Food Will Be Grown Hydroponically In Shipping Containers In Cardiff's Bute Park
New Technology Means One Shipping Container
Could Grow The Same As 3.5 Acres Worth of Land
A hydroponics unit growing strawberry plants
Local democracy reporter
23 DEC 2020
Food will be grown hydroponically in shipping containers as part of Cardiff council’s plan to become a carbon-neutral city by 2030.
Starting with one trial shipping container in Bute Park, the plan is to expand across the city to grow much more food locally and with much less water. Growing food locally is seen as a key way to reduce carbon emissions, rather than shipping food from across the world.
Cardiff council has been consulting the public on its plan to cut the city’s carbon emissions to net zero in a decade. The draft One Planet strategy includes several schemes to reduce emissions and mitigate the effects of the climate crisis and rising global temperatures.
Food is a big part of that strategy, with the shipping container in Bute Park; plans to revamp Cardiff Market; letting community groups grow food on council-owned land, and making space on new housing developments for growing food.
Councillor Michael Michael, cabinet member for the environment, said one shipping container could grow the same amount of food as 3.5 acres of land. He said: “I’m a great believer in this technology,” as he revealed details of the plans.
The shipping container used to be in Bristol, growing herbs and vegetables for local restaurants. The council will pilot the technology in Bute Park, before potentially rolling it out further, working with community groups and possibly growing food to feed schoolchildren.
The technology works by growing food on racks without soil, using much less water, and controlling the heat and light inside the container to grow all throughout the year.
Cllr Michael said: “You can grow in that one container equivalent to three and half acres, because it’s 24 hours a day. This is becoming much more prevalent. Private companies are putting more and more money into hydroponics. If you can grow basil hydroponically in Scunthorpe, then why would you fly it in from Kenya?
“We do well with allotments in this city, but mostly at this time of year, they’re dormant. What if we work with people with these types of units? Unfortunately because of Covid, we haven’t been able to use it yet — but we will. This is an experiment. I’m a great believer in this technology.”
Several Marks and Spencer stores in London are also trialing the new technology, growing herbs in their shops. Cllr Michael said in the future Cardiff could see “giant greenhouses” above supermarkets growing food to be sold in the shops below.
He added the One Planet strategy will explore how food is bought for schools, and whether more of that food could be grown locally. Fruit trees could also be planted across the city for people to pick and help themselves.
Councillor Michael Michael, cabinet member for the environment (Image: South Wales Echo)
The draft carbon-neutral plan was welcomed by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups in Cardiff council, who both pointed out where they thought were gaps in the strategy.
Cllr Emma Sandrey, the Liberal Democrat’s spokesperson on the environment, said the council needs to focus more on reducing how much meat people eat. As well as transporting, a lot of emissions from food come from eating meat, especially beef.
She said: “We believe the council should implement ‘meat-free Mondays’ or a similar scheme across local authority canteens, to educate and inform people about the alternatives to meat, and the benefits of reducing meat consumption for the environment and for individual health.”
She added tackling food waste should be another priority. Currently, apps like Too Good to Go help link up restaurants with surplus food at the end of the day to customers who can buy that food at a discount, to save it from going to waste.
Cllr John Lancaster, the Conservative’s spokesperson on the environment, said the strategy failed to mention the docks or Cardiff airport. Shipping and flying both emit a lot of carbon and are currently difficult to fuel with electricity.
He added the council only has one ecologist and one tree officer, despite promises to address the biodiversity crisis and plant thousands of trees. He said: “There’s a disparity between the words in this One Planet strategy and how they go about it.”
Monitoring emissions needs to be another priority, Cllr Lancaster said: “There’s no plan for committed monitoring or achieving targets. That’s a big concern. How do we know how well the council is doing, how do we know if their targets are on course?”
The latest available data, from 2018, showed that Cardiff emits about 1,647 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide annually — down from 2,679 in 2005. The plan is to get this number to zero by 2030.
The public consultation on the draft One Planet strategy has now ended, and the council is considering the responses, with a full strategy and delivery plan due in the spring.
All the details can be found on www.oneplanetcardiff.co.uk.