UK: Roof Of Community Food Market Will Produce Enough Fresh Vegetables And Herbs To Feed 100,000 In London
Day and night: the hydroponic farm sits on the roof one storey, timber structure of the food market. Interrobang
Thirty food stalls and seating for 600 people will take up the ground floor with the farm covering the entire roof.
By John Walsh
Forbes
March 25, 2019
Excerpt:
The rooftop farm, using 1200 sq m of hydroponics, will produce 60-80 tonnes of mixed vegetables a year – largely leaves such as lettuce and spinach – retailing to diners at around £8 per kilo, compared to around £25 per kilo in supermarkets.
To put the harvest into some kind of context “we will easily provide fruit or salad in a good portion for around 100,000 people, probably around 20% of what we need,” says Rasca.
Redbridge Council, working with the Greater London Authority and London Enterprise Partnership, attracted funding for the regeneration project of which £1.4 million be used to fund the Ilford market.
Rasca never thinks of himself as a leader – “I just have ideas” – but he has thought about food since he was six years old.