Britain's biggest greenhouse complex - the size of 80 football pitches - is under construction in Kent.
When it is complete it will include seven 140-metre long glasshouses covering a 220-acre site.
Using the latest technologies the computer-controlled Thanet Earth complex will have the capacity to grow salad produce such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers which will be picked continuously 52-weeks per year.
Operators Fresca Group Ltd., say it will increase by 15 per cent the UK's crop of salad vegetables most of which currently have to be imported.
It will have its own power generating plants to heat the cavernous greenhouses and the eco-friendly combined heat and power system will as a by-product provide enough electricity to supply half the domestic power needs of 50,000 homes in north-east Kent near to where the £80m complex is being built on the Isle of Thanet.
The greenhouses have been designed so crops can be grown suspended from the 8m-high ceilings so they are easier to pick and they will be grown in nutrient enriched water rather than soil.
They will grow more than 1.3m plants at any one time, be watered from seven 50m gallon reservoirs in a recyclable rainfall system and tended by a workforce of 550. Designers believe much of the CO2 produced by the complex will be absorbed naturally by the plants.
The industrial scale of Thanet Earth is fairly common in Europe but has never been attempted before in England. It has been sited in Kent because of the amount of natural light available throughout the year.
Chris Mack, Chairman of Fresca Group, one of Britain's biggest fresh produce suppliers, said: "It's taken a committed team over two years to turn the idea into a reality.
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