Plant factory with artificial light (PF)' has been used in Japan for commercial production of leaf vegetables. Its annual sales volume per unit land area is roughly 100-fold that of open fields. PF can be built at any location and in any building, because it needs neither solar energy nor natural soil; its productivity is independent of the outside climate and soil fertility. In the near future, PF will play an important role in local production for local consumption of healthy and safe leaf vegetables and other short-height leafy crops in large cities. In this article, the construction characteristics, the operating principles, the potential, the challenges and the current commercial and noncommercial uses of PF in Japan are discussed.
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