Courtesy of Plantagon International This computer-generated image was designed to show how the proposed Plantagon International SA vertical greenhouse would look in a fictional city. Plantagon, a Swedish company owned by the Onondaga Nation, says it will begin building the greenhouses in cities around the world in 2012. The smallest greenhouse would be about five stories high. The largest Plantagon would be about 25 stories. The smallest would cost $10 million to $20 million, according to Plantagon.

Youd never guess who controls a Swedish company that plans to build 25-story-high, globe-shaped greenhouses that could cost $280 million each in cities around the world.

Its the Onondaga Nation.

The Native American nation whose only businesses are a cigarette shop and a sports arena owns 85 percent of Plantagon International SA. a company that quietly has been pitching its futuristic-looking greenhouses to officials at the White House and to government leaders in Europe and Asia.

Oren Lyons, the Onondaga faithkeeper who chairs Plantagons board of directors, predicted Plantagon will build its first three spherical greenhouses in 2012.

The high-tech greenhouses will grow four times as much produce per square foot as can be grown in traditional one-story greenhouses, he said.

The smallest of Plantagons patented designs is a five-story globular greenhouse that would cost $10 million to $20 million and would grow enough produce to feed 10,000 people per year, according to Plantagon officials.

The largest is about 25 stories high with a skyscraper of a price tag $280 million to $550 million that will feed 350,000 people per year, the company says.

Plantagon has raised $1 million from shareholders, according to its 2009 annual report.

Hans Hassle

The company will pay a maximum of 20 percent of the cost of building the first three greenhouses, said Plantagon CEO Hans Hassle, a Swedish businessman.

Plantagon is seeking investors for the balance, Hassle said.

There is so much money around when it comes to green things, he said. Cities all over the world want a green image. The investors see this as a good business opportunity.

Plantagon intends to build in the United States, Sweden and Asia one greenhouse each in 2012, Hassle said.

There are skeptics.

No one has built a large vertical greenhouse anywhere in the world, let alone one that looks like Plantagons.

A handful of Central New York horticulture and greenhouse experts say Plantagons vertical greenhouse would cost too much to build and would require too much energy to make it financially feasible.

Its totally nonsustainable. I dont know anyone with any real information about greenhouses who would support this, said Louis Albright, a Cornell University professor of biological and environmental engineering who specializes in greenhouse engineering.

The Onondagas see the proposal as a business alternative to casinos, which they rejected for spiritual and cultural reasons, even as other Native American nations got rich off them. The Onondaga government. unlike many Indian nations, is run by a traditional council of chiefs, appointed by clan mothers. They oversee a cigarette shop that sells about $29 million per year in untaxed cigarettes.