Brooklyn Grange - Green Roofs

OUR FARMS

Brooklyn Grange’s farming operations span three rooftops throughout NYC totaling 5.6 acres with 135,000 square feet of cultivated area producing over 80,000 lbs of organically-grown vegetables each year.

We also operate an apiary, keeping bees in over 40 naturally-managed honey bee hives, on roofs dispersed throughout NYC.

Brooklyn Grange is the leading rooftop farming and intensive green roofing business in the US. We operate the world’s largest rooftop soil farms, located on three roofs in New York City, and grow over 100,000 lbs of organically-cultivated produce per year.

In addition to growing and distributing fresh local vegetables and herbs, Brooklyn Grange also hosts events and educational programming; designs, installs, and often maintains green spaces for clients all over the tri-state area, and provides urban farming and green roof consulting services to clients worldwide. The business also operates an apiary, keeping bees in dozens of naturally-managed hives, on roofs, backyards, and nooks dispersed throughout NYC.

Brooklyn Grange provides several key ecosystem services, and partners with numerous non-profit and community service organizations throughout New York to promote healthy and strong local communities.

Brooklyn Grange designs, builds and maintains green roofs for private clients through the New York City area. We specialize in edible and native plant green roofs, and all of our installations are designed to be beautiful, ecological, and impactful. We have built green roofs on private homes, for non-profits, and for corporate buildings and offices. We will take on unusual and challenging jobs, and have built sloped green roofs, as well as moving existing green roofs, restoring them, and repurposing them.

Additionally, we specialize in helping building owners to find grants and financing for green roofs, and we will work in collaboration with structural engineers, architects, and other professionals to design and build the best fitting green roof for any building.

BROOKLYN GRANGE LLC
Brooklyn Navy Yard
63 Flushing Ave, Building 3, Ste 1105
Brooklyn, NY 11205

CONTACT US
info@brooklyngrangefarm.com 
(347) 670-3660

LONG ISLAND CITY FARM

37-18 Northern Blvd., Roof
Long Island City, Queens 11101
Open Saturdays, June - October

Our LIC farm is located atop the historic Standard Motors Building on Northern Boulevard in Queens. When we first laid eyes on this site way back in April of 2010, we knew we’d found our home. Erected in 1919, this 43,000 sq ft building is solid as a rock, with structural capacity well in excess of what’s necessary to hold our 10″ of saturated green roof soil and plants. Lucky enough to be situated in one of the country’s most multicultural counties, this farm is all about gathering our Farmily. Each Saturday, mid-May - October, we host a weekly market and open house that is open to visitors free of charge. With 60 CSA members picking up their weekly share of this farm site’s harvest, the majority of the veggies and flowers we grow here are sold directly to neighborhood residents. This farm is also home to our famous “Butcher Paper Dinner” series at our 60-person communal farm table. The name of the game at this location is community, from the programming we offer to the diverse crops we cultivate.

BROOKLYN NAVY YARD FARM

63 Flushing Ave, Building 3, Roof
Brooklyn, NY 11205
TEMPORARILY CLOSED

Our second farm, located atop Building no. 3 at the historic Brooklyn Navy Yard, spans 65,000 sq ft and sits twelve stories over the East River with panoramic views of the lower Manhattan skyline. Installed in 2012, the farm is covered in 12″ of Rooflite Intensive Ag blend, and manages over one million gallons of stormwater each year, easing the burden on the overtaxed Red Hook Wastewater Pollution Control Plant. The Navy Yard is New York legend: ask any septuagenarian in the area and they’ll tell you a story about a spouse or sibling who worked there way back when. At present, the Navy Yard continues to encompass several fully functional dry docks as well as many of New York City’s most exciting light manufacturing businesses, artists, and innovators. However, as the Yard itself is not open to the public, this farm can’t be, either, except for ticketed and private tours, events, workshops, and yoga classes. Its location and infrastructure (namely, a freight so big you could drive a mini-cooper in there) make it easy to get produce down to the loading dock, into a delivery vehicle, and onto the nearby expressway and bridges to NYC’s best restaurants and groceries, so the majority of the harvest from this field is sold via wholesale channels to chefs and retailers. The views also make it a sought-after location for film and video shoots. Finally, our offices and rentable indoor space are located just downstairs from this farm.

SUNSET PARK FARM

850 Third Ave, Roof
Enter at 31st St between 2nd Ave and 3rd Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11232
Open Sundays, June - October

We’re beyond excited to open our third and largest farm atop the “Liberty View” building in the vibrant waterfront community that is Sunset Park. Spanning a sprawling 140,000 square feet, this location gives us room to stretch our legs and put to use the expertise we’ve accrued over ten seasons of building and operating rooftop farms. We have enough space to work and play at this site: from our 5,000 square foot greenhouse–home to our microgreens and hydroponic programs–to the 6,000 square foot indoor, climate controlled events hall and kitchen that will allow us to host events twelve months of the year, this farm will significantly grow our business. However, once we open our doors to the public, we will also be able to offer plenty of space for visitors to roam, and for our educational sister organization, City Growers, to educate even more young New Yorkers. We’re planning to host weekly open houses on Sundays at this location, as well as community programming throughout the year in our indoor venue. Live in the neighborhood and have ideas for programming we should offer, or crops you’d like us to grow? Send us an email at Info@BrooklynGrangeFarm.com! We love hearing from and meeting our neighbors, and can’t wait to get you up on the roof!

USA: Velázquez Bill Would Bring Green Rooftops to Public Schools

July 24, 2020

Washington, DC –If Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) has her way, schools may become fertile ground for learning about the environment and sustainability. The New York Representative has authored a bill allocating federal resources for the adoption of green roofs at public elementary and secondary schools, known as the Public School Green Rooftop Program. The bill has the potential to open up a world of environmental and educational benefits for students and the broader community. The legislation would be especially beneficial to urban areas where access to green space is commonly limited.

“There is no better place to begin teaching our children about conservation than our public schools,” said Velázquez. “However, their education does not need to be confined to the classroom.  These roofs allow students to directly engage with sustainable practices and see for themselves the impact that environmentally conscious initiatives can have on their hometowns and neighborhoods.  By exposing them to these ideas early on in their education, we forge a path to a cleaner, healthier community.”

Under this program, the Department of Energy will implement a grant program for the installation and maintenance of green roof systems. Green roofs are a sustainable, durable method of improving a building’s carbon footprint, as well as a place where exploration by teachers and students of pressing environmental and agricultural issues can take root. Children living in urban areas will have the chance to see these practices firsthand, an opportunity they are not often afforded. The roofs, according to the EPA, provide a notable advantage to urban communities, where greenery is often hard to come by.

This bill follows a legacy of success in other states.  According to estimates from the Missouri educational system, green roofs can save a single school up to $41,587 a year in electricity costs alone.  These roofs will cut district energy and maintenance costs substantially.  A regularly maintained green roof has a longevity of forty years, as opposed to a standard roof’s ten to fifteen.  Additionally, the bill grants maintenance funding for up to four years after the installation of every roof.

Teaching outdoors may also confer an additional benefit: open air schoolrooms may mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus. In the 1900s, schools utilized an open-air classroom to prevent students from contracting tuberculosis. Today, this measure has seen support from elementary school teachers who fear that sending teachers and children back into school buildings may pose a danger.

“While we navigate this year’s public health crisis, we need to ensure that we take careful steps towards reopening, with safety as a priority,” asserted Velázquez. “Green rooftops can answer to the call for safer schooling: additional outdoor space provides an opportunity to increase social distancing and open air. This may be one of the ways we can continue to give children the education they need, safely.”

The bill has received resounding support, with endorsements from notable organizations such as National Resources Defense Council, UPROSE, The Nature Conservancy, New York City Audubon, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, Green Roof Researcher Alliance, Williamsburg Greenpoint Parents for our Public Schools (WAGPOPS), The HOPE Program, Sustainable South Bronx, The New School Urban Systems Labs, Alive Structures, New York Sun Works, Riverkeeper, Red Hook Rise, Voces Ciudadanas de Sunset Park, Red Hook Rise, New York League of Conservation Voters, Resilient Red Hook, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, NYC H20, the Gowanus Canal Conservancy, Brooklyn Grange, El Puente, Brooklyn Greenroof, Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, St. Nicks Alliance, New York Environmental Law & Justice Project, Environmental Justice Initiative, National Lawyers Guild -  Environmental Justice Committee and Brooklyn Community Board 6.

“This critical legislation will give other public schools, especially those communities historically overburdened by ecological discrimination, the opportunity to reduce their building's environmental footprint significantly and enhance learning opportunities as our green roof has demonstrated at P.S. 41 in Manhattan,” said Vicki Sando, STEM Teacher and Green Roof Founder of P.S. 41 in New York City.

“We at NYC Audubon and the Green Roof Researchers Alliance are thrilled about this legislation and would like to thank Congresswoman Velázquez for her commitment to the natural world. The Public School Green Rooftop Program will result in the growth of critical habitat for wildlife, make the US more resilient in the face of climate change, and provide our youth the opportunity to experience conservation and environmental science first hand,” said Dustin Partridge of the Green Roof Researchers Alliance and Molly Adams of New York City Audubon.

“Passage of this bill will provide exceptional green roof benefits to children, their parents, and teachers at a time when access to safe, green space is very important to communities, and the need to redress the racial injustices is greater than ever,” said Steven W. Peck, GRP, Founder and President, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities.

“The HOPE Program, with extensive experience building and maintaining green roofs through our social enterprise, fully supports the Public School Green Rooftop program. This initiative will provide cleaner air for children in schools and the surrounding communities; contribute to ambitious local sustainability goals; and has the potential to provide living wage employment opportunities to the communities most impacted by the current crisis. It's a win, win, win,” said Jennifer Mitchell, Executive Director of the HOPE Program. 

“Voces Ciudadanas is grateful for Congresswoman Velázquez’s leadership in introducing ‘the Public School Green Rooftop Program’ bill and hopes that Congress passes this bill that prioritizes long-term green investments into our communities that are beneficial on so many fronts including encouraging multidisciplinary learning, facilitating meaningful parent involvement, providing opportunities for physical activity, and promoting healthy eating,” said Victoria Becerra-Quiroz of Voces Ciudadanas de Sunset Park.

The bill, H.R. 7693, has been referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.

A pdf version of the bill can be found here.

Press Release

Washington, DC Office

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Lower East Side Office

• Lower East Side Office

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  New York, NY 10007

  Phone: (212) 619-2606

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US: NEW YORK - What If Central Park Were Home To A Massive Urban Farm?

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08-04-20

A corner of Central Park was once home to a thriving Black community. Amber Tamm wants to honor the legacy of that neighborhood with a farm to feed New York’s neediest.

BY RUTH READER

In 1825, downtown New York City was growing crowded. Then, as now, racism made New York an uncomfortable place for Black Americans, so Andrew Williams, a Black shoeshiner, took an opportunity to move north, away from the hubub of lower Manhattan. For $125 he bought three parcels of land between what is now West 85th Street and 86th Street and where once there was just farmland. Shortly thereafter, a church bought up a plot with plans to create a cemetery for African Americans. Other Black Americans soon followed.

That was the beginning of a neighborhood called Seneca Village. Residents there, like Williams, were largely laborers. But land ownership provided an opportunity for upward mobility and Black landowners with property worth $250 or more could vote in elections. By 1850, there was a school, three churches, gardens, livestock, some 50 homes, and roughly 225 residents, the majority of whom were Black.

But the New York Williams had tried to escape was growing too: The city doubled in population between 1845 and 1855, and citizens began clamoring for green space to be set aside for recreation. Though several sites were up for consideration, including a tract of private land along the East River, the city decided on a large swath at the center of the island. Though the media of the time painted the region as a largely empty save for some poor squatters, Seneca Village fell right inside its bounds.

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The 1868 plan for Central Park. [Image: Wiki Commons]

The city acquired the land through eminent domain, paying owners “just compensation,” (though letters from the time reveal that Seneca Village residents did not always feel the compensation was actually fair). Seneca Village was razed and subsumed into what is now Central Park. Amber Tamm, a farmer for a nearly six-acre New York rooftop farm called Brooklyn Grange, wants to give part of the park back to that history, by taking 14 acres of the 55-acre Great Lawn and turning it into a community farm that would feed under-resourced Manhattanites, many of whom are Black. It would also serve as an educational resource for teaching New Yorkers about urban farming. Tamm wants to call it Seneca Village Farm. “I think calling out Central Park is powerful because it’s the biggest park in New York City and it has the most flatland,” she says.

Tamm is hoping to reclaim Central Park’s narrative and make it a more inclusive one. Her vision is that one person would farm an acre each and people would apply for one of the 14 spots. Tamm envisions running a training program where she and a small team would teach people how to farm their acre with room for creative innovation. If there is someone interested in herbalism, Tamm says she would find a mentor to teach her how to grow herbs. “But also what does it look like for her to exercise creativity? Does she want to grow in rows? Does she want to grow in circles and spirals? Let her flesh out what her vision is and let her work through what it’s like to revitalize soil while also supporting community through what she yields,” says Tamm. Another example she gives: What would it look like to grow rice in New York City?

Tamm’s introduction to the existence of Seneca Village started young and was driven by her mother’s persistent interest in the village. In 1993, a book about Central Park, The Park and the People: A History of Central Park, spurred archeologists Nan Rothschild and Diana diZerega Wall, a professor at City College, to consider Seneca Village’s old plot as the site of an archeological dig. Seventeen years later, the city approved it. The excavation yielded a small glimpse into a place that captivated certain New Yorkers.

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[Photo: Jermaine Ee/Unsplash]

“There would be these excavations where they were finding bones of our ancestors and my mother would always be moved to tears and be investigating how she can go see it, how she can go experience it on her own,” says Amber Tamm, a farmer for Brooklyn Grange, who grew up in East New York. She says her family has lived in Brooklyn for four generations. “Once Seneca Village became a thing and once they started to find the walls and the teapots, she was deeply invested in talking about it.“

The Seneca Village Farm idea was born out of COVID-19. In the early days, food was constrained. Tamm remembers going to the farmers’ market and seeing a bleak array of produce stalls. She and a friend who works on the rooftop garden at Cooper Union began a conversation about what it would look like for New York City to have food sovereignty or sustainable access to healthy, culturally appropriate food grown locally. What kind of food a person can access in New York City depends largely on where they live: Some neighborhoods have big grocery stores with expensive produce trucked in from all over the country. Others have corner stores with selections of packaged goods and small produce sections.

The unequal food distribution in New York has led some food activists to start urban farms that cater to individual communities. East New York Farms, for example, operates a plot and sells to local residents in the Brooklyn neighborhood. The group has also helped others to start their own community-led farms, like the one at the Louis Heaton Pink Houses, a New York City Housing Authority project in Brooklyn.

During the pandemic, food access, at least initially, was even more constrained for those who already have difficulty accessing fresh food. Soup kitchens and groups like Harlem Grown, which uses abandon lots to set up urban farms, stepped in to fill the food void with fresh vegetables and prepared meals. Tamm wonders what such efforts would be like with a bigger piece of land.

The pandemic also provided Tamm with a precedent for converting Central Park to more essential uses: Within the first three weeks of the pandemic, after New York City shut down normal operations, field tents with 68 hospital beds went up in Central Park to support Mt. Sinai hospital as it treated COVID-19 patients. Tamm says, if New York City is willing to set aside land for treating sick New Yorkers, why would it not set aside that same land for ensuring that city residents have access to good nutrition.

“Farmers and doctors are deemed, essential workers. So why couldn’t we have the juxtaposition of on one side of the park they have the COVID hospital and on the other side they have farms, because that would be tackling both sides of health,” she says.

Sam Biederman, systems commissioner for community outreach and partnership development at New York City Parks, works closely with the Central Park Conservancy and also with New York City’s Green Thumb community gardens. He says that given the size of New York City’s population there is physically not enough available land in New York City to grow enough food to feed all its residents. However, he does think community gardens contribute more quality food to certain neighborhoods. Unfortunately, he says, the Central Park Conservancy, in partnership with the city, manages the park with strict rules that may make such a project difficult to undertake.

The Central Park Conservancy is a nonprofit that was founded in 1980 after the park had suffered years of decline, to rejuvenate and manage the park. The city pays about a tenth of the conservancy’s annual $85 million budget, and conservancy raises the rest through private sources. The organization works in tandem with the parks department.

“The undergirding philosophical approach is as much land should be available to all people,” says Biederman. He says that using Central Park as anything other than purely recreational space requires event permitting. The Great Lawn in particular has a lot of limits, he says, because any time an event takes over that space, it is taking it offline for recreational use. The longest a person can get a permit for the Great Lawn is two days and there are only seven permits given out a year. “Turning a significant amount of that space over to agriculture that’s a significantly different use—it’s a tall order.”

However, he also notes that the Central Park Conservancy is very aware of Seneca Village’s history and is trying to honor its legacy in various ways. Last year, the organization put up a temporary installation that highlights the work archeologists have done and their learnings about Seneca Village in the time they’ve been investigating it. It also released a series of materials that help guide teachers who want to use the exhibit to teach students about Seneca Village. Biederman says NYC Parks is also looking into renaming other parks to honor New York’s Black history. “Negotiating what it means to live on and operate and be the custodian of land that once belonged to someone else is a moral responsibility that you have to tend to in perpetuity,” says Biederman. “The way people interact with public spaces evolves from generation to generation—that’s clear.”

Tamm, who has separately recently raised more than $100,000 to start her own farm, is meeting with a member of New York City Parks to discuss the project further and has high hopes for the conversation, she says. “It would be there to pay homage to the ancestors of Seneca Village—that’s the number-one goal.”

Correction: This article has been updated to clarify the Conservancy’s role in managing Central Park.

Lead Photo: [Photo: johnandersonphoto/iStock]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ruth Reader is a writer for Fast Company. She covers the intersection of health and technology.

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As The Pandemic Continues, Urban Gardening Is Growing on New Yorkers

JULY 27, 2020

BY MILI GODIO

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Samuel’s Food Gardens (Photo courtesy of Samuel S. T. Pressman)

Samuel S. T. Pressman had wanted to build a food garden on the rooftop of his Clinton Hill apartment for years. The artist and sculptor had lived on a farm when he was younger and had studied Sustainable Environmental Systems at Pratt. But in a city with a “time is money” mentality, he never found the right moment to start his passion project. 

That changed when New York underwent a statewide Pause order in mid-March. Now, Samuel’s Food Gardens is tackling the city’s food insecurity problem by providing fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs to community gardens that advocate for food security. “I wanted to explore what most people’s living situation is here,” Pressman said, “where they don’t have any land and have hardly any outdoor space that they own, and how they can still be able to grow some food using a system that is designed to actually make it possible to grow more food than you think per square foot.” 

At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, concerns over the food supply chain began increasing nationwide as popular food items flew off the shelves and grocery store lines grew to alarming lengths. This panic, along with a sudden abundance of time and collective distress over going to crowded supermarkets, contributed to a surge in backyard gardens and private farming initiatives. Even as the apocalyptic anxiety began to settle down, the gardening craze didn’t seem to stop. With at least 10 million more people unemployed in the United States compared to pre-COVID figures, feeding families continues to be at the top of everyone’s priority list. 

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Samuel’s Food Gardens (Photo courtesy of Samuel S. T. Pressman)

Despite its tiny living spaces and skyscrapers galore, NYC is no exception to the gardening trend. Residents like Pressman have begun to utilize spaces on rooftops, patios, and even the edges of classic Brooklyn-style buildings to create more green space in the area.

Having previously worked with Friends of Brook Park Community Garden in the Bronx and having designed and led construction for Newkirk Community Garden in central Brooklyn, Pressman has always found ways to support underserved communities and advocate for inclusive community food growing. He began Samuel’s Food Gardens not to sell the food that he grows, but to continue his work with community gardens and help individuals with private gardening areas maximize their spaces and get the most out of their crops in the long term. 

New Yorkers are engaging with food in new ways. That has led to a spike in produce sales at the three green roofs operated by Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm, and an increased demand for their services designing, installing and maintaining private green spaces. “I think that there’s, to some degree, a process of reconnecting with simple pleasures and when it comes to the kitchen, that means really high-quality, fresh ingredients that are good for you,” said Anastasia Cole Plakias, the urban farm’s co-founder and chief operating officer. “I think that there’s this realization that supply chains have a role to play in our recovery here.”

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Brooklyn Grange (Photo courtesy of Anastasia Cole Plakias)

In its ten years of operation, Brooklyn Grange has sold over 400,000 pounds of produce through weekly farmers markets located in Sunset Park, Greenpoint, and Long Island City, a CSA program where people obtain the farm’s harvest through a seasonal subscription plan, and a seed-to-plate initiative that provides food to local restaurants and retailers. 

Cole Plakias says Brooklyn Grange was set to sell roughly 100,000 pounds of produce this year, but once restaurants began closing across the city and in-person events came to a halt, the farm’s business model had to quickly shift away from restaurant crops and towards feeding and nourishing the community.

“We’re seeing a lot of interest from people in having us convert their outdoor spaces to food-producing spaces, or more habitable green spaces,” said Cole Plakias. “We’re seeing a tremendous amount of interest in garden maintenance services because people are recognizing the value of urban green space.”

The company has managed to secure multiple partnerships that not only keep their farms in business, but also keep restaurants open and ensure food accessibility. Tasmanian footwear company Blundstone funded a full season of produce donations and kept farmers and staff employed. To deliver emergency food relief, Brooklyn Grange partnered with Rethink (their Brooklyn Navy Yard neighbors) and Food Issues Group, both organizations dedicated to providing equitable food systems in NYC and keeping restaurant workers employed, especially during a global pandemic. 

With more New Yorkers cooking at home, the demand for fresh produce at farmers markets and through CSA programs has steadily increased during the pandemic, Cole Plakias says. Add to which, there has been a dramatic boost in demand for the farm’s virtual farming and composting workshops. 

There have been a variety of online learning opportunities for prospective gardeners in the city. GrowNYC, which has been teaching city folks how to maintain urban gardens for years, offers virtual classes, and the New York Botanical Garden began hosting virtual workshops after it closed in March (the garden is set to reopen on July 28). 

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Union Street Farm (Photo courtesy of Garrison Harward)

The Union Street Farm, near the corner of Union Street and Rochester Avenue in Crown Heights, also offers free, in-person gardening classes and open volunteering, giving local residents hands-on experience with growing and maintaining a full-functioning garden. “We’ll do some tasks that need to be done in the garden and through that work, we talk about gardening,” said Garrison Harward, who began his work at the Union Street Farm in 2016. “It’s open for whatever anybody wants to learn.”

Harward’s love for gardening was influenced by his own family’s garden in his California hometown. In 2010, as a sustainable agriculture volunteer for the Peace Corps in Senegal, he began investigating regenerative agriculture and different methods of agricultural systems for economic gain and food security. The freelance lighting technician has maintained the Union Street Farm for the past five years, after it was given to him by two fellow neighbors who were too elderly to maintain it. 

Harward favors no-till gardening, meaning he doesn’t turn over the soil or disrupt the structure built by bacteria and fungi. Aside from being healthier for plants, it leads to really great water infiltration, according to Harward. “Every drop of water that falls on the plant bed stays exactly where it is – I have zero runoff that goes into New York watersheds, which is environmentally friendly. Not putting nitrates into the watershed, all those ways in which agriculture contributes to algae blooms and fish die-offs.” 

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Union Street Farm (Photo courtesy of Garrison Harward)

Harward believes there has been a marked increase in gardening since the pandemic, which leads to more people reaching out to him for advice and resources. Initially providing seedlings to neighbors that were interested in growing their own food, he soon began giving them away to people all over the country. So far, he’s sent out eight varieties of seeds to roughly 120 people who reached out to him on Instagram. He even launched a Facebook group titled “NYC Gardening Resources,” where he virtually assists new and experienced gardeners alike.  

The Union Street Farm’s harvest is free for anyone that visits or casually stumbles upon its gates. Although Harward holds free farmers markets every Sunday for people to take home the fruits, vegetables, and herbs that he grows, he welcomes people to take as much as they need, whenever they need it.

“I think there’s a lot of realization that we don’t have to tie everything to a financial transaction,” Harward explained. “There’s so many different ways that we can support each other. Like, we’re exchanging goods, we’re exchanging culture, we’re exchanging connections within our neighborhood and if it doesn’t have to be monetized, then why should it?”

This ethos is not uncommon in New York City green spaces, where avid gardeners like Harward and Pressman hope to make their hard work and agricultural talents accessible to all. Pressman and his Circular Communities team are currently developing projects such as the Micro Food Hub, which promotes social equity in the agricultural sphere and facilitates the production and exchange of food by connecting community gardens, food producers, restaurants, and consumers via a digital platform, and he hopes to host school tours at his food garden where he can spark a passion for food growing within students and young people. Pressman also intends to ship out DIY planting kits in the future and provide teaching tools that instruct the basics of utilizing small spaces – including greenhouses during the winter – to maximize food growth efficiently and cost-effectively.  

“There’s this special relationship you have to have with the plants to be able to help them and train them,” said Pressman. “It kind of opens up a whole new door for how humans actually emotionally feel around nature and I think people are seeking that out right now, they just might not know exactly how to get it into their home.”

Rooftop Farming: Another Contribution To The Modern-Day Green Revolution

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Guest Article

This article was written by Camilla Stanley, a guest writer for Green Roofs for Healthy Cities

Green roofs are a growing trend in urban areas because of their unique ability to address several urban challenges at once. These benefits include lowering a building’s energy costs, reducing the urban heat island effect, improving air quality, boosting urban biodiversity, having a positive impact on mental health, and, for businesses, strengthening a company’s marketing and increasing property value. But there is one co-benefit that is rarely taken advantage of… food production! In particular, rooftop farms and gardens provide the added benefit of being a source of locally grown produce.

The demand for locally and sustainably grown food is a growing trend as consumers become more interested in knowing where their food is coming from. There are growing concerns around the distance food travels before it reaches our plates (on average fruits and vegetables travel 1,500 miles / 2500 km), and the usage of hormones, pesticides, and GMOs in meat, dairy products and eggs. What the grocery industry is seeing now is a wave of consumers more willing to ‘vote with their dollar’ to ensure that food companies take the necessary steps to effectively reduce their environmental impact. 

Rooftop urban farming is a great way to meet these growing demands as consumers are beginning to understand the importance of reconnecting and taking care of nature and the many ecosystem services that nature provides. Green roofs utilized to produce food present a great opportunity for property managers and community leaders to transform the built environment and better serve their communities. This is why Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) has put together an informative course on rooftop farming – Introduction to Rooftop Urban Agriculture – a comprehensive review of the benefits, importance, and potential of rooftop agriculture. GRHC is also hosting an Urban and Rooftop Agriculture Virtual Symposium on Thursday, July 23 from 1:00 to 4:30 pm est. The event is bringing together professionals from diverse backgrounds involved in mainstreaming urban agriculture.

The increase in events and resources are coming at a good time as urban agriculture is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the agricultural industry. Rapid technological innovation in areas like vertical farming is allowing entrepreneurs to take advantage of underutilized spaces in cities for food production. This is great for produce that is not well-suited for long-distance transport like leafy greens. Fruits and vegetables that travel long distances also lose flavor and nutrients the longer they are in transit. Urban agriculture helps reduce food waste along the supply chain, supports the growing demand for local and transparent supply chains, and improves the quality of the food available at supermarkets!

Community leaders seeking to address challenges such as poverty, environmental degradation, air and water quality, waste production and disposal and energy consumption would greatly benefit from integrating urban agriculture into their strategies as it is a proven solution in which communities can improve their ecological footprint while garnering social benefits. 

Property managers would be interested to know that rooftop urban farming is a great way to earn LEED credits and maintain peak LEED performance. Sites that have on-site vegetable gardens are eligible for up to 6 LEED credits in the following categories: local food protection (1 credit), social equity within the community (1 credit), heat island reduction (2 credits) and site development: protect or restore habitat (2 credits).

Municipalities are taking initiative and investing in the development of sustainable communities and repurposing unused spaces. For example, in New York City on April 18, 2019, the city council passed The Climate Mobilization Act to reduce greenhouse emissions from buildings and includes a requirement for the installation of green roofs and/or solar panels on newly constructed buildings. A similar by-law was passed in Toronto, Canada back in 2009 where all buildings over 2,000 sq. meters must install a green roof. The city now has over 700 green roofs! Other cities that have adopted green roof mandates in recent years include San Francisco, Portland, and Denver! On a larger scale, initiatives such as the C40 Good Food Cities Declaration where fourteen cities around the world committed to achieving the “‘Planetary Health Diet’ by 2030 which aims to address both environmental and human health through better food choices. 

For examples of some rooftop urban farms around North America, check out the list below:

- Brooklyn Grange in Brooklyn, NY

- Ryerson Urban Farm in Toronto, ON

- Boston Medical Center Rooftop Farm in Boston, MA

- Chicago Botanical Gardens in Chicago, IL

- Uncommon Ground in Chicago, IL

- STEM Kitchen Garden in San Francisco, CA

- Top Leaf Farms in Oakland, CA

Tagged: urban agriculture, rooftop farm, Brooklyn Grange, Ryerson Urban Farm, Uncommon Ground, C40 Cities, green infrastructure, urban farming, green roof benefits, Toronto Green Roof By-law, climate mobilization act, LEED