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AeroFarms' Eco-Friendly Indoor Farms For Minimal Environmental Impact
As the population continues to grow, there will be increased farmland competition as more space is needed for housing, schools, and hospitals to accommodate the rising number of people
By Sarah Moore
December 16, 2019
AeroFarms has developed eco-friendly aeroponic technology to take vertical farming to the next level. Image Credit: Morinka/Shutterstock.com
Exponential population growth is putting pressure on many factors of human life. The world has a limited potential to generate resources, and as the population grows, our demand for resources comes close to the maximum output the world can produce. Recent figures estimate that in just two decades, the population will have grown to 9.7 billion, growing from the current estimated 7.7 billion. The number of people in the world who do not have adequate nutrition is close to one billion, with statistics estimating that just under 800 million people are failing to access enough food.
As the population continues to grow, there will be increased farmland competition as more space is needed for housing, schools, and hospitals to accommodate the rising number of people. This problem of malnutrition will worsen unless we make fundamental changes to the face of agriculture.
Another growing pressure on the agriculture sector is the urgency of addressing the reduction of emissions to combat climate change. The latest figures attribute 8.4% of US emissions to agricultural activities.
The agricultural industry is challenged not only to innovate a way to grow more food in a reduced space but to also reduce emissions. A recent innovation in agriculture could provide a solution.
Population Growth, Global Emissions, and Looming Food Crisis Sparks Farming Revolution
Over the last decade, significant development has been made in the area of controlled environmental agriculture in tall buildings, also known as vertical farming. The concept is that rather than growing crops on a single layer, as is done in conventional farming, it makes use of vertical space, growing crops upwards and minimizing the ground area required for farming.
The innovation, which utilizes the technology of aeroponics, will help to create eco-friendly farms that rely significantly less on water and energy. Further developments are required to enable it to fully support environmentally friendly agriculture.
The establishment of vertical farming projects will likely prove vital to solving the increasingly pressing challenge of providing enough food for the population while addressing climate change issues.
What is Aeroponics?
The establishment of vertical farming has been achieved thanks to the development of a farming technique known as aeroponics. The method accommodates the growth of crops in vertical-stacked plant beds, using artificial techniques to assume the roles of natural sources of light, water, and soil.
Aeroponics allows for the specific growing conditions to be controlled for each crop type, maximizing crop yield and growing more crops per square foot of land without accounting for the vertical stacked space.
One vertical farming project in New Jersey, US, believes it can grow up to 70 times more produce than conventional farms.
How Vertical Farming Reduces Environmental Impact
Other than tackling the looming food crisis, the main aim of vertical farming is to lessen the impact that conventional farming has on the environment in several ways. Firstly, because significantly less land is required to achieve the same crop output, experts argue that a significant switch towards vertical farming will allow more land that has previously been dedicated to farming to be returned to its natural state. This will allow diverse ecosystems to thrive in the absence of destructive modern farming techniques.
Data has also confirmed that this form of environmentally-friendly farming uses up to 90% less water than conventional farms. This benefits the environment by reducing the energy used to pump the water, which leads to emissions and contributes to greenhouse gases. It also means that fewer chemicals are used because less wastewater is being produced that requires chemical treatment.
Because vertical farming projects are usually set up in urban areas, such as in abandoned factories or similar buildings, produce doesn’t have to travel as far as it would when grown on farms to reach urban populations. This means that there is a reduced need for transportation, indirectly reducing carbon dioxide emissions by decreasing the need to transport produce.
However, vertical farms still require large amounts of energy to run, and this needs to be addressed to further add to the advantages of this revolutionary farming method. To power the artificial conditions produced for its crops, a significant amount of energy is required. Some argue that it counteracts the environmental benefits of a vertical farm, limiting its virtues as an eco-friendly farming example.
While development is needed before vertical farming can be widely adopted, some companies in the sector are already contributing significant advancements, helping the technology to move forward.
AeroFarms: Taking Vertical Farming to the Next Level
AeroFarms was recently named as one of Fast Company’s most innovative companies in the world in the data science category. The company has developed award-winning aeroponic technology that constructs tailored conditions to meet the needs of each crop species. The technology also boasts the benefits of being minimal in terms of its environmental impact.
Data science is the foundation of the success of AeroFarm’s method. The company has created patented vertical farming technology that utilizes data to maximize the efficiency of crop growth. AeroFarms considers itself to be industry-leading in terms of how it has developed an understanding of plant biology which it uses to increase the productivity of its eco-friendly farms.
Combining revolutionary technology in the form of machine learning and machine vision, alongside the integration of the internet of things, which helps to incorporate data collected from sensors, has led the company to success in growing over 500 million plants to date, of more than 300 varieties.
The company is capitalizing on partnerships with influential market leaders, such as Dell Technologies, to advance its competency at automation and analysis of data, helping to increase plant health, growth and yield.
Video Source: Stories/YouTube.com
The Impact of Eco-Friendly Farming
The model that has been demonstrated by AeroFarms will likely be influential in informing how the agriculture sector will develop in the future. Its innovative use of data and technology to grow crops vertically, minimizing the use of ground space and reducing the impact of farming on the environment, will need to be adopted by future agricultural companies to address the growing food crisis and meet emissions targets.
References and Further Reading
AeroFarms Named to Fast Company’s 2019 Most Innovative Companies, AeroFarms, https://aerofarms.com/2019/02/20/aerofarms-named-to-fast-companys-2019-most-innovative-companies/
Is vertical farming really sustainable?, EIT Food, Tessa Naus, https://www.eitfood.eu/blog/post/is-vertical-farming-really-sustainable
Latest agriculture emissions data show rise of factory farms, IATP, Ben Lilliston, https://www.iatp.org/blog/201904/latest-agriculture-emissions-data-show-rise-factory-farms
What You Should Know About Vertical Farming, The Balance Small Business, Rick Leblanc, https://www.thebalancesmb.com/what-you-should-know-about-vertical-farming-4144786
World's largest vertical farm grows without soil, sunlight or water in Newark, The Guardian, Malavika Vyawahare, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/14/world-largest-vertical-farm-newark-green-revolution
5 Startups That Prove Tech Can Solve The World’s Biggest Problems, AeroFarms, https://aerofarms.com/2018/08/30/5-startups-that-prove-tech-can-solve-the-worlds-biggest-problems/
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.
Written by: Sarah Moore
After studying Psychology and then Neuroscience, Sarah quickly found her enjoyment for researching and writing research papers; turning to a passion to connect ideas with people through writing.
Green Walls Can Purify Indoor Air And Even Grow Veggies
Want to insulate your office from the heat and cold outside, while purifying the air inside from potential toxins? Israeli startup Vertical Field is accomplishing that with sensor-controlled indoor and outdoor “green walls” installed by the likes of clients such as the Israeli offices of Google, Apple, Intel, and Facebook
Israeli startup Vertical Field sensor-controlled smart planters allow customers to place hundreds of greens up and down a wall, indoors or outdoors.
By Brian Blum OCTOBER 6, 2019
Green walls purify indoor air. Photo courtesy of Vertical Field
Want to insulate your office from the heat and cold outside, while purifying the air inside from potential toxins? Israeli startup Vertical Field is accomplishing that with sensor-controlled indoor and outdoor “green walls” installed by the likes of clients such as the Israeli offices of Google, Apple, Intel, and Facebook.
Indoor air pollution is an invisible but serious problem. High levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in offices, classrooms, homes, trains, and planes could be affecting our cognitive performance and in more severe cases may trigger inflammation or even kidney calcification and bone demineralization, according to a recent study published in Nature Sustainability.
Guy Elitzur, Vertical Field’s CEO, tells ISRAEL21c that one solution to “sick building syndrome”is to bring healthy and natural elements inside.
Plants work their magic by transforming carbon dioxide (CO2) into oxygen via photosynthesis. Installing a Vertical Field living biofilter in your home or office can remove about 95 percent of the pollutants in a building, the company claims.
Vertical Field’s green walls are not static. Sophisticated sensors measure fluctuating air quality in the building, while cameras track how many people are in a room bumping up the amount of CO2.
When the CO2 level goes above a certain threshold, Vertical Field can “manipulate the plants in an active way,” Elitzur says, by adding precise amounts of water, fertilizer and other nutrients through drip irrigation into the planters’ soil in order to increase absorption of CO2 and other allergens.
The result is “a wall that reacts to the indoor environment,” Elitzur explains. “It’s not just for beauty” — although a vertical wall of plants is that, too.
A typical Vertical Field installation contains between five and 15 types of plants. Software and big data drive the system’s customization.
“We have a characterization for each type of plant – its soil needs, the vitamins it requires to be more efficient, plus data coming from outdoors,” Elitzur notes. “This creates the best-growing program for each specific plant.”
A vertical forest on the exterior of a building creates a protective ecological shell. Photo courtesy of Vertical Field
Vertical Field also installs “vertical forests” on the exterior of buildings. Israeli cybersecurity leader Check Point, for example, has a green wall outside floors 12 to 15 of its Tel Aviv offices.
Elitzur says the vertical forest creates an ecological shell that protects the building against direct radiation from the sun and enables a more stable internal temperature with less artificial cooling.
The cost for installing a vertical green wall starts “from a couple of thousand shekels per square meter,” Elitzur tells ISRAEL21c. The outdoor ones “are less sophisticated so they cost a bit less.”
Urban farming
Purifying the air and insulating buildings is only part of the Vertical Field story. The company also specializes in urban farming: a green wall growing lettuce and other leafy greens.
One such customer isTel Aviv chef restaurant L28, which grows organic pesticide-free vegetables in a vertical farm on the building’s roof.
A vertical wall growing edible greens. Photo courtesy of Vertical Field
In New York, Vertical Field has a project installed “in a shipping container in the parking lot of a hotel and another one at a senior living facility,” Elitzur says. In the latter, the seniors take an active part in planting and harvesting.
An urban farm on the roof of a supermarket could provide the store’s customers fresher produce with no carbon footprint since the vegetables do not have to be trucked in from a far-off farm.
“The technology we’re creating can help bridge the way we live today with the complexity of nature,” Elitzur says.
Vertical Field CEO Guy Elitzur. Photo: courtesy
Vertical Field was founded in 2006 by Guy Barness. Guy no. 2 (Elitzur) came to Vertical Field from Bio Ag Technology, a startup that has developed eco-friendly biological pesticides.
“It was the same concept of doing something better for the globe and lowering the chemical footprint,” Elitzur says.
Vertical Field already has hundreds of projects, mainly in Israel through its Israeli subsidiary, Green Wall. Vertical Field is the entity that’s expanding beyond the Middle East, with the United States as its first target market.
While Vertical Field is focused on corporate clients, it can install a green wall in a private home thanks to a cadre of trained subcontractors, Elitzur says.
Vertical Field is not alone in offering vertical farming and green walls. Other companies include Germany-based InFarm, Freight Farm (which specializes in container farming) and Florida-based Live Wall and GSky. The latter is the biggest of the bunch with more than 800 green walls installed in 19 countries.
We asked Elitzur what makes Vertical Field different.
“All of us are great,” he says. “But we’re the only ones using soil to grow. Most of the others are based on hydroponics. Soil is a better way to grow plants. It provides a better ecosystem and is healthier. But there’s a place for everyone. We’re all serving a very good cause.”
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Indoor Vertical Farming Discovers A New Company That Is Not Sheepish About Its Wool Insulation
The company’s insulation is made using wool imported from sheep-farming operations in New Zealand. He says wool is used widely across the residential building sector both in that country and Australia
While fiberglass and mineral wool have been around for decades, a new generation of manufacturers is looking to new materials that might be less manufacturing-intensive. One of these, Havelock Wool, is drawing on what founder and CEO Andrew Legge sees as a more sustainable option.
The company’s insulation is made using wool imported from sheep-farming operations in New Zealand. He says wool is used widely across the residential building sector both in that country and Australia.
Legge explains that wool insulation offers multiple advantages for environmentally oriented homeowners. The material has evolved over millennia to be a natural insulator, he notes, and it incorporates a protein called keratin which doesn’t support mold growth. Additionally, he says, wool absorbs a number of airborne toxins, including formaldehyde.
Havelock Wool’s batts and blown-in insulation come at a premium; Legge says they’re priced similarly to closed-cell spray-foam products. However, he adds, wool is very easy to handle, requiring no extra experience for anyone familiar with fiberglass installation.
Sustainability is at the heart of the value proposition Legge puts forward as a wool-insulation advocate. The manufacturing process requires no heat and is centered around 60-year-old wool carding machines, as opposed to large-scale industrial plants. And when asked about the methane produced by the sheep supplying the company’s wool, Legge has a response quickly at hand.
“We’re a byproduct of a different industry—you’re raising those animals to eat them, so we’re very comfortable with the argument that the methane isn’t attributable to the insulation,” he says. “If people stop eating sheep and lamb, we won’t have a business.”
This Brilliant Hydroponic System Puts A Whole Garden On Your Countertop
Growing your own food is one of life’s great pleasures—plus it’s good for you and for the environment. But in increasingly tight, urban homes, we don’t all have room for gardens
08.19.19
It’s Not Just A Garden—It’s A Work of Art
[Photos: courtesy Bace]
Growing your own food is one of life’s great pleasures—plus it’s good for you and for the environment. But in increasingly tight, urban homes, we don’t all have room for gardens. And hydroponic systems, as appealing as they may be, often appear to be a whole lot of hardware for only a bit of actual green. Some fresh arugula would be nice for dinner, but who wants giant plastic box taking up half their kitchen to get a few leaves?
[Photo: courtesy Bace]
The Rotofarm, by an Australian company called Bace (which appears to have produced skincare products in a past life), is a space-friendly hydroponic system, and it doubles as a beautiful sculpture in your home. With a circular design, which rotates plants like a Ferris wheel through the day, the Rotofarm is able to fit nearly five feet of growing area inside a countertop footprint of just 11 inches. Water is dispersed through the nutrient and water reservoir in the stainless steel base, and a bright LED grow light lives in the middle like a tiny sun. Then to harvest, you can tilt the farm 180-degrees and pull off its clear cover. You take what you want (kale, mint, lettuce, spinach, or, yes, marijuana), and close it back up.
Of course, you might be wondering, will it work? Can you grow plants upside down? In fact, you can. NASA has discovered that root systems understand how to grow just fine in zero gravity. Meanwhile, existing rotary systems like the Omega Garden contend that moments of flipped gravity can actually help plants grow and flower, but you wouldn’t want the Omega Garden’s giant drums in your apartment. “The rotary design has been around in agriculture for a while, but these are things that take up a whole room with giant troughs of water underneath,” says Bace’s founder Toby Farmer (yes, his name is “farmer”). “Rotofarm is the first concept that really belongs inside the home.”
[Photo: courtesy Bace]
The Rotofarm is supposed to debut on Kickstarter next month. Despite connecting with Farmer on email, we’re left with all sorts of questions about its true feasibility. Will you need to buy the special, potentially expensive fertilizer packets for the machine seen in the teaser video? What’s the monthly power usage like? How will some teased automation features—from misting to overgrowth sensors—actually work? And of course, what will the whole thing cost?
As a prototype, the Rotofarm is intriguing. As a product, it has all sorts of everyday execution details that need to be just right for the system to be a productive joy rather than a big, annoying, green lamp. That said, so far, so good. Rotofarm offers a convincing thesis on the future of urban gardening. Now we’ll see if the Bace product team can deliver it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Wilson is a senior writer at Fast Company who has written about design, technology, and culture for almost 15 years. His work has appeared at Gizmodo, Kotaku, PopMech, PopSci, Esquire, American Photo and Lucky Peach
Climate Change Threatens The World’s Food Supply, United Nations Warns
The world’s land and water resources are being exploited at “unprecedented rates,” a new United Nations report warns, which combined with climate change is putting dire pressure on the ability of humanity to feed itself
Cattle grazing outside Sokoto, Nigeria, where large-scale farming is in conflict with local communities. Credit Credit Luis Tato/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Aug. 8, 2019
The world’s land and water resources are being exploited at “unprecedented rates,” a new United Nations report warns, which combined with climate change is putting dire pressure on the ability of humanity to feed itself.
The report, prepared by more than 100 experts from 52 countries and released in summary form in Geneva on Thursday, found that the window to address the threat is closing rapidly. A half-billion people already live in places turning into desert, and soil is being lost between 10 and 100 times faster than it is forming, according to the report.
Climate change will make those threats even worse, as floods, drought, storms and other types of extreme weather threaten to disrupt, and over time shrink, the global food supply. Already, more than 10 percent of the world’s population remains undernourished, and some authors of the report warned in interviews that food shortages could lead to an increase in cross-border migration.
A particular danger is that food crises could develop on several continents at once, said Cynthia Rosenzweig, a senior research scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the lead authors of the report. “The potential risk of multi-breadbasket failure is increasing,” she said. “All of these things are happening at the same time.”
The report also offered a measure of hope, laying out pathways to addressing the looming food crisis, though they would require a major re-evaluation of land use and agriculture worldwide as well as consumer behavior. Proposals include increasing the productivity of land, wasting less food and persuading more people to shift their diets away from cattle and other types of meat.
“One of the important findings of our work is that there are a lot of actions that we can take now. They’re available to us,” Dr. McElweesaid. “What some of these solutions do require is attention, financial support, enabling environments.”
The summary was released Thursday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international group of scientists convened by the United Nations that pulls together a wide range of existing research to help governments understand climate change and make policy decisions. The I.P.C.C. is writing a series of climate reports, including one last year on the disastrous consequences if the planet’s temperature rises just 1.5 degrees Celsius above its preindustrial levels, as well as an upcoming report on the state of the world’s oceans.
Some authors also suggested that food shortages are likely to affect poorer parts of the world far more than richer ones. That could increase a flow of immigration that is already redefining politics in North America, Europe and other parts of the world.
“People’s lives will be affected by a massive pressure for migration,” said Pete Smith, a professor of plant and soil science at the University of Aberdeen and one of the report’s lead authors. “People don’t stay and die where they are. People migrate.”
Between 2010 and 2015 the number of migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras showing up at the United States’ border with Mexico increased fivefold, coinciding with a dry period that left many with not enough food and was so unusual that scientists suggested it bears the signal of climate change.
Winnowing wheat at a grain market in Amritsar, India.Credit Raminder Pal Singh/EPA, via Shutterstock
Harvesting in Xinjiang, northwest China.Credit China Daily/Reuters
Barring action on a sweeping scale, the report said, climate change will accelerate the danger of severe food shortages. As a warming atmosphere intensifies the world’s droughts, flooding, heat waves, wildfires and other weather patterns, it is speeding up the rate of soil loss and land degradation, the report concludes.
Higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — a greenhouse gas put there mainly by the burning of fossil fuels — will also reduce food’s nutritional quality, even as rising temperatures cut crop yields and harm livestock.
Those changes threaten to exceed the ability of the agriculture industry to adapt.
In some cases, the report says, a changing climate is boosting food production because, for example, warmer temperatures will mean greater yields of some crops at higher latitudes. But on the whole, the report finds that climate change is already hurting the availability of food because of decreased yields and lost land from erosion, desertification and rising seas, among other things.
Overall if emissions of greenhouse gases continue to rise, so will food costs, according to the report, affecting people around the world.
“You’re sort of reaching a breaking point with land itself and its ability to grow food and sustain us,” said Aditi Sen, a senior policy adviser on climate change at Oxfam America, an antipoverty advocacy organization.
In addition, the researchers said, even as climate change makes agriculture more difficult, agriculture itself is also exacerbating climate change.
The report said that activities such as draining wetlands — as has happened in Indonesia and Malaysia to create palm oil plantations, for example — is particularly damaging. When drained, peatlands, which store between 530 and 694 billion tons of carbon dioxide globally, release that carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.Carbon dioxide is a major greenhouse gas, trapping the sun’s heat and warming the planet. Every 2.5 acres of peatlands release the carbon dioxide equivalent of burning 6,000 gallons of gasoline.
And the emission of carbon dioxide continues long after the peatlands are drained. Of the five gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions that are released each year from deforestation and other land-use changes, “One gigaton comes from the ongoing degradation of peatlands that are already drained,” said Tim Searchinger, a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank, who is familiar with the report. (By comparison, the fossil fuel industry emitted about 37 gigatons of carbon dioxide last year, according to the institute.)
An ethanol refinery in Tianjin, China.CreditChina Stringer Network/Reuters
A cattle market in Lagos, Nigeria.CreditFlorian Plaucheur/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Similarly, cattle are significant producers of methane, another powerful greenhouse gas, and an increase in global demand for beef and other meats has fueled their numbers and increased deforestation in critical forest systems like the Amazon.
Since 1961 methane emissions from ruminant livestock, which includes cows as well as sheep, buffalo and goats, have significantly increased, according to the report. And each year, the amount of forested land that is cleared — much of that propelled by demand for pasture land for cattle — releases the emissions equivalent of driving 600 million cars.
Overall, the report says there is still time to address the threats by making the food system more efficient. The authors urge changes in how food is produced and distributed, including better soil management, crop diversification and fewer restrictions on trade. They also call for shifts in consumer behavior, noting that at least one-quarter of all food worldwide is wasted.
Read more about food and climate change
Your Questions About Food and Climate Change, Answered
April 30, 2019
From Apples to Popcorn, Climate Change Is Altering the Foods America Grows
April 30, 2019
Central American Farmers Head to the U.S., Fleeing Climate Change
April 13, 2019
But protecting the food supply and cutting greenhouse emissions can also come into conflict with each other, forcing hard choices.
For instance, the widespread use of strategies such as bioenergy — like growing corn to produce ethanol — could lead to the creation of new deserts or other land degradation, the authors said. The same is true for planting large numbers of trees (something often cited as a powerful strategy to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere), which can push crops and livestock onto less productive land.
Planting as many trees as possible would reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by about nine gigatons each year, according to Pamela McElwee, a professor of human ecology at Rutgers University and one of the report’s lead authors. But it would also increase food prices as much as 80 percent by 2050.
“We cannot plant trees to get ourselves out of the problem that we’re in,” Dr. McElwee said. “The trade-offs that would keep us below 1.5 degrees, we’re not talking about them. We’re not ready to confront them yet.”
Rice cultivation outside Prayagraj, India.CreditRajesh Kumar Singh/Associated Press
Flooded farms near Craig, Mo.CreditScott Olson/Getty Images
Preventing global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius is likely to require both the widespread planting of trees as well as “substantial” bioenergy to help reduce the use of fossil fuels, the report finds. And if temperatures increase more than that, the pressure on food production will increase as well, creating a vicious circle.
“Above 2 degrees of global warming there could be an increase of 100 million or more of the population at risk of hunger,” Edouard Davin, a researcher at ETH Zurich and an author of the report, said by email. “We need to act quickly.”
The report also calls for institutional changes, including better access to credit for farmers in developing countries and stronger property rights. And for the first time, the I.P.C.C. cited indigenous people and their knowledge of land stewardship as resources to be tapped. “Agricultural practices that include indigenous and local knowledge can contribute to overcoming the combined challenges of climate change, food security, biodiversity conservation, and combating desertification and land degradation,” the report’s authors wrote.
It comes at a time when indigenous people are currently under threat. According to a report released this year by the nonprofit organization Global Witness, which looks at the links between conflicts and environmental resources, an average of three people were killed per week defending their land in 2018, with more than half of them killed in Latin America.
Overall, the report said that the longer policymakers wait, the harder it will be to prevent a global crisis. “Acting now may avert or reduce risks and losses, and generate benefits to society,” the authors wrote. Waiting to cut emissions, on the other hand, risks “irreversible loss in land ecosystem functions and services required for food, health, habitable settlements and production.”
For more news on climate and the environment, follow @NYTClimate on Twitter.
Correction: Aug. 9, 2019
An earlier version of this article misquoted and misattributed comments about proposals to address a possible food crisis. Those comments were made by Pamela McElwee, not Cynthia Rosenzweig. In addition, part of the quote was rendered incorrectly. Dr. McElwee said, “What some of these solutions do require is attention, financial support, enabling environments.” She did not say, “But what some of these solutions do require is attention, financial support, enabling environments.”
Christopher Flavelle covers climate adaptation, focusing on how people, governments and businesses respond to the effects of global warming. @cflav
Climate Change Made Europe's Heatwave At Least Five Times More Likely
The team of European researchers who conducted the work also found humanity’s warming of the planet made the heatwave about 4°C hotter than it would otherwise have been. The findings came as new data showed that the average European temperature last month was the hottest ever for June
2 July 2019
By Adam Vaughan
Climate change made last week’s deadly heatwave in Europe at least five times more likely, according to a rapid analysis.
The team of European researchers who conducted the work also found humanity’s warming of the planet made the heatwave about 4°C hotter than it would otherwise have been. The findings came as new data showed that the average European temperature last month was the hottest ever for June.
The intense heatwave affected large areas of Europe, setting temperature records in Germany, Austria, Spain, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and the Netherlands. France saw the hottest temperatures, including an all-time high of 45.9°C near the city of Nîmes, a level more typical of Death Valley, California. Manure self-ignited in Spain, causing a wildfire.
Hoping to avoid a repeat of the 2003 heatwave which killed more than 70,000, authorities in France postponed exams and set up ‘cool rooms’ for people, while Germany imposed motorway speed restrictions over fears of roads cracking. At least seven deaths have been linked to the heatwave; the true toll will not become clear until much later.
Read more: Weather forecasts could soon pin extreme events on climate change
But we now know the exceptional heatwave was made much more likely by global warming, due to an assessment published on Tuesday by the World Weather Attribution group.
They used computer models to calculate the temperatures we would expect to see in France with the 1°C of warming – our current level above pre-industrial temperatures – and also without it.
They then looked at the average temperature in three days in June across France and in the French city of Toulouse and compare the observations with the models.
The results for France as a whole showed that climate change increased the probability of the heatwave by at least a factor five. The results were similar for Toulouse.
While the researchers were very confident in the heatwave being made at least five times more likely, they said the real world temperature data shows the probability could have been increased by as much as 100 times.
Geert Jan van Oldenborgh of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute says although five times is the minimum, the true figure “could be much higher.” Up to 100 times is a possibility but should not be taken too seriously, the team says, because of the difficult of modelling clouds, the interaction between atmosphere and soil, and reproducing such extreme, record-breaking temperatures in models.
Compared to a heatwave in June in 1901, last week’s one was about 4°C hotter. “This is a strong reminder again, that climate change is happening here and now,” said Friederike Otto of the University of Oxford.
More on these topics: climate change
Barbados: Teachers' Training College Opens Aquaponics Farm to Staff and Students
The Erdiston Teachers’ Training College is on its way to becoming a green campus. After three months of construction, the institution officially opened its aquaponics farm to the staff and students.
The farm which is being facilitated by the school’s Climate-Smart Aquaponics for a Sustainable Future project, attempts to integrate the disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) into the primary school science classrooms. The project was planned by a group of third-year University of the West Indies, Bachelors in Education students.
“There are some deficiencies as it relates to the application of STEM [in the schools]. This Climate-Smart Aquaponics initiative bridges the gap. It allows persons to have a sense of how to go about teaching STEM, particularly at the primary level in Barbados,” said aquaponics consultant and project facilitator Rozanne Walrond.
The College science lecturer revealed the facility accommodates 460 plants and small-scale fish farming. It will be chiefly utilised by Erdiston Teachers’ Training College students but will also be open to primary and secondary school students for use. Walrond insists that exposure to aquaponics from an early age would educate students on the importance of sustainable and renewable energies.
“One of the benefits of aquaponics is that… where there is a deficiency in arable land and you have a system of this nature, the opportunities are endless in how much you can actually reap,” she continued.
Walrond disclosed that the opening of the aquaponics farm was the first phase of the college’s plan to become fully sustainable and promote renewable energy. The facility will be using recycled water and will be sustained by solar energy, thanks to the support of Williams Solar which has donated photovoltaic panels.
“We want to become iconic in terms of having this college be promoted as a smart and sustainable institution,” commented Walrond.
New York To Convert Poo To Fuel
Some New Yorkers will soon be utilizing their own personal byproducts as fuel thanks to an innovative wastewater reuse project in the city
May 10, 2019
Some New Yorkers will soon be utilizing their own personal byproducts as fuel thanks to an innovative wastewater reuse project in the city.
“The poop of Big Apple residents is being turned into methane at Brooklyn’s Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant — and the gas will now be used to fuel up to 5,000 local homes,” according to the New York Post. “The decade-in-the-making farts-to-fuel project — a joint venture between the city Department of Environmental Protection and National Grid — is slated to be up and running by the end of the year.”
National Grid, a natural gas and electricity provider, will capture excess methane at the wastewater treatment plant and remove the moisture and carbon dioxide, thus producing higher-quality methane that can be used to fuel households. Food waste from local hotels and restaurants totaling 130 tons will also be leveraged for the project.
Officials hope that the project will save an equivalent of 19,000 cars’ worth of carbon emissions per year, according to the Post.
“We’re basically building a fancy filter,” said Donald Chahbazpour, gas utility of the future director for National Grid said, per The Blaze. “It’s indistinguishable from a molecular perspective [to traditional methane]. The only difference is the feedstock is us.”
Though the project is a first for New Yorkers, the concept of reusing wastewater byproducts is not novel. Wastewater treatment operations, also known as wastewater reuse facilities, have been harvesting and reselling biosolids as fertilizer for years. In Southern California, power utilities are also looking to expand the conversion of wastewater methane into gas for use by consumers.
It all appears to be part of increasing efforts around the country to improve sustainability and cut back on energy use. Wastewater offers a clear opportunity to leverage natural byproducts and put them to good use. Though it hasn’t even launched yet, the methane project in New York is already expected to expand.
“While the Greenpoint facility is the city’s only human-wind farm for now, Chahbazpour said officials are hoping the project will extend to its 13 other wastewater plants in the future,” according to the Post.
To read more about how wastewater operations reuse their byproducts, visit Water Online’s Sludge And Biosolids Processing Solutions Center.
Image credit: "New York City," Jörg Schubert © 2017, used under an Attribution 2.0 Generic license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Seeds&Chips Teenovators
Milan, 19 April 2019 - The Call for Teenovators has just closed, gathering young innovators from all corners of the planet
Stories of Young And Very Young Innovators And Visionaries of The 5th Edition of The
Global Food Innovation Summit
Closed the International Call in collaboration with Fondazione Francesca Rava: 49 projects from all over the world.
Marco Gualtieri: "Greta Thunberg, who is in Italy these days, has triggered something: she has awakened the world, and the young in particular. There are a lot of boys and girls like Greta all over the world, and at Seeds&Chips we will present them together with their projects to save the planet".
Milan, 19 April 2019 - The Call for Teenovators has just closed, gathering young innovators from all corners of the planet. The contest, organized by Seeds&Chips - The Global Food Innovation Summit with Francesca Rava Foundation - N.P.H. Italia, was aimed at teenagers who are passionate and determined to change the food system and face the great global challenges, guided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals: 49 presented projects. The selected candidates will have the opportunity to inspire the leaders of today and tomorrow during the fifth edition of Seeds&Chips, from 6 to 9 May at Fiera Milano Rho.
"Greta Thunberg, with her perseverance, has brought the environmental emergency we are experiencing to the attention of the world's adults. Greta will be in Italy today to meet the Holy Father and the Institutions, but she will also be in the streets alongside thousands of Italian youngsters to ask once again to act immediately" - says Marco Gualtieri, President and founder of Seeds&Chips - "But how many young people like Greta exist? Few people know that there are many young and very young people who are committed to change things, who design innovative solutions for the protection of the environment and to encourage more sustainable lifestyles. These young people have always been the protagonists of Seeds&Chips. Like Ayrton Cable for example, who three years ago, at the time 13 years old, was already a source of great inspiration for me. It is only by listening to these young people that we can realize how the new generations have already changed their ways of thinking and acting of the new generations".
"We are enthusiastic about the synergy with Seeds&Chips because an important part of the mission of the Francesca Rava Foundation - N.P.H. Italia is to educate young people to respect themselves, the others and the environment that surrounds them" - says President Mariavittoria Rava. "N.P.H. (Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos - Our little brothers and sisters), who represents the Francesca Rava Foundation in Italy, has been changing the lives of many people for over 60 years, with the motto “one child at a time, from the street to graduation”. Through our activities in schools and international Camps, we listen to the fresh and motivated voice of many young people, who do not have often the opportunity to express themselves and have their talents be valued. The partnership with Seeds&Chips, allows us to give many deserving young people the unique opportunity to bring their ideas to the table of today’s leaders and in that way be "influencers" for a better future.”
Since its very first editions, Seeds&Chips has been a stage of honor for many very young innovators who, even this year, will be actively involved in the Summit's rich programme. Teenovators (13-19 year old) and Young Pioneers (20-25 year old) from around the world will open the thematic sections and bring their revolutionary ideas to the attention of guests and the public. Each conference will be attended by an under 30 speaker; in addition, the established format GiveMe5! is dedicated to young startuppers, where they will have the opportunity to meet top leaders and present their project in 5 minutes, ask questions and draw inspiration for the future.
Greta's "fight" and the mobilization of #FrydaysforFuture testify that the environmental and sustainability revolution starts from the young. Seeds&Chips will give the space and voice to some of these young people who have already started a transformation in their countries of origin. Such as Nikita Shulga and Sophia-Christina Borisyuk, both 13 years old Ukrainians, who through their projects introduced in more than 230 ukranian schools canteens, a compost system for the organic waste called “Compola” also supported by local institutions. Or Haaziq Kazi, a 12-year-old Indian, who since 2017 has been looking for funds to build his prototype of a ship powered by clean energy,” Ervis” capable of removing especially plastic waste from the oceans. Another example, Gitanjali Rao, this year included by Forbes among the top 30 under 30 for Science. The 13-year- old, hit by the contaminated water scandal at Flint in Michigan, created Tethys, a compact device based on carbon nanotubes that detects the presence of lead in water. In 2017, Gitanjali was awarded the title of Best Young American Scientist. Such as the 16-year-old Italian Giorgia Mira, the "Greta Thunberg" from Bari who, following the example of the young Swedish environmentalist, has the dream of involving her peers in the battle to defend the Earth.
Genesis Butler, an activist for animal rights and environmental protection, is also an ambassador for "Million Dollar Vegan", the organization that runs the global campaign to combat climate change through changing food. Genesis has offered a million dollars to the Holy Father if he agrees to a vegan diet for the whole of Lent. Alongside them also Zuriel Oduwole, 16-year-old American, already a voice and symbol of many African girls. Zuriel met and interviewed 28 Presidents and Prime Ministers one-to-one on global political issues and became the youngest person to have a profile on Forbes. Or Xóchitl Guadalupe Cruz López, just 9 years old, who made a water heater from recycled materials to help the poor and the environment. His next goal is to bring the prototype into the homes of indigenous communities in Chiapas; and finally, even Ayrton Cable, founder of WAFA Youth, who at just 16 years old is one of the youngest entrepreneurs engaged in social work and in the search for more ethical food. He has already received several awards and recognitions and has already participated at Seeds&Chips in 2016.
Seeds&Chips - The Global Food Innovation Summit, founded by entrepreneur Marco Gualtieri, is the world’s flagship food innovation event. An exceptional platform to promote technologically advanced solutions and talents from all over the world. An exhibition area and conference schedule to present, tell and discuss the themes, models and innovations that are changing the way food is produced, transformed, distributed, consumed and talked about. In 2017, Seeds&Chips’ keynote speaker President Barack Obama participated as a speaker The event hosted over 300 speakers from all over the world; over 240 exhibitors and 15800 visitors. It also garnered 131 million social impressions in 4 days. The 2018 edition saw more than 300 international
speakers, among them former US Secretary of State John Kerry, President of IFAD Gilbert Houngbo and Starbucks’ former CEO and Chairman Howard Schultz. The 5th edition of Seeds&Chips – The Global Food Innovation Summit will take place
at Fiera Milano Rho, from May 6 to 9, 2019.
Francesca Rava Foundation - N.P.H. Italia
Founded in 2000, the foundation was the fruit of the witness of love that Francesca left with her short but intense life. It helps children in difficult conditions in Italy and in the world. It represents NPH Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (Our Little Brothers) in Italy since 1954. Its homes and hospitals are at the service of orphaned and abandoned children in nine countries of Latin America including the poor Haiti. It also represents the Saint Luc Foundation of Haiti.
COMMITMENT TO HAITI
The Foundation operates in Haiti under the guidance of the frontline physician Father Rick Frechette, who for 30 years has led N.P.H. and the affiliated Saint Luc Foundation on the island. In a country where 70% of the population is unemployed, 2 children die from malnutrition and treatable diseases every hour, 1 in 4 do not attend school, the N.P.H. and the Saint Luc Foundation provide work for 1600 Haitians and assist 1 million people a year with 3 hospitals. They run 2 rehabilitation centers for disabled children, 35 street schools that offer food and education to 13.000 children, 2 Houses with 600 children, the Fors Lakay reconstruction project, food and water distribution programs, funerals for thousands of abandoned bodies or whose loved ones are too poor for a dignified burial, the Vocational Training and Production Center in Francisville - city of trades, and reforestation and cultivation programs for self-sustainability.
Modern Farming, A Must To Boost Local Food Supply: UAE minister
Hydroponic farming is cost-efficient and it yields more vegetables and herbs in a shorter time.
Angel Tesorer
February 13, 2019
Combatting climate change also means embracing modern farming practices to diversify food sources and achieve sustainable development in the agricultural sector.
This was given emphasis by Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, in an interview with Khaleej Times on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai on Tuesday.
Al Zeyoudi said: "We at the ministry have developed a policy for food biodiversity where we encourage a change in the behaviour of our local farmers - towards more resilient agricultural practices - to produce the right crops."
He noted that employing modern technology and tools will bring about a two-pronged result: increased food production and lesser carbon footprint.
Al Zeyoudi cited hydroponic farming as an example of a more sustainable option as it uses around 90 per cent less water than regular farming. It also requires less space for plants and vegetables to grow, making it the best solution to the challenges presented by the UAE's limited arable land.
On the economic side, he noted that hydroponic farming is cost-efficient and it yields more vegetables and herbs in a shorter time. And more importantly, its carbon footprint is minimal as the greens are grown locally.
The UAE imports 85 per cent of its food requirement and some studies show that food importation is set to rise from $100 billion in 2014 to $400 billion in 2025.
Al Zeyoudi said they are urging small-scale farmers to move to commercial agriculture and embrace modern cultivation practices to increase their contributions to the local food supply.
"We are subsidising farm materials, including seeds that can grow in an environment with high temperature, humidity and salinity," he said.
While the technology is available, the minister cautioned farmers against utilising it on their own.
"There are many experts and engineers at the ministry who can provide them with trainings. They should not just use hydroponics or build greenhouses without first understanding them."
Last week, Al Zeyoudi visited several farms in Dubai and Abu Dhabi where he inspected various water and energy-saving technologies, including greenhouses.
"The results are amazing," he said. "Farmers are happier because the technology is tailored-fit to the conditions of the UAE."
With Farms Atop Malls, Singapore Gets Serious About Food Security
The farm's small size belies its big ambition: to help improve the city's food security.
January 09, 2019 5:11 PM
SINGAPORE —
Visitors to Singapore's Orchard Road, the city's main shopping belt, will find fancy malls, trendy department stores, abundant food courts — and a small farm.
Comcrop's 600-square-meter (6,450-square-foot) farm on the roof of one of the malls uses vertical racks and hydroponics to grow leafy greens and herbs such as basil and peppermint that it sells to nearby bars, restaurants and stores.
The farm's small size belies its big ambition: to help improve the city's food security.
Comcrop's Allan Lim, who set up the rooftop farm five years ago, recently opened a 4,000-square-meter farm with a greenhouse on the edge of the city.
He believes high-tech urban farms are the way ahead for the city, where more land cannot be cultivated.
"Agriculture is not seen as a key sector in Singapore. But we import most of our food, so we are very vulnerable to sudden disruptions in supply," Lim said.
"Land, natural resources and low-cost labor used to be the predominant way that countries achieved food security. But we can use technology to solve any deficiencies," he said.
Singapore last year topped the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Global Food Security Index of 113 countries for the first time, scoring high on measures such as affordability, availability and safety.
Yet, as the country imports more than 90 percent of its food, its food security is susceptible to climate change and natural resource risks, the EIU noted.
With 5.6 million people in an area three-fifths the size of New York City — and with the population estimated to grow to 6.9 million by 2030 — land is at a premium in Singapore.
The country has long reclaimed land from the sea, and plans to move more of its transport, utilities and storage underground to free up space for housing, offices and greenery.
It has also cleared dozens of cemeteries for homes and highways.
An aerial view shows Citiponics' urban farm located on the rooftop of a multi-story garage in a public housing estate in western Singapore, April 17, 2018.
Agriculture makes up only about 1 percent of its land area, so better use of space is key, said Samina Raja, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University at Buffalo in New York.
"Urban agriculture is increasingly being recognized as a legitimate land use in cities," she said. "It offers a multitude of benefits, from increased food security and improved nutrition to greening of spaces. But food is seldom a part of urban planning."
Supply shocks
Countries across the world are battling the worsening impacts of climate change, water scarcity and population growth to find better ways to feed their people.
Scientists are working on innovations — from gene editing of crops and lab-grown meat to robots and drones — to fundamentally change how food is grown, distributed and eaten.
With more than two-thirds of the world's population forecast to live in cities by 2050, urban agriculture is critical, a study published last year stated.
Urban agriculture currently produces as much as 180 million metric tons of food a year — up to 10 percent of the global output of pulses and vegetables, the study noted.
Additional benefits, such as reduction of the urban heat-island effect, avoided stormwater runoff, nitrogen fixation and energy savings could be worth $160 billion annually, it said.
Countries including China, India, Brazil and Indonesia could benefit significantly from urban agriculture, it said.
"Urban agriculture should not be expected to eliminate food insecurity, but that should not be the only metric," said study co-author Matei Georgescu, a professor of urban planning at Arizona State University.
"It can build social cohesion among residents, improve economic prospects for growers, and have nutritional benefits. In addition, greening cities can help to transition away from traditional concrete jungles," he said.
Singapore was once an agrarian economy that produced nearly all its own food. There were pig farms and durian orchards, and vegetable gardens and chickens in the kampongs, or villages.
But in its push for rapid economic growth after independence in 1965, industrialization took precedence, and most farms were phased out, said Kenny Eng, president of the Kranji Countryside Association, which represents local farmers.
Organic cilantro seedlings sprout from growing towers that are primarily made out of polyvinyl chloride pipes at Citiponics' urban farm on the rooftop of a multi-story garage in a public housing estate in western Singapore, April 17, 2018.
The global food crisis of 2007-08, when prices spiked, causing widespread economic instability and social unrest, may have led the government to rethink its food security strategy to guard against such shocks, Eng said.
"In an age of climate uncertainty and rapid urbanization, there are merits to protecting indigenous agriculture and farmers' livelihoods," he said.
Local production is a core component of the food security road map, according to the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) of Singapore, a state agency that helps farmers upgrade with technical know-how, research and overseas study tours.
Given its land constraints, AVA has also been looking to unlock more spaces, including underutilized or alternative spaces, and harness technological innovations to "grow more with less," a spokeswoman said by email.
Intrinsic value
A visit to the Kranji countryside, just a 45-minute drive from the city's bustling downtown, and where dozens of farms are located, offers a view of the old and the new.
Livestock farms and organic vegetable plots sit alongside vertical farms and climate-controlled greenhouses.
Yet many longtime farmers are fearful of the future, as the government pushes for upgrades and plans to relocate more than 60 farms by 2021 to return land to the military.
Many farms might be forced to shut down, said Chelsea Wan, a second-generation farmer who runs Jurong Frog Farm.
"It's getting tougher because leases are shorter, it's harder to hire workers, and it's expensive to invest in new technologies," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"We support the government's effort to increase productivity through technology, but we feel sidelined," she said.
Wan is a member of the Kranji Countryside Association, which has tried to spur local interest in farming by welcoming farmers' markets, study tours, homestays and weddings.
Small peri-urban farms at the edge of the city, like those in Kranji, are not just necessary for food security, Eng said.
"The countryside is an inalienable part of our heritage and nation-building, and the farms have an intrinsic value for education, conservation, the community and tourism," he said.
At the rooftop farm on Orchard Road, Lim looks on as brisk, elderly Singaporeans, whom he has hired to get around the worker shortage, harvest, sort and pack the day's output.
"It's not a competition between urban farms and landed farms; it's a question of relevance," he said. "You have to ask: What works best in a city like Singapore?"
How 300 Years of Urbanization and Farming Transformed the Planet
Three centuries ago, humans were intensely using just around 5 percent of the Earth’s land. Now, it’s almost half.
Humans are transforming the Earth through our carbon emissions. Arctic sea ice is shrinking, seas are rising, and the past four years have been the hottest since record-keeping began. But long before the first cars or coal plants, we were reshaping the planet’s ecosystems through humbler but no less dramatic means: pastures and plows.
Environmental scientist Erle Ellis has studied the impact of humanity on the Earth for decades, with a recent focus on categorizing and mapping how humans use the land—not just now, but in the past. And his team’s results show some startling changes. Three centuries ago, humans were intensely using just around 5 percent of the planet, with nearly half the world’s land effectively wild. Today, more than half of Earth’s land is occupied by agriculture or human settlements.
“Climate change is only recently becoming relevant,” said Ellis, a professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “If it keeps going how it is, it will become the dominant shaper of ecology in the terrestrial realm, but right now the dominant shaper of ecology is land use.”
In contrast to the typical division of the world into ecological “biomes,” Ellis and his team at the Laboratory for Anthropogenic Landscape Ecology map what they call “anthromes,” or “anthropogenic biomes.” These show the intersection of ecology and human land use.
Using a range of sources, Ellis’s team mapped out that land use, dividing the planet into grids and categorizing each cell based on how many people lived there and how they impacted the land. The densest areas were cities and towns, followed by close-packed farming villages. Less populated areas were categorized by their dominant land use—crops, livestock pasture, or inhabited woodlands—while other areas were marked as largely uninhabited.
Below is an animation using a simplified version of Ellis’s data:
Even with only one snapshot per century, the animation makes some of the trends obvious. Large swaths of Russia and the United States become cropland over the 19th century, while livestock occupies increasing amounts of previously semi-wild land in Africa and Asia.
“Asia is pretty much the dominant transformed area, and transformed the earliest,” Ellis said. “Europe is also pretty dense ... The rest of the world has a different trajectory. Much slower, less dense.”
All of this is a mixture of estimates and approximations. One reason Ellis and his team only looked every hundred years and divided the world into cells that stretch for miles was to avoid giving a false impression of precision.
People ask Ellis, “‘What was my backyard like?’” he said. “Well, we don’t have any solid evidence … The further back in time you go, the more you have to consider [this], in a sense, educated guesswork.”
Even more recent data can have issues, based on political decisions that countries make about how to self-classify their land. Saudi Arabia, for example, reports “almost every part of their country as being rangeland” even though much of that arid land is seldom if ever grazed.
Humans shape even “seminatural” biomes
Significant portions of the world, both now and in the past, have been what Ellis’s team terms “seminatural.” These are areas—frequently forests—with low but real human habitation. This could reflect a large cell of the grid that has a farming village or two but mostly natural forests. But frequently, Ellis says, humans have taken a much bigger role in shaping seemingly natural wilderness than people think.
Take the “pristine myth”—the idea that the Americas before European colonization were dominated by pristine wilderness untouched by human hands. In fact, modern researchers believe that indigenous tribes had actively shaped their landscapes through agriculture and regular burning of American forests.
Because of this, the devastating spread of epidemics among indigenous populations after 1492 also had a huge impact on climate—and not just locally. Some scholars believe disease-ravaged peoples significantly cut back on their management of American forests, which meant far less carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere from fires and far more absorbed into newly grown forests. The combination could have played a significant role in the “Little Ice Age” that lowered global temperatures for several centuries between around 1500 and 1850 C.E.
This kind of active land management was done not just by sedentary populations, but by hunter-gatherers, too. This, Ellis says, is a shortcoming in the data.
“There’s no direct mapping of hunter-gatherers’ land use in these datasets. That’s something we’re trying to rectify now,” he said, noting that evidence suggests even non-agricultural people have major effects on the environment.
The data also shows the massive impact made by cities, the most dramatic way humans transform their environment. In 1700, a negligible portion of the Earth’s surface was covered by cities. Over the three centuries that followed, this boomed by around 40 times. Cities are still just half a percent of the planet’s land area, but they have had the most dramatic increase in impact of any of Ellis’s “anthromes.”
Densely populated farming villages—which often have similar concentrations of people per square mile as American suburbs—are also big, especially in the developing world. (Ellis’s team don’t map any urban areas in the Americas or Australia before 1900, and never apply the “villages” category to those continents, because those areas didn’t have “histories of intensive subsistence agriculture.”)
Huge portions of India and China are occupied by these kind of villages. So, too, were the hinterlands around major European cities before improvements in transportation enabled produce to be brought from farther away. Paris, for example, used to be surrounded by suburban “market gardens” which, historians André Jardin and André-Jean Tudesq note, could produce five or six harvests per year and had a “virtual monopoly of the Parisian market” for food until the second half of the 19th century.
How cities drive land-use changes
That kind of intensive agriculture to feed a demanding urban market is part of the huge impact that cities have on the use of land even well outside their boundaries. Those thousands or millions of urban dwellers aren’t producing their own food, and thus need more food produced elsewhere in order to eat.
Ellis describes two different ways that cities impact far-away anthromes through their demands for food—one of them devastating to natural ecosystems, the other surprisingly beneficial.
The first sees new land being put under the plow, as societies try to produce more food for a growing population. This is often low-productivity agriculture, reflecting the marginal quality of the farmland: If it was good for farming, it would have been farmed already. But later, as populations grow, comes an “intensification” process as technology increases the yields on low-productivity farmland.
Agricultural expansion has a massive impact on natural biomes, and has for millennia. But the second process, intensification, has the potential to restore some of the natural biomes that humans previously plowed under.
“Dense cities actually have the potential to help areas recover, because dense populations in cities often are basically pulling people out of the rural areas where they’re farming low-productivity land,” Ellis said. The increased production on good land means the marginal farmland is no longer needed.
Author Charles Mann described this process taking place in New York’s Hudson River Valley in his 2018 book, The Wizard and the Prophet. In the late 19th century, this region was dominated by “hardscrabble farms and pastures ringed by stone walls.” Now many of those “hardscrabble farms” are gone. Six counties in the lower Hudson Valley had around 350,000 people and 573,000 acres of timberland in 1875; today those same counties have more than 1 million people but three times as much forest.
“Many New England states have as many trees as they had in the days of Paul Revere,” Mann writes. “Nor was this growth restricted to North America: Europe’s forest resources increased by about 40 percent from 1970 to 2015, a time in which its population grew from 462 million to 743 million.”
But while this intensification of agriculture is allowing the return of nature in parts of developed countries, the first phase—expansion—is still playing out in the developing world. Erle’s maps show the expansion of crops and livestock into areas like Africa’s Sahel and South America’s Amazon rainforest over the past century.
“Land transformation is the big story of biosphere transformation so far,” Ellis said. “If you’re trying to understand how we produced the ecology we have now, it’s the story of land-use transformation.”
What’s next for Earth
So what will a future mapmaker show for the world’s land use in 2100? Ellis said he expects urbanization to continue, at least doubling the share of the planet’s land devoted to urban areas over the next century.
Similarly, he expects developed countries to see an intensification of agriculture that enables marginal land to be returned to the wild—a process already under way in newly developed countries like China. Poorer countries, on the other hand, may continue to convert marginal wild land into farmland.
“It’s only poor farmers without much investment that can make that work,” Ellis said. “When you’re investing large amounts of money in farm equipment and fertilizers, you don’t invest that in marginal land.”
Much depends, however, on political, economic, and technological changes that will unfold over the next 80 years. For example, Ellis said, the United States has recently seen “a huge shift from beef to chicken” in consumer demand. “That changes the kind of land that’s in demand, from grassland to production of maize and soy.”
Among the factors that could affect the future of Earth’s land use are political decisions in Brazil, where new President Jair Bolsonaro wants to open up more of the Amazon rainforest to agriculture, and technology, where a potential breakthrough in electrical generation such as fusion power could enable transformative changes such as vertical urban farming. Conservation efforts, or lack thereof, could also impact areas of intensive agriculture in developed countries.
“The future of the biosphere… depends partly on economics, partly on politics, but also partly on vision,” Ellis said. “It depends on what people’s values are.”
California Rain Affecting Arugula Supplies
Growing conditions for arugula in parts of California have not been ideal after the heavy, consistent rainfall over the last few weeks
Growing conditions for arugula in parts of California have not been ideal after the heavy, consistent rainfall over the last few weeks. Production remains steady though and growers are expecting that the effects from the rain will be short-lived. Moreover, the rainy conditions are something growers say they are accustomed to during winter and therefore plan accordingly.
"We grow both flat leaf and the more popular wild arugula year round," said Mark Lopez of Kenter Canyon Farms in Sun Valley. "At the moment, it has been very difficult because there has been more instances of mildew due to the rainy and humid conditions over the past month. For the most part, supplies have remained consistent. We plant in two-week cycles, so if there are any problems, they never lasts long. As a result, we are hoping the issue with the presence of mildew will disappear very shortly."
Multiple packaging options
Kenter Canyon Farms grows a wide selection of salad greens including Baby Kale, Tatsoi, Mizuno as well as ingredients that make up the spring mix blend. The company supplies a diverse mix of customers from high-end restaurants to retailers, mainly in the Los Angeles area. Consequently, they also have a varied selection of packaging options to suit each market.
"Arugula is always in high demand for salad mixes, gourmet burgers, restaurant menus and for family meals," Lopez shared. "Kenter Canyon Farms has multiple packaging options from as small as a 5oz clamshell for our retail customers, up to a 4lb bulk case for foodservice. We only deliver to the LA produce district, however our products do appear nationally."
"We are a California family farm producing year round crops of certified organic lettuces, herbs and leafy greens," he concluded. "Seasonally, we produce Valencia oranges, navel oranges, Meyer lemons and heirloom avocados. We also grow a selection of heritage tomatoes for our local farmers markets."
For more information:
Mark Lopez
Kenter Canyon Farms
Ph: +1 (818) 768-5545
mark@kentercanyonfarms.com
www.kentercanyonfarms.com
Publication date : 2/19/2019
Author: Dennis Rettke
© FreshPlaza.com
Are You A Teenager Who Is Passionate About Technology And The Environment?
This is your time to shine!
Seeds&Chips and Fondazione Francesca Rava - NPH Italia Onlus
launch the Call for Teenovators
Applicants have the chance to speak at the next edition of the Summit and meet with the innovators and world leaders who are shaping the future of the planet
The deadline for applications is April 10th 2019:
https://seedsandchips.com/#call-teenovator
Milan, February 14th 2019 - Seeds&Chips - The Global Food Innovation Summit – the largest food innovation summit in the world – in collaboration with Fondazione Francesca Rava - N.P.H. Italia Onlus, a charitable non profit foundation that helps children in serious need in Italy and worldwide, is launching the Call for Teenovators.
The objective is to find the most passionate and dedicated teenagers (ages 13 to 19), determined to change the food system and address the most pressing global issues in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These teenagers will inspire the current and next generation of leaders at the fifth edition of Seeds&Chips, from May 6-9, 2019 in Milan, Italy at Fiera Milano, Rho.
At the Summit, Teenovators will have the chance to open the conference sessions for our exceptional speakers – heads of state, entrepreneurs, opinion leaders and innovators – from around the world, and share their thoughts and experiences with them.
Giving a voice to young people has always been a priority for Seeds&Chips. As ambassadors for the next generation, they are spokespeople for the fundamental changes that we must undertake, and symbols of the incredible potential we have to meet these challenges. It is them, after all, who have the most influence on the future, not just from a food innovation point of view. In addition to involving many teenagers, Seeds&Chips 2019 is also calling for Young Pioneers (age 20-25) to share with the world their current projects and plans for the future.
“The world needs to take inspiration from young people,” says Marco Gualtieri, Chairman and Founder of Seeds&Chips. “In the years to come new generations will have to face great challenges: soil degradation, biodiversity loss, pollution, access to water and climate change pose very serious threats to the future of humanity as we know it. With their choices and efforts, new generations have the power to help humanity transition to a better food system and to reverse the environmental damages that are threatening life on Earth. Luckily, research shows that Generation Z is poised to become the most entrepreneurial generation ever, bound to influence the next big wave of innovation and fully achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.”
“We’re enthusiastic about the synergy with Seeds&Chips because an important part of the Fondazione Francesca Rava – N.P.H. Italia Onlus is educating young people about respecting themselves, others and the environment that surrounds them,” says President Mariavittoria Rava. “N.P.H. Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, which represents the Francesca Rava Fouundation in Italy has been changing people’s lives for over 60 years, with the motto one child at a time, from the streets to the degree.
Through our work in schools and campuses, we listen to the motivated voices of many young people who don’t often get the chance to express themselves and be valued.
The partnership with Seeds&Chips, thanks also to the support of Eco Eridania, allows us to give many deserving young people the opportunity to bring their ideas to the world stage with and be influencers for a better tomorrow.”
Seeds&Chips and the Fondazione Francesca Rava – N.P.H. Italia Onlus are thus launching a worldwide call to all teen innovators who are motivated to shape the future of the planet and of humanity.
Are you ready to impact the future?
Complete and submit the application form available on our website https://seedsandchips.com/#call-teenovator no later than April 10th, 2019.
Seeds&Chips - The Global Food Innovation Summit, founded by entrepreneur Marco Gualtieri, is the largest food innovation event in the world. Every year since 2015, the Summit has brought together and expanded an ecosystem of startups, companies, universities, organizations, investors, accelerators and incubators, opinion leaders and policy makers from all over the world. It functions as an international meeting point for innovators, influential experts and global leaders from the public and private sector to develop and implement solutions for the most pressing issues in food production and supply.
It showcases the latest ideas and state-of-the-art technologies that hold the potential to transform our food system and help achieve the targets set by the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2017, Seeds&Chips’ keynote speaker President Barack Obama delivered inspiring remarks on the importance of food innovation and the impact of climate change and sustainable practices on our global food system. T
he 2018 edition saw more than 300 international speakers, among them former US Secretary of State John Kerry, President of IFAD Gilbert Houngbo, Minister of Agriculture of the Kingdom of The Netherlands Carola Schouten, former European Commission President and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, Starbucks’ former CEO and Chairman Howard Schultz and Intellectual Ventures Founder Nathan Myhrvold.
Fondazione Francesca Rava Fondazione Francesca Rava – N.P.H. Italia Onlus is an independent, non political, charitable non profit foundation whose mission is to help children in serious need, in Italy and worldwide, through children sponsorship, fundraising projects, volunteers and educational programs. In Italy the Foundation represents N.P.H. (Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos – Our little brothers and sisters) a charitable organization for orphaned and abandoned children in Latin America, founded in 1954 by Father William Wasson, from Phoenix, Arizona. NPH philosophy was even studied by Doctor Erich Fromm, a renowned German social psychologist. In more than 60 years, more than 25,000 orphaned and abandoned children have been saved, nourished, raised with love and educated in the N.P.H. orphanages in Mexico, Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Peru and Bolivia. The Francesca Rava Foundation was born in 2000 in the name of Francesca, a bright and generous young woman who suddenly died in a car crash, after her sister Mariavittoria, a lawyer, met N.P.H. and decided to dedicate her life to help children. Since then, an outstanding amount of projects were supported from Italy, accomplished in Haiti, where the Foundation is particularly committed, and in other countries in Latin America to support N.P.H. children.
Heritage Crops That Feed on Sea Water Could Feed the UAE's Growing Population
Scientists are looking to genetically modify crops that were grown here in ancient times to help solve the region's food security issues.
Scientists are hoping to tackle the region’s food insecurity by reintroducing heritage crops that have been genetically modified to grow using saltwater straight from the sea.
Poor soil coupled with a scarcity of fresh water has led the UAE, and much of the region, to rely on importing food to feed its populations.
Euro-centric methods of agriculture are ill-suited for the hot and dry land, and some vegetables require 30 or more times the water in the UAE than is needed to grow the same plant in cooler environments.
Importing sufficed for decades as little consideration was given to environmental impact. But today, with the threat of global warming and the food industry being one of the biggest culprits, the way we eat has become one the most important frontiers for sustainability.
Dr Ismahane Elouafi, director-general of the International Centre of Biosaline Agriculture, does not agree with the idea that deserts are barren environments. Instead, she believes that although regional appetites have veered away from what the land naturally provides, they must be brought back.
“Sixty per cent of our food comes from only four crops. There are only 150 crops available on the market out of the 7,000 our ancestors used to grow,” Dr Elouafi said.
Wheat, maize, rice and potatoes feed the majority of the world’s population. But all four of those crops, which were genetically engineered to sustain people during the European industrial revolution, are unsuitable for growth outside the Northern Hemisphere.
Instead, she says that crops such as millet, which some historians believe was among the first seeds grown in the Fertile Crescent – an area of the Middle East where agriculture and some of the earliestcivilisations began – can fulfil food demand.
Pearl millet is among the crops the ICBA are hoping to reintroduce to the UAE. Photo by Showkat Nabi
Dr Elouafi is now seeking other plants that can grow in the UAE, adding thousands of species of ancient crop seeds to ICBA’s gene bank. Her scientists are digging through time to find some of the 7,000 crops our ancestors used and, from those, identifying species that are saline-resistant, nutrient-rich and, of course, tasty.
“We’re only focusing on a few for now because breeding is extremely expensive. That’s why most of the countries to the south [of the Northern Hemisphere] still use crops from the north – they are put on the market by multinationals,” she said.
But now, breakthroughs in genetic coding technology can tremendously reduce the cost of breeding, meaning that it may be possible to engineer endemic crops to become easier to grow and better suited to mass cultivation in the region.
The shortage of water, she said, is one of the main constraints to UAE food production. Water scarcity has been offset in the country by some of the world’s most substantial desalination plants – an energy-intensive practice.
But instead of desalinating seawater for crops, Dr Elouafi wants to engineer crops so they can be irrigated with water straight from the sea.
“It is possible – there are crops that have salinity tolerance already. We’re looking at these crops and into using either gene editing or hybrids to get crops on to the market that take more saline water and are more nutritious,” she said.
Omar Al Jundi is the founder and chief executive of Badia Farms, the region’s first vertical farm, in Al Quoz, Dubai. Reem Mohammed/The National
These innovations could be used in conjunction with developments such as Omar Al Jundi’s vertical farm, the first commercial one to launch in Dubai. It could be used to grow ICBA’s regionally-suitable crops to disrupt current energy-intensive agriculture in the Arab world.
“Our water bill for August was Dh1,500. That is lower than my home water bill. We’re able to harvest the majority of the water we use, recycle it and use the humidity to nourish plants,” said Mr Al Jundi, the founder and chief executive of Badia vertical farm, which produces 1,000 heads of lettuce at a time.
Vertical farming uses hydroponic systems to yield crops. Being indoors, vertical farms seldom need pesticides and the technology is progressing at a rate that could allow it to grow anything, including ancient or heritage crops.
He said using his technology to grow sustainable plants, such as the ones ICBA is rediscovering, is completely achievable and part of his vision for the future of urban agriculture.
“You can grow as high as you want, but going up 10 to 20 storeys produces a lot – it could feed thousands, if not more. This is the future.”
Updated: January 16, 2019 08:35 AM
Can We Grow More Food on Less Land? We’ll Have To, A New Study Finds
If the world hopes to make meaningful progress on climate change, it won’t be enough for cars and factories to get cleaner. Our cows and wheat fields will have to become radically more efficient, too.
By Brad Plumer
Dec. 5, 2018
WASHINGTON — If the world hopes to make meaningful progress on climate change, it won’t be enough for cars and factories to get cleaner. Our cows and wheat fields will have to become radically more efficient, too.
That’s the basic conclusion of a sweeping new study issued Wednesday by the World Resources Institute, an environmental group. The report warns that the world’s agricultural system will need drastic changes in the next few decades in order to feed billions more people without triggering a climate catastrophe.
The challenge is daunting: Agriculture already occupies roughly 40 percent of the world’s land and is responsible for about a quarter of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions. But with the global population expected to grow from 7.2 billion people today to nearly 10 billion by 2050, and with many millions of people eating more meat as incomes rise, that environmental impact is on pace to expand dramatically.
Based on current trends, the authors calculated, the world would need to produce 56 percent more calories in 2050 than it did in 2010. If farmers and ranchers met that demand by clearing away more forests and other ecosystems for cropland and pasture, as they have often done in the past, they would end up transforming an area twice the size of India.
That, in turn, could make it nearly impossible to stay below 2 degrees Celsius of global warming, the agreed-upon international goal, even if the world’s fossil-fuel emissions were rapidly phased down. When forests are converted into farmland, the large stores of carbon locked away in those trees is released into the atmosphere.
“Food is the mother of all sustainability challenges,” said Janet Ranganathan, vice president for science and research at the World Resources Institute. “We can’t get below 2 degrees without major changes to this system.”
Less meat, but also better farming
The new study, the result of six years’ worth of modeling work conducted in partnership with French agricultural researchers, is hardly the first to warn that feeding the world sustainably will be a formidable task. But the authors take a different view of the most plausible solutions.
In the past, researchers who have looked at the food problem have suggested that the key to a sustainable agriculture system is to persuade consumers to eat far less meat and waste far less of the food that’s already grown.
The new report, however, cautions that there may be limits to how much those strategies can achieve on their own. The authors do recommend that the biggest consumers of beef and lamb, such as those in Europe and the United States, could cut back their consumption by about 40 percent by 2050, or down to about 1.5 servings a week on average. Those two types of meat have especially large environmental footprints.
But the authors are not counting on a major worldwide shift to vegetarianism.
“We wanted to avoid relying on magic asterisks,” said Timothy D. Searchinger, a researcher at Princeton University and the World Resources Institute and lead author of the report. “We could imagine a significant shift from beef to chicken, and that by itself goes a long way.” (Poultry production has about one-eighth the climate impact of beef production.)
So, in addition to actions on diet and food waste, the researchers also focused on dozens of broad strategies that could allow farmers and ranchers to grow far more food on existing agricultural lands while cutting emissions, a feat that would require a major shift in farming practices worldwide and rapid advances in technology.
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A farm in the Pays de la Loire region of France. Cows have an especially large environmental footprint.CreditLoic Venance/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
For example, they note, in parts of Brazil, the best-managed grazing lands can produce four times as much beef per acre as poorly managed lands — in part owing to differences in cattle health and how well the grass is fertilized. Improving productivity across the board could help satisfy rising meat demand while lessening the need to clear broad swaths of rain forest.
The authors also pointed to possible techniques to reduce the climate impact of existing farms. For instance, new chemical compounds could help prevent nitrogen fertilizers from producing nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas. And scientists are exploring feed additives that get cows to burp up less methane, another big contributor to global warming.
The report notes that producing 56 percent more calories without expanding agricultural land could prove even more difficult if, as expected, rising temperatures reduce crop yields. But, Mr. Searchinger said, many of the recommendations in the report, such as breeding new, higher-yielding crop varieties or preventing soil erosion, could also help farmers adapt to climate change.
Conserving the world’s remaining forests
The researchers emphasize that strategies to improve the productivity of existing croplands and pastures will have to be paired with more rigorous conservation policies to protect existing forests in places like Brazil or sub-Saharan Africa. Otherwise, farmers will just find it more profitable to clear more forests for agriculture — with dire climate consequences.
“In the past, we’ve often seen agricultural policies and conservation policies moving in parallel without a lot of interaction,” said Linus Blomqvist, director of conservation at the Breakthrough Institute, who was not involved in the study. “The big challenge is to link the two, so that we get more intensive farming without using more land.”
In another contentious recommendation, the report’s authors call for a limit on the use of bioenergy crops, such as corn grown for ethanol in cars, that compete with food crops for land.
Money is also a hurdle. The report’s authors call for large increases in research funding to look at ideas like fertilizers that can be made without the use of fossil fuels, organic sprays that can reduce waste by preserving fresh food for longer, and genetic editing techniques that might produce higher-yielding crops. They also urge new regulations that would encourage private industry to develop sustainable agricultural technologies.
Over the past three years, 51 countries have spent roughly $570 billion a year to support food production, said Tobias Baedeker, an agricultural economist at the World Bank, which contributed to the new study.
If those subsidies were overhauled so that they helped support more sustainable practices, Mr. Baedeker said, “we could have a real game-changer on our hands.”
Hippie Amenities With A High-End Twist
A hippie house share? Not quite. It was crafts and cocktails night at Urby Staten Island, an upscale rental complex where the demographic skews more young professional than drum-circle enthusiast.
By Kim Velsey
Aug. 18, 2017
Garden construction in progress on the eighth floor deck of 550 Vanderbilt in Brooklyn.CreditCreditEmon Hassan for The New York Times
As dusk fell over Staten Island on a recent evening, about 10 people sat around a large wooden table in a communal kitchen, listening to Van Morrison and painting terra-cotta flowerpots. Houseplants were suspended from the room’s high wood-beamed ceilings, and the smell of freshly baked bread hung in the air.
A hippie house share? Not quite. It was crafts and cocktails night at Urby Staten Island, an upscale rental complex where the demographic skews more young professional than drum-circle enthusiast. Nonetheless, the complex has features that might make that crowd feel right at home: In addition to the communal kitchen, there’s a 5,000-square-foot urban farm, a 20-hive apiary — both tended by live-in farmers/beekeepers — and a kombucha workshop planned for later this summer.
“Live cultures are really something people are responding to,” said Brendan Costello, the complex’s in-residence chef, as he wiped the last of the bread crumbs and black maple butter from the countertops. He has already taught well-attended workshops on making sauerkraut and kimchi.
Just as Birkenstocks and bee pollen have come back in style, so have crunchy lifestyle concepts, from yoga and meditation to composting and home fermentation. And with veganism, Waldorf schools, doulas and healing crystals shifting from far out to very much in fashion, a growing number of New York luxury buildings have embraced the hallmarks of 1970s hippiedom with a high-end twist. Look for amenities like rooftop gardens, kitchen composters, art and meditation studios, bike shares, infrared saunas, even an adult treehouse.
“Especially in Brooklyn, the concrete jungle is not the atmosphere people are aiming for,” said Ashley Cotton, an executive vice president of Forest City New York, whose recently opened condo in Prospect Heights, 550 Vanderbilt, developed in partnership with Greenland USA, has window planters for units on lower floors and a communal garden terrace with individual plots on the eighth floor. Two of the terrace’s six large planters will be tended by a nearby farm-to-table restaurant, Olmsted, which will also offer gardening lessons to residents.
Residents of URBY in Staten Island visit a farmstand set up by Empress Green in Urby’s communal kitchen.CreditEmon Hassan for The New York Times
Residents of URBY in Staten Island visit a farmstand set up by Empress Green in Urby’s communal kitchen.CreditEmon Hassan for The New York Times
At Pierhouse, the Toll Brothers City Living condo in Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn, every kitchen has an in-unit composter, a first for a Toll Brothers development.
“If we were deciding between a compost unit and a wine chiller, we’d probably go with the wine chiller since more people would be interested,” said David von Spreckelsen, the president of Toll Brothers City Living division. “But here we had large kitchens and a lot of the units have outdoor space, so we thought people could compost in their kitchen and go right out to their garden.”
While such amenities might be aspirational for some, others are yearning to get their hands dirty. Christine Blackburn, an associate broker at Compass real estate, said that for a woman to whom she recently sold a condo at 144 North Eighth Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the roof garden was the most important amenity.
“She didn’t care about the gym, she didn’t care about the garage,” Ms. Blackburn said. “They live in a $2 million condo, but for her to be able to grow tomatoes with her son, that was it.
“The garden plots in that building are tiny,” she added, “but it makes some people feel like they’re not living in a high-rise.”
Public green space has always been a priority, of course, and let’s not forget that large swaths of all five boroughs were once farmland.
Green rooftops have some historical antecedents in the city: The Ansonia, on the Upper West Side, kept 500 chickens on its rooftop farm in the early 20th century, with eggs delivered daily to the tenants, according to “The Sky’s the Limit,” a book by Steven Gaines. But the roof was shut down by the Department of Health after just a few years, in 1907. And for the past century, it was accepted that living in New York meant leaving nature, and local honey, behind.
“It definitely used to be an either/or mentality,” said Rick Cook, a founder of the architecture firm CookFox and a designer of 550 Vanderbilt, who moved to New York from a small town upstate in 1983. But after studying abroad in Florence, Italy, he said, “I understand you could have both. That, in fact, the highest quality of life is to have both.”
Indeed, the explosion of the wellness industry has left many craving a different kind of New York lifestyle.
For a younger generation, practices like organic gardening and meditation may not carry any whiff of the counterculture.
“Being green is modern, being organic is modern,” said Jordan Horowitz, 26, an assistant manager of Enterprise Rent-a-Car who grew up gardening in suburban New Jersey and was excited to get a studio at Urby, where residents have an entire city block of gardens. But he is equally enthusiastic about the pool, the giant bean bags strewn across the grounds and learning to make Vietnamese cuisine from scratch in Mr. Costello’s cooking classes.
That many such offerings tend to be far more upscale than their 1970s counterparts no doubt helps to remove any lingering hippie vibe. Rather than a stable of rusty Schwinns, for example, 50 West, in the financial district, allows residents to pedal out on Porsche bikes that cost $3,700 a pop.
Javier and Irina Lattanzio, residents and brokers of 50 West in Lower Manhattan, take a spin on Porsche bikes provided by the building.CreditSasha Maslov for The New York Times
Javier and Irina Lattanzio, residents and brokers of 50 West in Lower Manhattan, take a spin on Porsche bikes provided by the building.CreditSasha Maslov for The New York Times
“Yes, it’s sharing, but in a luxury manner,” said Javier Lattanzio, the sales manager at the condo.
The adult treehouse at One Manhattan Square on the Lower East Side, likewise, is hardly primitive, with Wi-Fi and a staircase. As for all those rooftop herb gardens, asked if they are actually used, one broker replied that they definitely were, though not necessarily for a Moosewood recipe: On a recent trip to 338 Berry in Williamsburg, she saw people with Aperol spritzes clipping herbs to put in their cocktails.
Frank Monterisi, a senior vice president of the Related Companies, emphasized that the new generation of renters and buyers “like to see sustainability, they like to see rooftop gardens.”
At Hunter’s Point South, Related’s massive affordable housing complex in Long Island City, Queens, residents can receive deliveries of fresh vegetables from a C.S.A. — community-supported agriculture. There are also an apiary, about 2,300 square feet of rooftop gardens and a waiting list for the gardening club.
“Everyone wants to garden now. I think New Yorkers have gotten comfortable with the amount of concrete we have, but they also want to see green,” said Joyce Artis, a retired Port Authority worker who helps organize the gardening program at the complex and grows microgreens and lemon trees in her apartment.
Ms. Artis said that when she was growing up in Brooklyn, she was sent to visit relatives in North Carolina in the summer, and hated having to get up early to weed. “But then as I got older, I started missing it,” she said. “And I started growing things in my apartment. No matter how small your space I always say: ‘You can grow one thing.’”
Ms. Blackburn, the Compass broker, said that gardening, for some, is a version of meditation. “Maybe they’re not sitting there with a meditation app, but sticking their hands in the soil — it doesn’t matter if someone’s making $10 million a year — it can be very therapeutic.”
She expects the enthusiasm to continue and intensify. “I wouldn’t be surprised in a year if a luxury building had a chicken coop,” she said.
The Number One Reason Why Indoor Vertical Farming Makes Sense?
Contributed Content by: Robert Colangelo, Green Sense Farms Holding’s, Inc.
With a temperature of -23 F and a -53F windchill,
the Green Sense Farms team is still growing strong!
ZipGrow Helping To Transform Indoor Agriculture
A dedicated team of farming pioneers based in Cornwall are helping to bring local fresh food to the table in a growing number of communities.
December 13, 2018
By Bob Peters
Cornwall Ontario – A dedicated team of farming pioneers based in Cornwall are helping to bring local fresh food to the table in a growing number of communities.
ZipGrow manufactures vertical growing systems in Cornwall and works with farmers in external markets to install the technology and build economically viable indoor farms.
Essentially plants are grown from seeds in rows that are oriented vertically as opposed to on a traditional horizontal plane. Light, water and nutrients are supplied via a system that maximizes efficiency and crop yield.
“Our towers are designed by farmers for use by farmers,” says Eric Lang, President and Co-Founder of ZipGrow. “Going vertical allows you to grow crops in a relatively small physical area, which makes it ideal for indoor locations.”
The system is scaleable as well, which means that restaurants can grow their own greens, students can learn about agriculture and entrepreneurs can build commercial farm operations are that are climate-proof.
The ZipGrow method of farming is versatile and can accommodate different crops. Indoor farmers have had success with leafy greens such as lettuce, kale and arugula while herbs like basil, mint, and rosemary are perfect matches for growing vertically. With a little extra planning and preparation, you can also successfully grow fruiting plants such as strawberries, cucumbers, and bell peppers.
ZipGrow is located on Fourth Street West in the middle of Cornwall. Demand for their product has led to continuing increases in production, requiring the company to expand its physical footprint. The company now employs 15 people.
“We are selling ZipGrow systems in North, Central and South America and demand continues to increase quarter after quarter,” says Eric Lang. “Each sale paves the way for another as people become familiar and comfortable with the technology.”
Mr. Lang is partners with Eric Bergeron who first brought the concept of indoor farming to Cornwall with SmartGreens in 2014.
“Indoor farming offers solutions to problems that conventional agriculture struggles with – namely environmental impact, timely transportation of perishable goods to distant markets, climate change and more,” says Mr. Bergeron, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer for ZipGrow. “We believe that with right knowledge and the right technology, individuals and communities can help bring farmers and consumers much closer together for the benefit of all.”
About ZipGrow
ZipGrow designs and builds vertical farming technology for installations around the world. Its team of proven leaders in the field educate, equip, and empower local farmers to grow better food for their communities and operate successful vertical indoor farms.
Web: ZipGrow.com
Belgian Supermarket to Introduce In-Store Vertical Farms
The retail group sees multilayer cultivation as part of its wider aim of pursuing more sustainable products, shortened chains and innovation.
Colruyt Group is testing a system developed in-house for 'vertical farming' or multilayer cultivation in climate-controlled conditions. The retail group sees multilayer cultivation as part of its wider aim of pursuing more sustainable products, shortened chains and innovation. Colruyt Group aims to start stocking the shelves of its retail formula Bio-Planet with the first herbs from its vertical farm from the autumn of 2019, under its own label Boni Selection, which is strongly committed to a sustainable product range.
Ambition: herbs with a very small ecological footprint
Consumers are making increasing demands regarding responsible consumption. Colruyt Group wants to offer a possible solution using vertical farming. "Our multilayer cultivation creates the perfect conditions for plants", explains Stefan Goethaert, Director at Colruyt Group and responsible for product sustainability. "Air, light, water and nutrients are dosed in the ideal quantities. As a result, we only use the amount of energy and raw materials that is strictly necessary, whilst still allowing the plant to achieve optimum growth. And it's no longer necessary to use pesticides. The plants are therefore 100% natural. Moreover, they reach maturity twice as fast than when conventionally cultivated. And the quality remains high throughout the year, regardless of the weather conditions."
The first results after a year of testing confirm the story, says Stefan Goethaert. "We are already using 90% less water and 50% less nutrients than in conventional cultivation. We reuse all of the nutrients that the plant doesn't use. Moreover, we only work with filtered rainwater. Our LED lighting is twice as efficient as the current standard on the market. And the system runs on green electricity from our own wind turbines and solar panels." It is Colruyt Group's ambition to sell herbs that have a very small ecological footprint. That's why the entire lifecycle of the plants is looked at, from seed to consumer's home. The retailer is therefore also working on recyclable packaging and a long shelf life, and will minimise the number of kilometres driven by integrating the vertical farm in a distribution centre in the future.
Home-grown innovative technology
Colruyt Group is the first retailer in Belgium to test a vertical farm that was developed in-house. The technology used has been fully developed within its own R&D department. In the current test set-up, biotechnologists and engineers continue to work on optimising growing conditions.
For Colruyt Group, this project isn't a leap into the unknown: recent innovation projects around water purification, LED lighting, renewable energy, automation, eco-design and refrigeration have formed the basis. In addition, the R&D department works together with a number of knowledge institutions. "We are also in talks with potential partners", adds Stefan Goethaert. "We also want to make some of the plants available to innovative entrepreneurs who work on food trends. Together we can explore the possibilities for using our products."
First trial at Bio-planet in 2019
"We are still in the testing phase, but the goal is to sell the first herbs at Bio-planet within a year", says Jo Ghilain, business unit manager of Bio-planet. "Vertical farming fits perfectly with our brand positioning. Bio-Planet stands for healthy, natural and local products. Furthermore, our customers are early adopters and are looking for added value. They are the people demanding products with a sustainable story." The herbs are currently grown using certified organic seed and substrate. "That was a decisive argument, in addition to the sustainability score of the plants", says Jo Ghilain.
Meanwhile, Bio-Planet customers were the first to taste test basil plants in three stores: on 27 November in Uccle, on 28 November in Grimbergen and Jambes. Jo Ghilain emphasises the added value of this co-creation: "The people of Uccle, Grimbergen and Jambes will help us determine the eventual flavour of the plants. Based on their opinions, we will adjust the cultivation process and the taste. This means that our customers actually choose the end result themselves."
For more information:
Colruyt Group
www.colruytgroup.com
Publication date : 12/5/2018