In Chile's Atacama, world's driest desert, growing lettuces with fog

CHANARAL, Chile (Reuters) -In Chile's arid Atacama, the driest desert in the world, growers and researchers are looking to harness water from the very air itself to grow lettuces and lemons, using a net to catch drops of moisture from fog. "We are growing hydroponic lettuce entirely with fog water in the driest desert on the planet," Orlando Rojas, president of the Atacama Fog Catchers Association, told Reuters near Chanaral in the Atacama, where some areas do not see rainfall for years. Researchers at the UC Atacama Desert Center are launching an open-access web mapping platform to show the location of the areas with potential for fog-water harvesting in the country, trying to open up these arid areas for cultivation.