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Why We Believe Vertical, Urban Farming Can Help Save The Planet!
Conventional industrial farming contributes significantly to issues such as deforestation, biodiversity loss and the release of carbon emissions
Sophie | 2020
Our vertical, hydroponic farm based in Paddington, London.
Increasingly, we are all becoming aware of the negative impact of our food system on the environment. As individuals many of us are taking action to reduce the environmental impact of our diets, whether we’re reducing our meat and dairy consumption by trying out ‘meat-free Mondays’ or ‘veganuary’, buying zero waste foods, trying to buy more locally produced food or even growing our own.
Ultimately, we are looking for ways to minimize the negative environmental impacts of our food system. At Square Mile Farms, we believe that urban farming can play an important role in building a sustainable food system. Not only can we reduce food miles and prevent natural habitats from being converted for growing, we can also re-engage people to help them understand how food reaches their plates, which we believe is essential to enact real change going forward.
How does the current food system negatively impact the environment?
Conventional industrial farming contributes significantly to issues such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, and the release of carbon emissions. According to the Food Climate Research Network, the global food system is responsible for around 20-30% of greenhouse gas emissions. The WWF notes that food is responsible for 60% of global biodiversity loss and the UNFAO records that food production accounts for 70% of freshwater withdrawals.
The clearing of forests for livestock or growing crops is doubly concerning: not only do these practices have their own environmental impacts, e.g. methane emissions and issues related to fertilizer run-off, but they are also destroying forests which are important ‘carbon sinks’, absorbing approximately 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide yearly according to the UN.
Clearly, our current food system is flawed and this is only set to worsen as demands increase.
Infographic from: FCRN, ‘What is the food system’s contribution to the global GHG emissions total?’
Growing pressures on the food system
By 2050 the UN predicts the world population will grow to 9 billion: this is expected to require 60% more food and increase demand for water by 20% in the agriculture sector alone. So we need to find ways of making the food system more sustainable. We need to increase food production, while minimizing the environmental impact, or ideally making it negligible.
How can hydroponic farming in offices lessen the environmental impact of our food system?
We believe hydroponic, vertical farming is part of the solution to this issue. This method of growing food uses around 90% less water than conventional agricultural systems and can increase crop yields by up to 500%. So we can tackle two key problems in our current food system, the demand for water (by using considerably less) and the spatial impact (growing vertically allows a much more efficient use of space). By using existing urban spaces, such as workplaces, we can grow veg and herbs without converting more land for agricultural purposes.
Growing in offices also has the benefit of reducing food miles. By bringing food production to population centers, and further to that, by bringing it to people’s workplaces we are able to provide fresh produce where people are. If you’re taking home fresh produce once a week from work, there are virtually no food miles involved as you’d be traveling to and from work anyway!
Our office farm installations.
Another important way in which office farming can help improve our food system is by re-engaging consumers in cities. Writing for the World Economic Forum, Ellen MacArthur, a champion of Circular Economy, emphasized the important role cities will have in achieving a sustainable food system, especially because “80% of all food is expected to be consumed in cities by 2050”. She notes that cities should source food locally where possible and that they should avoid being “passive consumers” and instead, use their demand power to reward responsible farming practices. Office farming allows us to bring food production to the forefront of people’s minds, driving engagement, and encouraging conversation around our food system. We believe this is vital in order to educate and to inspire the change that we need to secure a sustainable future.
We believe that individual action is important when it comes to enacting change, but to achieve this we need innovative ideas that make it achievable for consumers to make such changes a reality. That’s why we bring urban farming to offices. We install farm walls and displays to improve employee wellbeing, drive engagement, and of course, provide fresh, nutritious produce. If you’d like to find out more about our offering click here.
You can also sign up for our newsletter to receive weekly tips and advice on sustainable living, as well as a round-up of relevant news.
Sources:
Bradley, P. and Marulanda, C., ‘Simplified Hydroponics to Reduce Global Hunger’, Acta Hortic. 554, 289-296.
Innovate UK, ‘Predictions - The Future of Food’.
MacArthur, Ellen, ‘Our food system is no longer fit for the 21st century’.
FCRN, ‘What is the food system’s contribution to the global GHG emissions total?'
UNFAO, ‘Water’.
UNFAO, ‘Water Use’.
UN News, ‘Climate Change’.
WWF, ‘Why we’re working on food’.
UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme, ‘The United Nations world water development report, 2016’.
VIDEO: Fulop Elaborates on Jersey City’s Vertical Farming Program, The First of its Kind in The Nation
“The last couple of months have highlighted that diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and heart disease make people more at risk and that’s more prevalent in communities that have less access to healthy food,” Fulop said. “So we though running a large-scale program that incorporates education and diet, which a lot of people don’t know about, with access to food that can hopefully change habits.”
By John Heinis
June 9, 2020
Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop elaborated on the city’s vertical farming program, the first of its kind in the nation and the fourth overall across the globe, during an interview this afternoon.
“The last couple of months have highlighted that diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and heart disease make people more at risk and that’s more prevalent in communities that have less access to healthy food,” Fulop said.
“So we though running large-scale program that incorporates education and diet, which a lot of people don’t know about, with access to food that can hopefully change habits.”
The city will be joining forces with AeroFarms, a Newark-based vertical farming facility, to help make the effort successful.
“Societies’ structural food problems have become more clear with COVID-19. The world needs more distributed, localized food production systems. We also need new ways to get healthy food to our most disadvantaged members of society,” stated AeroFarms CEO David Rosenberg.
Yesterday, the city announcing that there would be 10 farms throughout the city, which are estimated to produce 19,000 pounds of produce a year.
This afternoon, the mayor indicated that two of the locations will be within the Jersey City Public Schools, with the specifics to be determined at a later date, one at Marion Gardens, along with City Hall and the Bethune Center. The remaining locations are still pending.
In addition to the partnership with AeroFarms and the Health and Human Services Department overseeing the program, the World Economic Forum – who describes themselves as “an organization for public-private cooperation” – will also be a key component of the operation.
“We know diet is a key predictor of life expectancy and the Coronavirus has made clear the huge inequities on food access and food education that exists in different communities,” HHS Director Stacey Flanagan said in a statement.
“ … In collaboration with both private-public sector stakeholders, the initiative aims to catalyze new ecosystems that will enable socially vibrant and health and well-being centric cities and communities,” added Head of the Healthy Cities and Communities initiative at the WEF Mayuri Ghosh.
Some residents had questioned what the healthy eating workshops and health-monitoring component of the program would entail and Fulop elaborated today when asked about the particulars.
“It’s not new to have an education component with a city program … just recently, around a similar healthy food initiative – healthy food classes around supermarket shopping. And subsequent to that, we gave vouchers to have people shop with information that they just learned,” he explained.
“It’s important to change habits and incentivize people to do that and at the same time, give them mechanisms to track the progress. So we’re thankful for Quest Diagnostics, which is one of the largest labs in the world on this front and they’re going to help us track and of course keep patient confidentiality.”
US: Jersey City Is Growing Leafy Greens For $17 Per Pound to Give Away For 'Free'
The city will spend close to $1 million building vertical gardens to provide produce for its healthy eating programs
The city will spend close to $1 million building vertical gardens to provide produce for its healthy eating programs.
CHRISTIAN BRITSCHGI | 6.9.2020 ( Serhii Neznamov/Dreamstime.com)
Sometimes you have to spend some green to make some green.
On Wednesday the city council of Jersey City, New Jersey will vote on awarding a three-year, $1 million contract to the company AeroFarms to build 11 vertical gardens on city properties. The company estimates it will be able to churn out 19,000 pounds of leafy greens a year from these installations, which will then be distributed for free to city residents.
Steven Fulop, the city's mayor, told NJ.com that the farms would produce vegetables for city-run healthy eating programs. Residents would register for these programs to receive the free produce, on the possible condition that they would be required to attend healthy eating classes and/or have their diets and health monitored."It is going to be oriented towards diet, healthy eating, and making people more aware of what they are putting into their body,"
Fulop said. "We are going to be hopefully changing outcomes of how people eat and live which ultimately changes life expectancy."
The $70 million hole the coronavirus pandemic has blown in the city's budget only makes the AeroFarms contract more valuable, the mayor told the news site, given how obesity can compound COVID-19. "We feel it is more important than ever to focus on food access and education," he said.
The "we'd be stupid not to do it" attitude is encouraging. The cost and overall concept of the program raises a few concerns, however.
According to AeroFarms' estimate, it will be able to produce about 58,000 pounds of produce over the life of its three-year contract.
This means that the city is paying $17 per pound of leafy vegetables produced. Even if one excludes the construction costs of the vertical farms (which would presumably be usable after the three-year contract ends), it's still paying a little over $7 per pound of produce.
A quick online search shows the city could buy a pound of spinach from Safeway for under $2 a pound.
A 1-pound package of organic mixed greens at Walmart costs a little less than $5.If the city were really so keen on improving the diets of its residents, it would probably be far cheaper for it to just buy produce from local grocers and then give it away.
Indeed, the city staff who evaluated AeroFarms' 2019 bid for the city's vertical farming contract (the only one the city ended up receiving) expressed concern about its costs, particularly given that the city wouldn't retain ownership of the vertical garden units.
The idea of bringing vertical farming to Jersey City is part of a broader initiative of the Swiss-based World Economic Forum to create public-private partnerships that will "design and support socially vibrant, and health and well-being centric communities in cities."AeroFarms' method of vertical farming, which grows plants inside without the need for sunlight or soil and uses very little water, apparently fits into this broad vision. The World Economic Forum has been touting the promise of vertical farming since at least 2015.
Yet in that time, more boring improvements in agricultural technology have been at work boosting crop production while using less land. That's improved sustainability while driving down prices.It's quite possible that one day, vertical urban farms will be a far more efficient option. Unfortunately, that day isn't here yet.