With all the media surrounding industrial agriculture and its
corresponding technologies — including GMO crops, pesticides, and
fertilizers — it might be easy to lose sight of the fact that many
people around the world are working hard to create alternative ways to
meet our growing food needs in ways that actually reduce our impact on the environment and climate change. This post is for them — the true heros of our generation.
Urban farms and soil-less growing technologies are emerging as viable
ways to provide fresh food in urban environments with minimal
transportation and resources. Dickson Despommier, the “father” of the
vertical farm concept, summed up the key drivers of the movement toward
urban farming in an article published in the New York Times in 2009.
“Population increases will soon cause our farmers to
run out of land. The amount of arable land per person decreased from
about an acre in 1970 to roughly half an acre in 2000 and is projected
to decline to about a third of an acre by 2050, according to the United
Nations. Irrigation now claims some 70 percent of the fresh water that
we use. After applying this water to crops, the excess agricultural
runoff, contaminated with silt, pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers,
is unfit for reuse. The developed world must find new agricultural
approaches before the world’s hungriest come knocking on its door for a
glass of clean water and a plate of disease-free rice and beans. Imagine
a farm right in the middle of a major city. Food production would take
advantage of hydroponic and aeroponic technologies. Both methods are
soil-free and use up to 90 percent less water than conventional
cultivation techniques.”
“Grow. Bloom. Thrive.” -Tim Allens (Founder of #10 on our list. Awarded 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME in 2010)
Top 8 Urban Eco-Farms to Sprout on Our Planet
1) Sky Greens Farms in Singapore is
the world’s first commercial vertical farm of its magnitude. The rising
steel structure is able to produce 1 ton of fresh veggies every other
day for sale in nearby supermarkets — helping the dense Asian metropolis
grow more food locally. The tiny country of Singapore currently
produces only 7% of its vegetables locally, so it imports most of its
produce from other countries. The farm itself is made up of 120 aluminum
towers that stretch thirty feet tall. Only three kinds of vegetables
are grown there, but locals hope to expand the farm to include other
varieties. The farm is currently seeking investors to help build 300
additional towers, which would produce two tons of vegetables per day.
Although the $21 million dollar price tag is hefty, it could mean
agricultural independence for the area. And although the produce costs
10 to 20 cents more than other veggies at the supermarket, consumers
seemed eager to buy the freshest food possible – often buying out the
market’s stock of vertical farm foods.
2) The Pasona HQ office building in Tokyo, Japan
is one project that is already growing food for its employees. In what
could be the first farm-to-desk project of its kind, the rehabilitated
building design grows most of its own food including rice, broccoli,
squash, tomatoes, and more. The living walls on the exterior give the
building a modern environmentally-friendly look and help reduce the
building’s energy needs. Through their urban farm headquarters, the
Japanese company is also supporting the education of Japan’s next
generation of urban farmers who work in internships to learn about food
production.
Pasona HQ in Tokyo, Japan – Before & After pics
3) The Roots on the Rooftop in downtown New Orleans grows organic herbs using aeroponic vertical
towers on the rooftop of Rouses Market on Baronne Street. It’s the
first grocery in the United States to build an aeroponic urban farm on
its own rooftop. A constant flow of water, air, and nutrients through
the vertical aeroponic Tower Garden allows the herbs to grow twice as
fast, while taking up less space. Parsley, basil and cilantro are among
the herbs the farm is growing to package and sell on the building’s
ground floor. The innovative garden is the outcome of a beneficial
partnership between Rouses and New Orleans-based company A.M.P.S., which
has been providing the technical expertise and management services to
the grocer’s cutting-edge garden. “We want to show that people can
create businesses where they can make a good living and simultaneously
do good things to help other people and the environment,” says the
entrepreneur behind the project about the impact he hopes to make on the
community. The rooftop endeavor has put New Orleans at the forefront of
innovative solutions to urban farming, and has shown the positive
results that come when established companies work with the city’s
emerging entrepreneurs.
Roots on the Rooftop in New Orleans
4) Vancouver’s Local Garden
was built on the roof of a parkade at 535 Richards Street in the heart
of the city. With its innovative growing system they can yield 4 times
more than field grown produce and be at 10 times the productivity. A
system of 3000 trays is built on a converter belt where in approx. 18-24
days they are able to grow their produce including baby greens, baby
kale, other loose leaf greens. Handpicked at the peak of freshness and
delivered the same day to local restaurants and grocers, Local Garden is
able to provide the freshest tasting produce available without the loss
of any vitamins, minerals or nutrients. Produce grown at Local Garden
Vancouver are distributed to stores and restaurants mostly within a 10km
radius of its downtown location. This significantly cuts down on
vehicle emissions and results in a fresher product.
Local Garden in Vancouver, Canada
5) Green Sky Growers in Winter Gardens, Florida is a rooftop
aquaponic farm on a multi-story building in the city. The plants draw
nutrients from a rooftop pond filled with tilapia, forming a closed
ecosystem. Ryan Chatterson, facility supervisor for the farm, says all
waste generated by the fish is recycled, via natural methods of
decomposition. The farm’s main client is a restaurateur housed in the
same building. For the in-house restaurant, sourcing fresh produce is a
mere one-minute commute in an elevator to the top of the 3,000 square
foot, multi-rise warehouse. The remainder of the produce is sold to a
restaurant situated across the street. “We have pretty much zero miles
from farm to plate,” Chatterson says. “We are producing a premium
product for a premium market.” He’s not trying to compete with what he
calls, “the guy selling 50-cent heads of lettuces from California.”
Instead, the farm works closely with the restaurant owners and plants
according to a schedule that best suits their needs. He turns down
around six restaurants a month. “They call us looking for produce, but
we don’t have enough. It’s nice to be on the other side. We’re not
having to market the business, it markets itself.”
Green Sky Growers in Florida
6) The Greenhouse Project, in New York City, is an
urban farm that sprouted from a a strategic partnership between a small
group of parents and educators and New York Sun Works, a NYC-based
non-profit organization that builds innovative science labs in urban
schools. The 1400-square foot smart and sustainable hydroponic urban
farm opened in the fall of 2010 on the third-story roof above the
Manhattan School for Children. The farm is a laboratory, a dynamic
classroom in which city kids learn where their food comes from, how much
energy is used to produce it, and the relationships between diet and
health, food and the environment. To date, about 1200 elementary and
middle school students have participated in the project, a hands-on
classroom and science lab that encourages the city’s youth to think
globally and act locally. The main issues the program aims to address
include climate change, the efficient use of water and energy, how to
build greener cities, and how to grow a secure and healthy food supply.
The Greenhouse Project on the roof of a public school in NYC
7) Sweet Water Organics in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – one
of our personal favorite urban farm operations — sprouted inside a
former industrial factory in 2008. Emmanuel Pratt, the 35 year old
cofounder of the farm and its educational arm — the Sweet Water
Foundation — transformed the vacant building into an aquaponic
wonderland in which nitrogen-rich waste from tilapia-filled tanks
fertilizes a variety of vegetables and herbs planted overhead. Sweet
Water Organics and Sweet Water Foundation sit side-by-side, in a 10,000+
square-foot factory that formerly assembled mining cranes in
Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood. The farm sells the fish and veggies
to area restaurants —but not before this Chicago State University
professor uses them to teach an important lesson about sustainable urban
agriculture. 100 miles south, At Chicago State University, Pratt is a
Professor of Urban Planning and the Director of the recently birthed, Aquaponics Center on Chicago’s South Side. Pratt
repurposed the deteriorating factory into a means to educate everyone
from kindergartners to graduate students about how to grow organic
produce in the midst of urban decay. After Chicago State oversaw the
purchase of the old factory, Pratt began to assemble the Mycelia
Project, the overarching name for his hybrid art-meets-agriculture
experiment. “When you take the concept of blight and flip it on its head
using fish and vegetables, you can show that there’s new life in spaces
that have been idle for 20, 30 years,” he says. Pratt has expanded the
program to 50 schools in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit through his
Sweet Water Foundation to inspire new generations of urban farmers
across America. We love his motto—a play on a derisive description of
areas in decay and what he hopes a passerby outside the former shoe
factory will one day say:
“There grows the neighborhood.”
Our newfound hero, Emmanuel Pratt, at his new Aquaponic Center on the South Side of Chicago
8) Growing Power in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — is the
last but not least urban farm on our list. Will Allen started his
adventures in urban farming nearly two decades ago. The Community Food
Center he first started in the heart of his city now serves as a model
for how to grow food with no chemicals and no fossil fuels—and with
favorable cash-flow. His main 2-acre Community Food Center is no larger
than a small supermarket. But it houses 20,000 plants and vegetables,
thousands of fish, plus chickens, goats, ducks, rabbits and bees. Allen’s
program offers innercity youth and teens an opportunity to work at his
store and renovate the greenhouses to grow food for their community.
What started as a simple partnership to change the landscape of the
north side of Milwaukee has blossomed into a national and global
commitment to sustainable food systems. Mr. Pratt, the founder of the
blossoming urban farm operations described above, was actually inspired
and trained by Mr. Allen. And like Pratt, Allen’s operations have also
expanded into nearby cities — primarily Chicago, Illinois and Madison,
Wisconsin.
Will Allen catches one of his farm raised fish at his Milwaukee-based aquaponic farm
Urban farm projects grow communities and nourish hope. The best ones, in our opinion, will produce more leaders like the social innovators mentioned in this post.
• Living Soil Film
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