments, pipes or singing, and not just the walls of Jericho by ancient trumpets. (148, 149)
Chapter 12. A Bleak Future
It all began with the topsoil being replaced by rock wool to enable soil-less cultivation. Then irrigation was abandoned in favour of misting the bare roots. Finally, air and water were treated with magnetic fields, with the result that many pests and pathogens are kept at bay. Next, light is to be replaced. Agricultural research institutes are testing cultivation in complete darkness. The idea of allowing plants to mature in the dark particularly fascinates NASA and the US military. (150)
The principle is actually quite simple: as we know, plants do not grow solely through photosynthesis thanks to chlorophyll. In the darkness of the soil, seedlings take a different route: the glyoxylate cycle. How else could potatoes utilise the starch from the seed for germination? The key breakdown product of the nutrients from the seed is acetyl-CoA, i.e. acetic acid bound to coenzyme A. This provides not only energy but also the building blocks the seedling needs for its growth. (150) As soon as the shoot turns green in the daylight, the glyoxylate cycle is switched off, and chlorophyll takes over the assimilation.
Acetate is set to replace the sun in the future. According to the plans, it will be produced via tandem electrolysis: first, carbon monoxide is produced from carbon dioxide, and from this, through a further electrolysis process, the sought-after acetate. (150–152) Now all that remains is to re-edit the plants’ genomes so that the glyoxylate cycle can no longer be switched off. Perhaps the goal can even be achieved without traditional DNA manipulation, using ribonucleotides alone? (153) Until then, acetate will be fed to yeasts, fungi and algae, which can utilise the nutrient immediately. (150)
Edible mushrooms
can already be cultivated using industrially produced hydrocarbons and urea as a source of nitrogen. Furthermore, analyses suggest that the efficiency of converting solar energy into food is many times greater than that of photosynthetic crops. Substrates such as hydrocarbons and urea can be produced from atmospheric CO₂and N₂withoutthe need forarable land, in locations where energy is abundant. This bypasses photosynthesis. Even the water could be obtained through air separation. (154)
The sun is still needed, but this time to supply solar energy for the new technology. One cannot help but wonder whether it is at all wise to use sunlight for electrolysis rather than directly for photosynthesis? Electrolysis, according to Feng Jiao, the developer of the process, uses the same inputs as photosynthesis – CO₂, sunlight and water – but ‘its efficiency in converting solar energy into food is at least four times higher than that of traditional agriculture.’ (155)
Where is all that CO₂supposed to come from? Although carbon capture and storage is regarded as a silver bullet against ‘climate change’, the concept has so far proved to be costly hocus-pocus. (156) But who knows, perhaps a technical breakthrough will still be achieved.
The plan to use electrolysis as a substitute for agriculture is therefore still a long way off. Undeterred, many current studies are aimed at bringing this technology to market. Insiders wonder whether this might be because the Martian atmosphere consists of 95% CO₂? There is currently a lot of funding on the horizon for Mars missions.
13. Conclusion
Back to Earth, back to reality: isn’t it astonishing that ‘controlled environmental agriculture’ is achieving the goals of organic farming? Whilst our organic farmers produce small harvests at great expense, here high-tech methods are multiplying yields. No-till farming offers an even better solution with its focus on soil life. (157) It is superior to organic farming from an ecological perspective. (71)
We need neither insect farming, so that we can bake our bread with mealworm powder instead of rye flour, nor bioreactors to multiply immortal cells such as stem cells or cancer cells and press them into ‘lab-grown meat’. And certainly no climate saviours, wolf carers or grass-munchers, but seasoned agricultural engineers, so that we can all be fed.
What if the desire for landless production were to be realised, allowing wilderness to reclaim agricultural land? Not only would property prices plummet because farmers’ land would lose much of its value, but nature would also go down the drain. Farmers have created habitats for many species that thrive in cultivated landscapes. Without farmers, our countryside will go to the dogs, and with it the countless creatures that have found a home there: cornflowers, bats, hares, poppies, ladybirds, skylarks …
Other creatures thrive in the wilderness: on land left to lie fallow, ticks proliferate, lending their ‘injection equipment’ to dangerous pathogens such as Borrelia. Grazing cattle and sheep keep this serious threat at bay. (158–161) For whatever reason. Often, seemingly insignificant details determine the success or failure of promising ideas. When it comes to agriculture and food security, however, many ideologues are not even familiar with the basic interrelationships. Yet the possibilities available to us today certainly give cause for optimism.
English Editor: Josef Hueber
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