>> hundreds of days in detention. >> al jazeera rejects all the charges and demands immediate release. >> thousands calling for their freedom. >> it's a clear violation of their human rights. >> we have strongly urged the government to release those journalists. >> journalism is not a crime. >> major russian military action in ukraine. is the u.s. powerless to stop it? now, the u.s. is ebola-free, did the u.s. overreact? and history is made in space. i'm antonio mora, this is "consider this." those stories and others ahead. >> russian tanks are rolling -- >> into neighboring ukraine.

>> forces that are capable of being nuclear. >> this is our new cold war. >> it is a good feeling to hug a hero. >> dr. craig spencer, ebola free. >> turn our attention to families that are being destroyed. >> in yemen. >> forces are considering evacuating the embassy in kabul. >> in turkey. >> we find you as murderers, we want you to get out of our land. >> india's farmers say they can bring farm to table in places like this. >> two window washers were rescued 65 stories up. >> only thing they suffered was hypothermia. >> i'm excited elated and overwhelmed. >> we begin with russian forces crossing the border into ukraine, threatening to escalate a conflict, that is already cost more than 4,000 lives. while moscow mocked the report

as one of the regular blasts of hot air from nato's brussels headquarters pictures like these backed up the warning from the alliance's supreme commander dr. flip breedlove. >> -- phillip breedlove. >> we have seen russian tanks russian artillery, air systems and combat entering into ukraine. we do not have a good picture at this time of how many and has to their intent, i'm not sure. >> meanwhile the united nations security council held its 26th emergency session on ukraine on wednesday without agreeing to any action. for more on the conflict in ukraine i'm joined by two former ambassadors to nato. nicholas burns was on the national security council from

1990 to 1995. he is a froafe professor at hars scol of government. kurt voa volker is a professor t arizona state university. kurt i'll start with you. general breedlove says russia has moved heavy munitions into ukraine. what should the u.s. and its nato allies do besides call another meeting of the u.n. security council? >> i think there are two things we need to do. we need to show we are fully supportive of the ukrainian government and time to provide lethal assistance and help them control the border. the second thing we need to do is specifically about the nuclear issues is really raise a spotlight on this and make clear

that we have no interest in going back to the kind of nuclear standoff that characterized the cold war, that russia should not be targeting any cities in the area, and we are urging maximum restraint from russia on this. >> nick do you agree? >> i do agree with ambassador volker, with kurt. it is time for united states to supply ukraine with the details it needs to defend its country. we have a friendship with ukraine that dates back several decades. they certainly deserve the kind of lethal assistance that they need. we should consider more sanctions, tougher sanctions. we are not going to oppose

russia militarily. we have no obligation or desire to do that. we need to drive up the cost, the actual concrete cost by the russians, further economic sanctions to harm the russian economy and to make putin feel that economic pain very much in order. >> but the germans are already saying, we're not talking about sanctions yet. and kurt do you agree? are sanctions enough? we have seen the renewabl rene o record low. >> the sanctions are having a short term economic impact but they are not having an impact yet on vladimir putin's decision-making. he thinks this is something he can ride out and meantime the acquisition of territory and the retention thing ostrengthening ,

i don't think is enough. i agree with nick we should increase the sanctions but i think we also should show that we are prepared to put military tools on the table, advising the military of defense, lettal assistance, to show that we are not going to let the sole military actor be russia and russia be able to dictate the directions on the ground. >> nick you say we should stand up to putin, have we been strong enough? >> i think president obama has wanted on the sanctions side to do a lot more. it was the europeans for many months, really until the shoot down of the plais malaysia airl. clearly, more has to be done. president putin is many things, he is brutal, authoritarian but

he's also rational. he's not going to want to see a cutoff of manufactured exports from western europe into the russian federation. as kurt has already said and i agree, we should also think of military assistance to ukraine. we should also work on further trying to isolate putin and the russian federation politically. and further, we can't lose sight of the fact that we had an alliance, kurt and i had the honor to be part of the alliance, in estonia, latvia, poland, the military garrison is there. make surn certain to president , it is that kind of deterrence that is kind of push back that you need to do with president putin. >> let's go on to what's going

on militarily. let's listen more to what general breedlove had to say. >> we have the situation where the former international border, the current international border of ukraine and russia is completely porous, it is completely wide open. forces money support, supplies, weapons are flowing back and forth across this border, completely at will. and that is not a good situation. >> so kurt, is there any doubt that there's been at least a partial invasion of ukraine by russia? >> no doubt whatsoever. russia invaded crimea first and annexed crimea. president putin visited on may ninth. that is part of ukraine that's been invaded and occupied. we've seen personnel, both special forces and regular

forces and voluntary mercenaries. there's no question that's what's going on. the only thing we have yet to see is serious assistant to dreuukraineto help defend itsel. >> russia keeps denying that it's invading. >> we've seen invasion by subterfuge. president putin, former kgb officer, prefers operations where he can deny publicly because he's an authoritarian leader what he's doing. but he operates behind the scenes the destabilize democratically formed governments like the government in ukraine. so this is a very serious violation both of law, and it's the kind of thing that wesh governments have to stand up and

say not only do we fail to support it but we can't stand for it. i think what kurt is saying there has to be concrete action by the united states and the western european governments in the realm of further economic assistance. if you don't send that message of opposition to president putin then of course you embolden a personality like that, someone who is authoritarian, who believes he can take ni anything nearby as long as he can get away with it. >> speaking of nearby, long range russian bombers will parole the eastern pacific and f of mexico, that's something that russia didn't parole eve -- patl even during the worst days of the cold war.

kurt. >> i think we're seeing a growing confrontation between russia and the rest of the world. it's not a confrontation among equals and we shouldn't treat it as such. we should treat russia as an gracor. and restabilize the situation we're in. >> nick. >> it's not a return to the cold war, not a ideologic return of one block to another. it is perhaps the last attempt by a russian leader to try to seek the kind of role the soviet union had. russia is a dying power, less important 50 years from today than it is now. it is not the case with united states and not the case with western europe. we have to be smart how we contain russia. we have to be tough. i think president obama now has an important obligation to convince the european allies led by germany to take steps to oppose what russia is doing.

>> gentlemen it's good to have you with us. now from more stories around the world. we begin in beijing where president obama and chinese president xi jinping closed the apec summit with what some are calling a major deal reduce carbon emissions,. >> the united states has set a new goal of reducing our net greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28% below 2005 levels by the year 2025. this is an ambitious goal but it is an achievable goal. >> for its part china agreed to make a fifth of its energy production renewable while letting its carbon emissions keep growing until 2030. that did not satisfy incoming senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. >> i was particularly distressed about the deal he has apparently

reached with the chinese on his current trip which as i read the agreement requires the chinese to do nothing at all for 16 years. while these carbon emission regulations are creating havoc. >> and there were some awkward moments at the news conference which was not broadcast on chinese television. president xi first ignored then brushed off a journalist's question. >> media outlets need the obey chinese laws and regulations. >> next we head to turkey, a hypernationallist group attacking three navy sailors in istanbul. saying, go home yankee, the individuals forced bags over their heads before the sailors were able to escape. the u.s. embassy has condemned

the assault, calling it appalling. new york city, a dramatic scene unfolding above the one world trade center. two window washers, got stuck after one of the cables went slack. firefighters were able to break through glass on the 68th floor and pull the washers to safety. they were taken to the hospital with mild hypothermia. the extent to which j. ed gar hoover wengarhoover did to n luther king. a fraud dissalut dissolute indi.

threatening to expose him as an adult err and suggest king kill himself. the letter was sent to king's home along with a group of sex audiotapes that fbi had recorded. that's some of what's happening around the world. coming up america has rid itself of ebola again with only one casualty in the u.s. did we overreact to the virus? also, president obama has called yemen a success story for our anti-terror efforts but rising violence may cause for the evacuation of our embassy there. and our social media producer, hermela aregawi. what's happening? >> rather than include a muslim

holiday of a day it already recognizes. and what do you think? join the conversation on twitter @ajconsiderthis and on our facebook page. >> it's a chilling and draconian sentence... it simply cannot stand. >> this trial was a sham... >> they are truth seekers... >> all they really wanna do is find out what's happening, so they can tell people... >> governments around the world all united to condemn this... >> as you can see, it's still a very much volatile situation... >> the government is prepared to carry out mass array... >> if you want free press in the new democracy, let the journalists live.

>> the united states is now ebola-free for the first time since september 5th. dr. craig spencer who was released from belleview hospital tuesday, was the, only fatal here was thomas eric duncan, who

was misdiagnosed when he first went to a dallas hospital. but 5,000 had have now died of the virus in west africa. with wall to wall news coverage oour collective experience of what might have happened here been more virulent than the disease itself. joining us is william schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at vanderbilt, and past president of the association of infectious diseases. doctors, while we're still concerned about ebola, we have no known cases in the united states. the question is did we overreact, especially those in the news media? >> it's nice that we can take a deep breath and look back a little bit. yes i think there was some hype, in fact i think there was a great deal of hype but we did have a small outbreak of ebola if you will and a large outbreak of ebola anxiety.

ebola-palooza if you will. and both had to be attended top. and glad tto.and the ebola and a have stopped, makes me feel good. >> new york and other states say they learned from the issue in dallas. and there was little doubt that most hospitals were not that well prepared to deal with an epidemic of a disease like ebola. >> i have to be partly guilty because i thought the hospitals across the country were better-prepared. but certainly we all learned from what happened in dallas. and i think every hospital around the country i would think now is preparing or has prepared itself for inan ebol an ebola vf

you will take it that way. but we should be gratified that all of those contacts in the united states have run their course and people have kept them under surveillance and there has been no passing of the virus to other than the two nurses in dallas. this will not pass widely in the united states. >> there is no doubt the ebola has been widespread in the countries in west africa, we should never forget that but threefn has ithere has it been ? an estimate that came out less than a month ago said 10,000 cases in early september to november. >> one tends to go to the highest number and report that. there is no doubt this epidemic

dmonts thoscontinues in those tt african countries. those numbers are underestimates, a lot of patients were never diagnosed and therefore never counted. >> and i want to address west africa in a minute. one question about the united states. we also you know kept hearing estimates about how many more people would be showing up in the u.s. and in other countries with ebola. and you know we've also seen these minute-panics in the not-too-distant past about swine flu and bird flu now ebola. are you at all concerned we had a peter who cried wolf situation where people will not pay enough attention the next time there's a threat of epidemic? >> i'm not so concerned about that. i think the next time we have another new virus there once again will be another learning curve and public health will try

to educate the public as well as it can that we can deal with that one, also. so each one is kind of distinctive. there will be continuing emerging infections. remember we had mercer, cov this summer we had the ent row virus we had chikungunya and now we had eecial. each one was differently, it is a small globe and there will be other viruses in the future. >> the u.n. mentioned there would be a cut in new ebola troops. but the world health organization said it has risen to 5,147 more than 14,000 cases total. sierra leone, there are still steep increases. are you concerned we might be letting our guard down?

>> well, the international community needs to continue to respond. you know, our response has been focused principally on liberia. and we're beginning to get our arms around that outbreak. the cdc has people over there doing the public health work. our troops have been building hospitals. we have just opened up a new treatment center, a large one that will be staffed by an international group of health care workers. so we're making progress. but as i say, this is going to take a while yet. and the whole international community really does need to participate. >> final question for you. you know, we've always since ebola showed up a few decades ago, it's really been a scary disease where at times 90% fatality rate. is what we've seen with how ebola victims who have been in the united states, their survivability how well they've done, is that changing the way we look at the disease, still a

very dangerous disease but with proper treatment it can be survived? >> well, antonio i think you've said it very well. but the proper treatment is the kind of elaborate treatment we can do here in the united states. it's difficult to translate all that sophistication into a much simpler, a much shall we say less elaborate environment that we have in west africa. so it's still going to have high mortality in west africa. we are working to bring that down. but here in the developed world and in europe, et cetera, we can do. do much, much better. >> dr. william schaffner, it's always good to have you. and thank you for your insights. >> my pleasure as always. >> u.s. officials are considering an evacuation of the u.s. embassy in light of the issues in yemen.

u.s. drone strike, ongoing fighting with sunni tribes some allied with al qaeda, the increased violence part of the chaos that ensued since houthis captured the capital of sanaa, forcing the government to resign. for more we're joined from denver colorado, by laura casanof. she's the author of the new book, don't be afraid of the bullets, an accidental war correspondent in yemen. laura, good to have you with us. i'll get to your book in a moment. how this seems to be getting worse, a new government was formed three days ago but just as this was happening, general lloyd austin warned the u.s.

could lose an ally in the war against terrorism. how did we end up here? >> i think that's a good question. there's a lot of people in yemen asking that same thing. one thing we know is that president hadi since he has been inaugurated in 2012, has not bean good president, done little to quell the political forces in the country. the group that took advantage of his poor leadership and the power vacuum the most were the houthi, a couple of months ago they came to sanaa and enacted their force against the government. >> as a successful model for the war against i.s.i.l, he did that as recently as september. in receipt strow expect not a great analogy. >> the timing of the analogy was

very poor because a few weeks later the houthis came down and took over the capital. i think that the reason that president obama has not been the only person who has called yemen a success story. other u.s. politicians have, u.n. officials have and i think part of the reason for that is there's such little news coming out of yemen that people aren't aware of how bad the situation really was. so we can site yemen as an example it's a success because xyz hasn't happened. was heading towards chaos over the past few years. i mean it's all started with the protest movement of 2011 and how poorly the transition was handled. >> let's talk about the transition within yemen, 60% sunni, 40% shia, they are talking about death to america

and death to israel as part of their mission. >> the houthis like to sort of have -- put out the image that hear quite anti-american and have this death to america chant. though they haven't really -- american journalists deal with them and there's not aall the sort of relationship with houthis and western journalists there are with i.s.i.s. and western journalists. the conflict doesn't have sectarian roots as sunni versus shia roots. the conflict has a history in family politics and tribal politics and this sort of thing as yemen is a very tribal society. however it's unfortunately becoming more sectarian and it used to be in yemen that yemenis told me sunni and shia prayed in the same mosque and that doesn't happen very much anymore and that's very sad.

>> you said yemen is moving from a semi-failed state to a fully failed state and to some extent yemen is as bad as libya do you agree? >> i absolutely agree. that has been the case for the past few years. what limited central government existed, the government provides very little service to its civilians. it hardly functions as a government. >> your book, in it you describe your passion for yemen, you talk about how you became an accidental correspondent in yemen during the arab spring, and the uprising against former president salah, and the title of your book is don't be afraid about the bullets. that is probably the main fear of war correspondents in the past. as you were mentioned i.s.i.l. and what's going on with them, what we saw happen to james

foley and what we saw happen to steven sotloff, are you afraid with journalists becoming these big targets these important stories won't be told, we won't be hearing about a catastrophe in yemen and other places until it's too late? >> that is -- that is certainly a fear. i think journalists are being more careful now, especially what happened with foley and sotloff. i'm part of this sort of cohort of freelance journalists who made their careers because of the arab spring. we were young, we didn't have much conflict experience before the arab spring started, and it's scary. it's scary to see this happen to our colleagues and our friends and it definitely makes you reconsider the risk. in yemen i never experienced any anti-americanism the entire time i was there. though i did -- i didn't in some ways i didn't know how to manage

myself in a conflict situation and did get myself in dicey situations unnecessarily so. >> it's a fascinating story and really good for you to join us to talk about the book and also give us your insights what's going on there. again the book is don't be afraid of the bullet ultras, anu for joining us. >> let's check with hermella. >> muslim residents in montgomery county have been asking the school board for years to recognize major muslim holidays, a move that would be mostly symbolic, sings next year id el adha falls on a regularly recognized holiday. a mover is to remove all

religious holidays from the calendar. >> anyization of christmas, easter, rosh hashhana and yom kentuckyomkippur. >> there won't be any mention of them on the official calendar. >> we are not allowed by law to give students the day off for religious holiday. >> the board says it closed the school as a regular holiday because most children stayed home anyway. hoping the number of absentees would convince the school board to include the holiday on the school calendar. 5% of students and 5% of teachers were absent, only

slightly higher than the previous week. advocates say that is not an accurate representation because many parents sent their children to school anyway concerned they would fall behind in their schoolwork if they didn't. antonio we'll discuss this tomorrow. >> thanks hermella. >> you're welcome. >> still ahead, an historic landing in space, the incredible ten year effort to reach a comet. also, rulers who stopped ruling. those who stayed in rule for decades. farm fresh, how a movement indoors could revolutionize what ends up on your dinner plate. to withdraw. >> get a first hand look at what life is really like under the taliban. >> we're going to be taken >> it's so seldom you get the access to the other side >> fault lines, al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested...

>> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... emmy award winning investigative series... special episode on the front lines with the taliban on al jazeera america

>> history has been made. for the first time humanity has reached out and touched a comet. on wednesday morning the european space agency's rosetta probe reached out a comet, beginning a new chapter of space exploration. joining us from minneapolis, minnesota, is chris hatfield, who first went to space, and on

endeavor, on the international space station returning to earth in may of last year. his social media post made him an internet star. he took 45,000 photos of earth and some of them are presented in his newly released book, you are here, around the world in 92 minutes, rafs from the photograe international space station. >> chris, congratulations on the book, we'll talk about that in a few minutes but we've got to talk about the fill let lander. bill nye, the science guy, talked about this hitting a bullet with a bullet. how big an accomplishment is this? >> i think it's a big accomplishment antonio for two different reasons. one is the incredible complexity of doing something like that. when rosetta was launched in march of 2004, think about that, over ten years ago, that's before twitter existed, before

iphones existed. and it's been like some sort of stealthy tracking dog working its way through the solar system until it's further away than mars, falling away from the sun but somehow joined up with the comet and not only that, today we managed to figure out how the way to release something the size of a person with their knees up to their chest and kissed down on the surface of this comet. the improbability of that is enough but even more impressive is the fact that we now have a good understanding of understanding what comets are actually made up of, the volatile organics and the water, they look like the source of the water on earth and maybe some of the origination of life itself. the science and understanding that's going to come from that now that we finally got there may even outstrip the sheer

human achievement of making this happen at all. >> people have talked so much about space exploration becoming stagnant in recent decades. this certainly proves odor wise and could it provide important inspiration for space exploration in the future? >> momentary span of interest come and go but the things we're doing in space is teaching us so much about earth and about ourselves in general, the stuff we've learned on mars in the last couple of years outstrips what we learned about mars in the entire history. we're starting to understand how common earth like planets are and the understanding of earth itself sun precedented and there are people permanently living off the planet for the last 14 years ago, this month we left earth 14 years ago not just as one country but as a species all the living countries of the

world living on the international space station station. so public attention comes and goes when there's a big event which is natural but the actual things that are happening are fascinating. and i think what is happening today was one of those highlights that reminds people what is happening beyond the world's atmosphere. >> speaking of that what was it like when you first saw the earth from outer space? >> my first flight was on space shuttle tants. the launcatlantis. the fact of orbiting is so complex. the overwhelming urge to pull irs to the window, get your face up to the glass and see what the world is, what it truly is, your first idea is library privileged

delight, one of honor, where you just walked into the biggest cathedral, you talk about life that is only imagined. i've been in space three times, that initial sense of wonder of awe of seeing the world what it truly is never fades. it's an moacial visual thrill. >> you asked what people wanted you to take photos of. were you amazed? >> my son evan said, why don't you ask people what they want to you take a picture of, and i said hey everybody what do you want, from twitter, they said, i really would like you to take a picture of my home town which made me laugh. which made me realize, people

are proud of where they're from. no matter where they live around the globe they're proud of where they're from. number two, they want to see how they all fit together, how they fit in, they want to see their part of the world in true perspective. >> it gives incredible perspective. we saw a picture of the salt lake, where you see something that looks like the head of a wolf from outer space. it's a beautiful picture. you took 45,000 pictures, you go through them all, you culled them down to 192. what do they tell us about the earth? >> imagine antonio, if you and i were by the window of the spaceship and i wanted to go around the world with you once and i wanted you to see the world for what it actually is so you're not getting someone else's biased opinion or some subset of it, i wanted you to say look at this and tell you what i knew or what i saw and let you soak it up for yourself,

that's why i sorted through the 4500 pictures and found something like the wolf's head like you saw, a glance from florida to d.c. where you can really start to understand exactly what the world looks like and how it all fits together, the raw beauty of it, the ugliness of it, the reality of it, the thinness of the atmosphere and the perpetual delight of how it refreshes itself with the seasons, it's such a wonderful experience that i've had and i wanted to make sure that the people could see it for themselves. >> it is already the new york times best seller. what are you going to do with the profits? >> my wife and i decided a long time ago, actually, that any profits we make go to charity, the michael j. fox foundation. they go to charity, it seems like the right thing to do.

>> great book, obviously for a great cause. chris hatfield, thank you for taking the time to join us. >> nice to speak to you antonio, thank you. >> you are here, around the world in 92 minutes, photographs from the international space station. coming up why everything you think you know about farming could radically change in the next few years. the food revolution that has farmers moving indoors. and why one african nation rose up against a leader, why those who rule sometimes refuse to step down after decades in power. plants everyday... >> feeding the world... >> this opens up whole new possibilities... >> tech know's team of experts show you how the miracles of science... >> this is my selfie, what can you tell me about my future? >> can effect and surprise us... >> don't try this at home... >> tech know, where technology meets humanity only on al jazeera america

>> an all new airplane in a once in a generation achievement of human ingenuity. >> three years late... fleet grounding... fires on the airplane... >> they're short changing the engineering process... >> from engineering to the factory floor... al jazeera investigates broken dreams: the boing 787 only on al jazera america

>> today's data dive takes on world leaders who just won't leave. who aren't members of the royal family have doggedly held on.

citizens of burkina faso forced their leader to leave, he'd ruling the country since 1967. the top 4 leaders when it comes to time in office, are all in african countries. the top 14 come from either africa or asia. many are autocraticken from oil rich regions. some like the yoal ayatollah khomeini, and some run two terms, refuse for a third. feeling like it would make him feel like a king. franklin roosevelt was voted into office four times. but after he died, the amendment

constitutionally limiting to two terms was voted into office. we'll explain next. >> i'm john siegenthaler in new york. coming up after "consider this," compromise again, why japan hacked into the u.s. weather system. three american sailors attacked on the street of istanbul. a space probe makes history landing on the surface of a comet. and the story of the pilot who was ejected from the virgin galactic. and the videos of ok go. right after this. >> protestors are gathering... >> there's an air of tension right now... >> the crowd chanting for democracy...

>> this is another significant development... >> we have an exclusive story tonight, and we go live... li ve,

the news has become this thing where you talk to experts about people, and al jazeera has really tried to talk to people, about their stories. we are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. we are ment to be your first choice for the news.

>> if you think vast fields and tractors when you think farming you may be behind the times. that's because farming's future may partially be indoors. the new episode of al jazeera america's "techknow" finds that as space and resources become more scarce, farmers are redefining themselves and new technologies mean they don't need the sun. >> that pink glow is the result of the major innovations, more than 3,000 red and blue led grow lights. remember photo synthesis? it turns out plants don't need the sun's whole speck trim to do it.

they only need certain colors. >> these lights are made to really focus. the red wave lengths, here is the light that you really really really like. >> this new episode of "techknow" premiers saturday at 7:30 p.m. eastern here at al jazeera america, phil torres is the host of the show, he joins us from washington, d.c. phil good to see you. >> good to see you antonio. >> what's making this possible are led lights. >> absolutely. led lights are the most incredible innovations we have. actually the inventers of it twonl nobel prizwonthe nobel pr. additionally they don't heat up. you can touch these thing, so none of the energy is going towards heat.

so really efficient. which means their energy bill can be pretty low on this. >> they can puts this very close to the plants too, whichen then also requires less space. they can have vertical farming, they can have ten levels of plants in one of these indoor farms. >> it's amazing. they are stacking plants on plants. they have plans to go even higher. you can build an entire tower out of these things. there is no limit. they can put those lights right up next to them. they can pack these things right in tight, take advantage of the space they have which isn't necessarily the case when you look outside at farm fields. >> what you were saying earlier, indoor farmers are playing with these lights, that they don't need the whole spectrum of the sun and they can find the right balance of the lights for specific foods. now, there are any limits as to what can be grown inside? >> there are limits. for one thing, they're still

learning a lot. each plant needs a specific wavelength. they are trying the find the right compensations to do it efficiently. when you think of corn, they need a lot of space, lot of energy, not the great product to grow indoors. corn gros grows high, people art looking to grow corn something with high energy. something specific, lettuce, tomatoes, herbs, that kind of stuff. >> zero pesticides, they use 98% less water than farms do, again, much less space. they talk about it be being a chemical-free environment. why then is most indoor farming not considered organic? >> you know it's interesting because when it comes to pesticides they don't need it. they've got this great barrier around them, which is the walls.

no pests can get in. but it's the fertilizer, that is not organic. doesn't quite do it when you take it indoors, they have had to go to nonorganic fertilizer. there are groups that are working on organic fertilizer that can work indoors but the side kick, they use aqua ponics on it. actually the fish waste serves as the fertilizer for these plants making it completely organic. and there's only one farm that's currently doing it. >> so many fascinating aspects to this. another benefit is that crops sometimes can be harvested 20 times a year. >> 20 times oyear. maybe during the growing season in the summer if you compare prices not going to twiet compete with what you get generosity outside but these things can keep growing.

so what they are targeting is extending the growing season for all these plants. not necessarily growing plants in places that wasn't previously possible because there still are some limits as far as energy and water and things like that but they can have things that are growing from april to october that previously maybe could be harvested one, two times a year. >> let's talk about the negatives. even though it can make farming, costing $800 million in lost revenues, we've seen floods ravage farms around the world, the polar vortex hurt vineyards. but there are significant costs to this especially when you start up. >> yes, it is very expensive to start up so what they've been doing is actually getting corporate sponsors to help them out. so once they get up and going they are very efficient. there are pilot projects starting these indoor farms and

now that they're going they can work to make them more efficient. get that price down. the startup price is prey enormous but it will pay off. >> what about the ongoing energy cost? even though the led lights are very efficient, normal farmers just need the sun. they have the big advantage on that. >> they can be incorporating solar power into these thing, gentlemen, the energy cost is there but when you compare it it is remarkably efficient. they are able to get so much out of the energy. if you compare fuel prices of tractors on a farm compared to what they do in there they start to balance out. also keep in mind so many of these outdoor farms are actually subsidized by the government. even though you look at the price at the bottom line it seems like farms make more sense economically that are getting a little bit of assistance

themselves. >> that's my final question, how big can this be scaled and how profitable can it be? >> they want to go big. they want it to be profitable. but there's a lot of work to be done. right now, they're really targeting that profitable word. so they're selling the produce in places like whole foods because it is more expensive. but they don't just want to make big money. they want to make a big impact.they are hoping to bring these things into areas that don't have it. they are hoping to brings from produce to neighborhoods that don't have it in the area. >> "techknow," i was able to get a preview and it's fascinating. phil torres always good to have you. >> thank you. >> that's all. coming up thursday on "consider this," the nazis next door. and more on a story hermella brought you earlier? why a school district in maryland is wiping out the

holidays from its calendar. the question continues, at aljazeera.com/considerthis and you can tweet me termt. me@amora.tv. bp bp eye hi, everyone. i'm john seigenthaler. this is al jazeera america weather alert - u.s. weather and satellite systems hacked by china, why american officials apparently kept it quiet. >> use of force - the stunning in a spike in killings across the country u.s. sailors assaulted on the streets of turkey >