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Westfield Unveils High Tech Future With AI Walkways And Sensory Gardens
Walkways fused with artificial intelligence, an on-site farm for picking vegetables, and smart lavatories that offer a health diagnosis.
Westfield Unveils High Tech Future With AI Walkways And Sensory Gardens
Farms and artificial intelligence could be installed in shopping centres ten years from now, according to Westfield CREDIT: UNIFORM - WWW.UNIFORM.NET
Ben Woods, senior business correspondent
3 JUNE 2018
Walkways fused with artificial intelligence, an on-site farm for picking vegetables, and smart lavatories that offer a health diagnosis.
It may not sound like an average trip to the shops.
However, Westfield claims these innovations are only 10 years away from becoming part and parcel of a shopping centre visit.
The retail giant has created a vision of how people will shop in 2028, which it claims will match the latest technology with the demand for extraordinary experiences.
Shopping centres of the future will be “hyper connected micro cities”, according to Westfield. “New technologies are fused with back-to-basics, including gardens and ‘classroom retail’, where people watch and learn from their favourite retailers,” it said.
“Further innovations will include smart loos that can detect hydration levels and nutritional needs, alerting visitors to top up their vitamin C or re-hydrate.”
Hanging sensory gardens, mindfulness workshops, and farms where shoppers can pick produce will also become a key feature.
Meanwhile, eye-scanners will tell customers what they last bought, and smart changing rooms will show shoppers a virtual reflection of themselves when choosing clothes.
The vision underscores how retailers are searching for ways to stay relevant to customers following the rise of online shopping. Game Digital is trying to revive its fortunes by pushing into the eSports market, creating in-store gaming zones where customers play each other for a fee.
Gardens, eye scanners and mindfulness sessions will also be part of the shopping centre mix by 2028 CREDIT: UNIFORM - WWW.UNIFORM.NET
Elsewhere, supermarket giant Waitrose has teamed up with supper club start-up WeFiFo in a bid to lure in more customers.
The grocer has been hosting dinners led by top home cooks and chefs, with plans to roll out the concept into more stores.
David Bassuk, managing director of Alix Partners, said retailers need to reassess how they measure the success of their bricks-and-mortar stores.
He said: “People come into a store, look around, get acquainted, then buy online. Or, they buy online and use the physical store as a place to pick up a purchase or make returns. The store plays a valuable role in both cases. Yet for many retailers, these activities are not being considered in determining store performance.”
Mr Bassuk believes retailers need to focus on total sales rather than the profitability of their stores, as more customers shift their shopping online.
“Retail is not dead, and neither are physical locations,” he added.
“But unless you’re measuring them properly, you’ll never fully understand the value they bring.”
Why Hydroponics Could Be The Future Of Farming
Most people in India have grown up with the idea that good water, good soil and lots of sunlight translate into good farming. That may have been true for most farmers, for a great deal of time. But new research and practice have shown that what healthy plants really require are good seeds, good water, and nutrients.
Why Hydroponics Could Be The Future Of Farming
The word hydroponics comes from hydro meaning water, and ponos meaning labour. It is meant to represent the growing of plants in any medium -- sand, gravel, or liquid, with added nutrients, but without soil.
RN Bhaskar
Most people in India have grown up with the idea that good water, good soil and lots of sunlight translate into good farming. That may have been true for most farmers, for a great deal of time. But new research and practice have shown that what healthy plants really require are good seeds, good water, and nutrients. Plants do not really require soil. And plants need not sunlight, but spectrum. The entire process of photosynthesis is possible when the plant separates the sunlight to soak in the spectrum that it requires. Broadly, different types of plants use blue, red or yellow spectrum. Some use white spectrum as well.
What is hydroponics?
The word hydroponics comes from hydro meaning water, and ponos meaning labour. It is meant to represent the growing of plants in any medium -- sand, gravel, or liquid, with added nutrients, but without soil. It is also referred to as vertical farming, because this type of farming allows for crops to be grown in layers – in shelves or trays, one layer over another. These layers could be as many as you want – from 2 or 3 or even 20 – one on the top of another. A very good idea of the potential hydroponics can have can be viewed from ‘The rise of vertical farming – a VPRO documentary – 2017’, a 54 minute video of how it is practiced around the world.
What hydroponics does best is eliminating the need for soil, sunlight and rain. Since almost 90% of pests come from the soil, there is automatically a dramatic reduction in pests. Hence fewer pesticides, herbicides and insecticides are used. Aerial pests that may sneak in are often caught by the insect traps that are there in any hydroponics farm. The plant uses the water that runs below each tray, and this water is then re-circulated, preventing both evaporation and wastage. Nutrients that the plants need are carried through the water and caress only the roots of the plants -- each range of trays carries the nutrients specific to each type of plant, depending on its age and the and the special qualities it is meant to have when it is ready to be sold to customers.
The identification of nutrients that plants need has itself become a big booming industry.
Market size
Is hydroponics just a fringe movement, primarily found on the shelves of laboratories, or has it become commercially viable? The truth is that this industry is growing by leaps and bounds. The hydroponics industry has become huge during the past decade.
How big? Well, that is where the problem lies. There are varying estimates.
For instance, a news report put out by Reuters in August 2017, which quotes Stratistics MRC, expects the global hydroponics market to grow from $226.45 million in 2016 to reach $724.87 million by 2023. And it is reported to be growing at a furious pace of 18.1% CAGR (compounded average rate of growth).
But another estimate put out by Mordor Intelligence and which is often quoted by many industry experts, paints a picture that is positively glowing. This report puts the global hydroponics market at US$ 21,203.5 million in 2016. The market is expected to register a CAGR of 6.5% during 2018 to 2023. The percentage looks modest, but on a base of $21,203 million, it means that the industry grows by at least US$1.4 billion each year. That is heady growth indeed!
If one takes into account the types of plants grown using hydroponics, you will find products like tomato, cucurbits, lettuce, almost all varieties of leafy vegetables, peppers, and other food crops.
Tomato forms the largest market segment and it is likely to account for 30.4% share of the global market, by the end of this year.
As consumers become increasingly aware of the superior quality in greenhouse-grown vegetables, the demand for hydroponics has been growing in Europe and Asia-Pacific. Hydroponics crop production is expected to continue growing when it comes to tomatoes, lettuce, and other leafy vegetables. Experiments with creeper plants have also been quite promising, and it won’t be long before we have large-scale cultivation of fruit like grapes and plums using hydroponics.
The scale of operations for hydroponics-focused companies is actually astonishing. For instance, just one company in Holland produces and exports almost 100 million kilos of tomatoes (100,000 tonnes).
But if all types of crop are considered, it is the US which is the hydroponics center of the world (refer to timeline 20:45 in the video mentioned above). There, one company, Aero Farms, has begun picking up dilapidated and abandoned warehouses and reshaping them into hydroponic farms. As one of its managers puts in, “Today, we can produce more than 130 times what a person can conventionally produce in one acre.” This is done by multiplying the layers of farm shelves in our hydroponic farms, and also increasing output.” Thus, effectively, with a 130 x output, economies and technologies are brought into play making this one of the most incredible industries in the agriculture sector.
And when people tell hydroponics scientists that their way of farming is unnatural, they chuckle. They point out that organized farming is barely a thousand years old. Compared to the millions of years the earth and its natural evolution has been around, it is farming that is unnatural. Hydroponics is only one way of doing what nature does but in a better and more scientific manner.
As Aero Farms managers point out, once a crop is harvested, it begins to lose its nutritional value and its flavour very rapidly. Hydroponics allows a farmer to grow the crop next to consuming centres. Thus a hydroponics farm on the terrace of a building located in a business district can supply fresh crop to workers as well as to restaurants in this very district. There is less of transportation, hence hardly any transportation or refrigeration costs. Moreover, the crop is both safe and fresh, hygienic and nutritional.
Some of the key players in the world’s hydroponics market include AMCO Produce Inc., American Hydroponics, Inc., Argus Control Systems Ltd., BetterGrow Hydro, Eurofresh Farms, General Hydroponics, Inc., Greentech Agro, Llc, Heliospectra AB, Hydrodynamics International, Inc., Hydrofarm, Inc., HydroWholesale Inc, Koninklijke Philips NV, Logiqs B.V., Lumigrow, Inc., and Village Farms International.
Expect this list to grow longer as Asian companies have now begun to look at hydroponics as the next big market. Already, since South Korea is the hub for LED lights, almost half the leafy vegetables in that country are said to be through the hydroponics route. China has begun to embrace it, because it uses barely 10% of the water plants conventionally use. As the plant grows on shelves, and as the water gets recycled, there is little evaporation, little of water going into the earth, and hence you actually get more crop per drop than even drip irrigation. Even energy costs have tumbled as most hydroponics plants use solar power instead of the more expensive power through the power grids.
Media to nutrients
It is the nutrients market that got one Indian company – HiMedia – to begin looking at the hydroponics market very seriously. HiMedia is a group headquartered in Mumbai but with its main laboratories in Nasik and it is one of the largest players globally in the biological media industry. It produces media required by industries related to pathology, pharmaceuticals and food. HiMedia’s brochure proudly defines itself as one of the top 5 media companies in the world.
What started as a home enterprise by the Warke family, in 1973 gradually grew into a firm dealing with microbiology, animal cell culture and gradually to plant cell culture. The last phase was accidentally triggered by an incident when a consignment of HiMedia was rejected by Australia because that country was not comfortable with India’s quality standards especially when related to animal-based culture media. The Mad Cow disease was a dreaded word, and hence culture media from animal-origin were deemed suspicious especially if they originated in countries like India.
So the Warke family began experimenting with plants to source cell cultures from there. The HiMedia management believes that when it comes to plant based culture, their group could be the world’s largest player.
A chance meeting with the legendary Jim Rogers in China in 2006 brought them global attention and an association with VWR Inc, one of the biggest players in this line of business. That brought HiMedia more credibility and today it exports its products to almost all major markets in the world, including EU, USA, Japan and Korea. Today, even though 35% of its product is still sold under the brand names of some of the biggest players in the world, the remaining 65% sells under the HiMedia brand.
Working on plant cultures brought the company close to identifying the molecules that plants need to grow healthily. Today, HiMedia has protocols for over 50 different plants relating to nutrition and growth. That in turn has got the Warke family into hydroponics. Today the management is looking at this business segment a lot more seriously than most people do in India. The Warke family has decided to call this division Higronics.
The case for India
But why should India look at hydroponics?
There could be several reasons why India may have no option but to embrace this method of farming.
The first is that it is economically viable (see chart). The figures are indicative, from just one vendor. But as more vendors start entering this field, prices could drop. What is needed is a sound government policy on the one hand and active handholding of the farmer on the other.
Second, this is the closest one can get to fresh food, uncontaminated by pesticides and insecticides.
Third, at a time when agriculture itself is being buffeted by climate change including unseasonal rain and hail storms, hydroponics is a way of managing to grow plants under controlled conditions. Thus, you could recreate the atmosphere of say Gangtok in the middle of Maharashtra and actually focus on growing medicinal plants that normally found in the North East parts of India.
You could control all the variables, including the strength of active ingredients which have tended to degenerate and deteriorate over a period of time.
Fourth, it could be the best solution for the Indian government when it comes to land acquisition. The government could offer farmers land for land, and work out ways whereby the hydroponics company would handhold the farmer to teach him how to master the technologies involved. That was the strategy Narendra Modi used when he was chief minister of Gujarat. He allowed micro-irrigation companies to get the subsidy amounts only after another specified government agency certified that they had handheld customer farmers. That way, farmers would be able to stick to farming even if the landholding was very small (you can grow as much as 130 times the conventional amount on any plot of land).
Fifth, with controlled supply of nutrients and with hardly any pesticides being used, the cost for crop management begins to diminish.
Sixth, since consuming markets are close to producing centres, the transport miles shrink, leading to a further reduction in costs. As farmers learn to strike deals directly with consumers, and as they learn to space out crop production so that a limited supply is available every day, they can move away from rapacious middlemen as well.
And lastly, this is one way to reduce farmer distress. These new technologies have the power to reduce the germination life of plants from around 30 days (the conventional time span for plants) to just around 11 days. Thus the farmer can rotate his crop more often. That allows him to keep pace with changing tastes. A higher crop intensity also helps him to better his earnings. It is also one way to bring farming closer to food processing centres and embrace the cold chain system that agriculture so sorely needs.
There is also one more factor that would endear urban investors to this opportunity. The sale proceeds from the agricultural produce got through hydroponics invites zero taxes. That could add another dimension to urban incomes altogether.
Hopefully, weather vagaries and farmer distress with soon compel the government to sit up and embrace and promote this method of farming.
(The author is consulting editor with Moneycontrol.com)
Growing 'Up' With Cucumbers
Growing 'Up' With Cucumbers
One Canadian family applies its expertise to guide Big Marble Farms, the largest produce greenhouse operation in Alberta, into the future.
From left to right: Eden, Brianne, Ryan and Rhys Cramer
Patrick Williams | Photos by Chasing Autumn Photography, except where noted
“I grew up in a cucumber crop,” Ryan Cramer says, recalling his formative years helping around his father Albert’s greenhouse. Now, Ryan has a cucumber greenhouse of his own, called Big Marble Farms.
In 2009, Ryan started Big Marble as a four-acre greenhouse near Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada, with his father and his uncle, Rick Wagenaar. Ryan sticks close to his family — he also works with his wife Brianne, who is the company’s executive assistant, and they are raising their daughter, Eden, and son, Rhys, around the greenhouse.
Family was the foundation for Big Marble Farms, and it is now a huge operation. In less than a decade in the role of CEO, Ryan has expanded the business to its present 35 acres of glasshouses. This city of cucumber production, with 190 employees, is the largest produce greenhouse in Alberta, Ryan says. And fitted with high-pressure sodium (HPS) grow lights throughout its entire production area, “It is one of the biggest lit operations in Canada,” he says.
Several key practices have contributed to Big Marble’s success: marketing geared toward healthy diets, crop selection based on market demand, year-round production enabled by the use of supplemental lighting, near-total adoption of beneficial insects for the benefit of both crops and customers, and packing onsite and selling local to ensure freshness.
“You’ve got to be always moving forward,” Ryan says. “That’s a common thing. You always have to be constantly innovating and adapting to the changes — constantly becoming more efficient and looking for ways to produce better.”
From one generation to the next
Raising Ryan on a farm was a natural follow-up to Albert’s own childhood. Albert was raised on a dairy farm where he tended to crops such as alfalfa, timothy and wheat. In the mid-1980s, Albert opened Rolling Acres Greenhouses, an operation that has, at various points, produced cucumbers, peppers, specialty crops and tomatoes. Although Albert brought his experience to Big Marble as founder, he still operates Rolling Acres Greenhouses, which is currently situated on 9.5 acres in Medicine Hat. Albert splits his production between cucumbers and peppers.
“My dad was always close to home,” Ryan recalls. “He worked on the acreage [where we lived] — that’s where the farm was. And he was able to be around. But we were also in the greenhouse a lot. We learned how to work from a young age, from just small jobs like dumping the leaves out in the field to actually having to pick cucumbers when we got a little bit older.”
Big Marble Farms has 35 acres of cucumber production.
Photo courtesy of Big Marble Farms
Albert bought a quarter section (160 acres) of land in the early 2000s with the intention of growing on a larger-scale. He noted how Ryan, who had developed a serious passion for growing, needed an opportunity to advance in the business. “When we had started talking as a group about doing something, I said to my brother-in-law, Rick, and Ryan, ‘Let’s just start our own,’” Albert says. “There was nothing around here with year-round production, and I said, ‘Let’s do something completely different. We’ll put glasshouses up and put lights in it.’ We just had to pull the trigger, and we did, and there we go, and now we’re at 35 acres. It grew fast.”
With 20 years as a grower under his belt, Wagenaar wanted to try something new by 2007, when he sold his own produce greenhouse, Sunquest Growers. Originally, he and Albert had more of a hands-on role at Big Marble. But now Wagenaar, who performs public relations and marketing, and Albert leave most of the day-to-day decisions to Ryan. “[Albert and I] are not scared to take a leap of faith, and we’re not scared of debt — we’re not scared of risk and reward,” Wagenaar says. “Both of us being in that same position, but at an arm’s length to the day-to-day, is perfect. And Ryan, being youthful and spending his whole life within the greenhouse industry, was the perfect third partner.”
Cuke choices
With Ryan at the helm, Big Marble Farms grows Long English Cucumbers and Mini Cucumbers. The Long English Cucumbers fill about 21 acres of production space, and its Mini Cucumbers fill about 14 acres. The offerings and how the greenhouse space is divided are based on market demand, he says.
The operation uses rockwool starter cubes for both types of cucumbers. It then grows them in high-wire systems using bags containing coconut fiber, growing off the main stem of each crop and pruning off the side shoots. “We keep on lowering the plant down so that we keep the head in the same spot so that the cucumbers are always being harvested in the same spot,” Ryan says. “It’s much better for labor, it’s better for quality of the product and it also has potential to yield higher. But it’s a premium system. It’s more labor, so it’s a bit of a commitment, but it also gives you better product quality.”
Growing Mini Cucumbers and Long English Cucumbers are similar practices, Ryan says, but they differ in some ways. For instance, growers need to pick Mini Cucumbers every day, but they can get away without picking Long English Cucumbers for a day. “Mini Cucumbers will grow too fast in two days — they’ll just get too fat,” he says. “They’ll get too big, and then they’ll go to waste.”
Mini Cucumbers are ideal snacks for children’s and adults’ lunches, Ryan says, and Long English Cucumbers are well-suited for slicing up and including in larger dishes.
Growing year-round
Ryan (left) and Albert (right) Cramer
Photo courtesy of Ryan cramer
Photo courtesy of Ryan cramer
Ryan as a young boy
Big Marble Farms takes advantage of the sun’s rays at its location near Medicine Hat in Cypress County, Alberta. This part of the country receives the most annual hours of sunlight — it’s what Ryan calls the “sweet spot of Canada’s Sun Belt.”
In Medicine Hat on the Summer Solstice, the sun shines 16 hours a day, but on the Winter Solstice, it shines only eight hours, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Big Marble Farms maximizes light transmission by using glass structures, Ryan says. And when the days get shorter, the farm increases the amount of light its crops receive by using HPS lighting throughout its 35 acres.
“Our tagline is ‘Always Growing,’ which is describing the fact that we produce all 365 days a year,” Ryan says. “It’s a summer-like product, even in the middle of winter. We’re able to turn on the grow lights once the fall light starts to set in, and we can actually push right through November, December, January, February, when most growers are changing crops and cleaning their greenhouses.”
On the marketing and sales side, Wagenaar sees major value in informing purchasers, produce managers and end consumers about the processes that go into a quality cucumber crop, such as supplemental lighting. He notes that not all customers have time to talk to food producers and learn about where the crop came from, but if he could tell all of them about the production systems at Big Marble, he’d be able to secure and maintain their business.
“When you explain it to them — the science of what it takes to grow a good cucumber and the effort of atmospheric computers and the lights and the waking up of the plant — they can’t help but grin,” Wagenaar says. “[They say] ‘You’re kidding? It’s not just a cucumber?’ ‘No, we wake them up in the morning, we put them to bed at night. We have to tickle their feet — tickle the roots — we call them the feet. We tickle them with the little sensations in the morning to get them active, to get them out of their sleepy slumber. And then okay, it’s worktime, let’s go.’”
Big Marble Farms grows its cucumbers in a high-wire system.
A biological approach
To fight pests and diseases, Big Marble Farms uses approximately 99 percent beneficial insects, Ryan says. The farm, along with other operations, takes the biological approach rather than using pesticides to assure customers that their food is safe. This is one of the main assurances about produce that is important to customers, he says, along with local and fresh.
In addition, growers are beginning to find more sense in using biological programs than using pesticides, Ryan says. “It might be more expensive, but it’s just easier on your crop,” he says. “If you’re always spraying pesticides on your crop, you’re damaging it, to a degree. Plants don’t like being sprayed. In the long run, people have realized that this is the better option.”
Big Marble Farms’ biological program manager scouts the entire farm for pests and diseases, Ryan says. “He’s got a really good eye for it, a real passion for it,” he says. “What he does is he orders the beneficial insects, and they come from Holland. He monitors on a weekly basis how many good guys and bad guys we have in the greenhouse, and then he makes decisions based on that for how many more good bugs he’s going to need for the next week.”
When it comes to educating end consumers on organics, Wagenaar says he tells them that it is far better that they are eating a vegetable rather than a processed food such as Pizza Pops or Crispy Crunch — Canadian junk food. He never says the product is organic, but he tells them, “Spraying pesticides is always, always, always the very, very last chink in the armor.”
Big Marble Farms packs its own product to avoid bruising and guarantee freshness and proper labeling.
Freshly packed
Once harvested, Big Marble Farms packs its own product to avoid bruising and guarantee freshness and proper labeling. The Mini Cucumbers can be packed in different ways, Ryan says, including six or eight packed together on a foam tray with a labeled plastic-wrap on top; or placed in one, one and a half or two-pound bags. The English Cucumbers are plastic-wrapped either individually or shrink-wrapped with others, placed in a box and sold in bulk.
Big Marble Farms uses grading lines, which Ryan says requires a lot of labor. Employees fill boxes with cucumbers and place the vegetables on trays by hand.
“All the big operations have been packing their product for a long, long time,” Ryan says. “But as far as Alberta goes, we are one of the only ones that do it. So [it’s] somewhat new to Alberta, because we never had big enough operations. We always co-packed.”
Big Marble Farms sells its cucumbers it through the RedHat Co-operative, a co-operative of about 30 growers near Redcliff, Alberta, “The Greenhouse Capital of the Prairies.” Ryan is a board member of the co-op, as is Albert, who chaired it for several years due to his roles at both Rolling Acres and Big Marble. The co-op sells Big Marble’s product throughout Canada — mainly in the Prairie Provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
The importance of family
Family still plays an integral part at Big Marble Farms. As an executive assistant, Brianne helps with tasks such as marketing, branding and office work. And Ryan sees a benefit to having his children grow up around the operation.
“One of the things I think that I find very important from running a family business like this family farm, for my kids, is that I hope that they learn the same work ethic values that I learned and they have the same family life that I had,” Ryan says.
The business’ marketing emphasizes the importance of nutrition for children. Images of children — including Eden and Rhys — playing and eating cucumbers are prominent on the company’s website. There are also old photos of Ryan as a child — one of him on a tricycle holding a cucumber and one of him standing beside Albert, who is kneeling.
Albert says he enjoys seeing his grandchildren growing up in Ryan’s greenhouse like Ryan grew up in his. “It’s pretty exciting to see them being involved with that, and the opportunity for them is pretty cool, if they want to go with it,” he says.
The farm’s name also refers to children. “The name Big Marble harkens back to a simpler time when kids would spend hours playing with their friends and family,” according to the company’s site, which offers instructions for playing the game marbles, as well as Jacks and Conkers, two other games. (Ryan says the name is twofold — it also refers to Earth. “The Blue Marble” is a nickname for the planet, and an image the Apollo 17 crew took of it in 1972.)
More developments are on the horizon for Big Marble Farms, which has an expansion plan for 2020. Consumer demand will determine the crop type, and acreage will increase by another 10 or 20 acres, enlarging the greenhouse space to more than 10 times its original four acres.
Big Marble completed its 2016 expansion — a whole 20 acres — within a year of breaking ground, and Ryan has the same plans for this next expansion. “It will be complete in 2020,” he states, confidently. “We would break ground [in] early 2020, and we would have plants in it by the fall of 2020.”
US (MO): Aquaponics Facility To Alleviate Food Desert
US (MO): Aquaponics Facility To Alleviate Food Desert
Nonprofit Nile Valley Aquaponics is raising fish in a Kansas City food desert—and they’re creating jobs, providing healthy food and promoting sustainable urban farming in the process. To help the nonprofit lead the community to greener and healthier living, American architecture and engineering firm HOK designed the Nile Valley Aquaponics Facility, which could double the annual harvest to 50,000 pounds of fish and 70,000 pounds of vegetables.
The building would be constructed using sustainable building methods and feature resource-saving systems such as rainwater cisterns and a wind turbine.
Designed to cover a 0.7-acre lot, the Nile Valley Aquaponics Facility aims to expand the nonprofit’s food production capacity and introduce additional eco-friendly farming features. The urban farming effort not only gives the community greater access to fresh produce and fish but also provides low-income youth with economic and educational opportunities through jobs, lessons, field trips and mentoring.
The new facility would include two new greenhouses that could increase the output of fish from 25,000 to 50,000 pounds and the production of vegetables from 35,000 to 75,000 pounds. A third greenhouse would be used for education.
Read more at Inhabitat (Lucy Wang)
Publication date: 6/22/2018
Works Credit Union Launches Aquaponics Facility
Works Credit Union Launches Aquaponics Facility
June 21, 2018
Green Works for healthy, wealthy living
A view of growing plants at the Green Works aquaponics facility of Works Credit Union at its Spring Garden compound.
Works Credit Union has started on a journey to feed Tobagonians with its Green Works initiative for sustainable food production – an aquaponics system which was launched on Monday night at its compound in Spring Garden.
The Green Works aquaponics system will utilise waste produced by farmed fish or other aquatic creatures as nutrients for plants grown hydroponically – that is fish and plants will be grown together in one integrated system. It is seen as safe, uses 90 percent water less than soil farming, is less labour intensive, virtually operating itself, uses less space and can reduce the food import bill.
Speaking at the launch, President Fitzroy Ottley said the initiative was focused on strengthening the livelihood of Tobago families, especially members of the credit union.
The project envisages nonchemical, healthy produce for Tobagonians as well as exports to Trinidad and the wider Caribbean in the future.
Ottley said Green Works was particularly relevant for Tobago with the continuing increase in the cost of food on the island.
“Tobago has been challenged in many ways to put food on the table and to rely on it coming from Trinidad. What we are about is to ensure that we reach out, connect and supply the needs of our people,” he said.
Sean Austin of Sean’s Rabbitry & Aquaponics presented the idea to the credit union two years ago as an income boosting project.
Guests marvel at the fish farm at the Green Works Aquaponics facility of the Works Credit Union at its Spring Garden compound at the launch of the Works Credit Union’s Green Works aquaponics facility on Monday night.
“The idea of aquaponics is a stepping stone for diversification…to provide our members with the opportunity to provide food for themselves. The board of Works Credit Union took a decision to build a structure in Tobago, turning it into a thriving aquaponics production area.
“This facility will not only contribute to the economic development and wealth of Works Credit Union, but it will also contribute to the wealth to the members of Works Credit Union,’ said Ottley.
He said the facility will be managed by a team and after a cycle, that team will go into its own project, being replaced by another team drawn from credit union members.
“This will continue until we are at the place where every single member of Works Credit Union who have a piece of land and want to go into agriculture production - that is safe from pesticides, safe from all the ills and chemicals that unknowingly contribute to our death - has had an opportunity to participate in the project.
“Until that time we are now on a mission to encourage our members to eat the right foods,” Ottley said, adding that members can save $350 weekly if they begin to plant their own non-chemical produce.
He said another event will be hosted to celebrate the first harvesting of the produce grown at the facility in the coming weeks - seasonings, lettuce and kale.
“We are going to make contact with all the hotels, guest houses and we expect if you want a safe product, you will visits the credit union on a daily basis and purchase some. It makes no sense that there are members who belong to a credit union who boast of an asset base of in excess of $260 million, and is bountiful and wealthy, but you haven’t figured out how can you personally become wealthy too.
“As the tide turns and the economy turns, we cannot lead if when we look behind, all our members are stumbling. We cannot survive if we continue to lend money to only buy fridge and car. We have to face the challenges, move forwards and make it work,” he said.
EU: Ten-Year Reprieve For Organic Hydroponic Growers
EU: Ten-Year Reprieve For Organic Hydroponic Growers
The European Union has published its new organic regulation, which will enter into force on January 1, 2021. For organic hydroponic growers, the following passage is of interest, which states that operations certified as organic before June 28, 2017, may continue growing on their production surfaces for another ten years following the date of application of the Regulation.
"As organic plant production is based on nourishing the plants primarily through the soil ecosystem, plants should be produced on and in living soil in connection with the subsoil and bedrock. Consequently, hydroponic production should not be allowed, nor growing plants in containers, bags or beds where the roots are not in contact with the living soil.
"However, certain cultivation practices which are not soil-related, such as the production of sprouted seeds or chicory heads and the production of ornamentals and herbs in pots that are sold in pots to the consumers, for which the principle of soil-related crop cultivation is not adapted or for which no risk exists that the consumer is misled regarding the production method, should be allowed. In order to facilitate organic production at an earlier growing stage of plants, growing seedlings or transplants in containers for further transplanting should also be permitted.
"The principle of land-related crop cultivation and the nourishing of plants primarily through the soil ecosystem was established by Regulation (EC) No 834/2007. Some operators have, however, developed an economic activity by growing plants in ‘demarcated beds’ and have been certified as organic under Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 by their national authorities. An agreement has been reached within the ordinary legislative procedure on 28 June 2017 that the organic production should be based on nourishing the plants primarily through the soil ecosystem and be soil-related, and that growing plants in demarcated beds should not be allowed anymore from that date.
In order to give the operators who have developed such economic activity until that date the possibility to adapt, they should be allowed to maintain their production surfaces, if they were certified as organic under Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 before that date by their national authorities, for further 10 years after the date of application of this Regulation. On the basis of the information provided by Member States to the Commission, such activity had only been authorised in the Union before 28 June 2017 in Finland, Sweden, and Denmark. The use of demarcated beds in organic agriculture should be subject to a report of the Commission which is to be published five years after the date of application of this Regulation."
Click here to read the full Regulation.
Publication date: 6/22/2018
COMMENT- Why Hydroponics Could Be The Future of Farming
The word hydroponics comes from hydro meaning water, and ponos meaning labour. It is meant to represent the growing of plants in any medium -- sand, gravel, or liquid, with added nutrients, but without soil.
Jun 25, 2018 | Source: Moneycontrol.com
COMMENT- Why Hydroponics Could Be The Future of Farming
The word hydroponics comes from hydro meaning water, and ponos meaning labour. It is meant to represent the growing of plants in any medium -- sand, gravel, or liquid, with added nutrients, but without soil.
RN Bhaskar
Most people in India have grown up on the idea that good water, good soil and lots of sunlight translate into good farming. That may have been true for most farmers, for a great deal of time. But new research and practice have shown that what healthy plants really require are good seeds, good water, and nutrients. Plants do not really require soil. And plants need not sunlight, but spectrum. The entire process of photosynthesis is possible when the plant separates the sunlight to soak in the spectrum that it requires. Broadly, different types of plants use blue, red or yellow spectrum. Some use white spectrum as well.
What is hydroponics?
The word hydroponics comes from hydro meaning water, and ponos meaning labour. It is meant to represent the growth of plants in any medium -- sand, gravel, or liquid, with added nutrients, but without soil. It is also referred to as vertical farming because this type of farming allows for crops to be grown in layers – in shelves or trays, one layer over another. These layers could be as many as you want – from 2 or 3 or even 20 – one on the top of another. A very good idea of the potential hydroponics can have can be viewed from ‘The rise of vertical farming – a VPRO documentary – 2017’, a 54-minute video of how it is practiced around the world.
What hydroponics does best is eliminating the need for soil, sunlight, and rain. Since almost 90% of pests come from the soil, there is automatically a dramatic reduction in pests. Hence fewer pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides are used. Aerial pests that may sneak in are often caught by the insect traps that are there in any hydroponics farm. The plant uses the water that runs below each tray, and this water is then re-circulated, preventing both evaporation and wastage. Nutrients that the plants need are carried through the water and caress only the roots of the plants -- each range of trays carries the nutrients specific to each type of plant, depending on its age and the special qualities it is meant to have when it is ready to be sold to customers.
The identification of nutrients that plants need has itself become a big booming industry.
Market size
Is hydroponics just a fringe movement, primarily found on the shelves of laboratories, or has it become commercially viable? The truth is that this industry is growing by leaps and bounds. The hydroponics industry has become huge during the past decade.
How big? Well, that is where the problem lies. There are varying estimates.
For instance, a news report put out by Reuters in August 2017, which quotes Statistics MRC, expects the global hydroponics market to grow from $226.45 million in 2016 to reach $724.87 million by 2023. And it is reported to be growing at a furious pace of 18.1% CAGR (compounded average rate of growth).
But another estimate put out by Mordor Intelligence and which is often quoted by many industry experts, paints a picture that is positively glowing. This report puts the global hydroponics market at US$ 21,203.5 million in 2016. The market is expected to register a CAGR of 6.5% during 2018 to 2023. The percentage looks modest, but on a base of $21,203 million, it means that the industry grows by at least US$1.4 billion each year. That is heady growth indeed!
If one takes into account the types of plants grown using hydroponics, you will find products like tomato, cucurbits, lettuce, almost all varieties of leafy vegetables, peppers, and other food crops.
Tomato forms the largest market segment and it is likely to account for 30.4% share of the global market, by the end of this year.
As consumers become increasingly aware of the superior quality in greenhouse-grown vegetables, the demand for hydroponics has been growing in Europe and Asia-Pacific. Hydroponics crop production is expected to continue growing when it comes to tomatoes, lettuce and other leafy vegetables. Experiments with creeper plants has also been quite promising, and it won’t be long before we have large scale cultivation of fruit like grapes and plums using hydroponics.
The scale of operations for hydroponics-focused companies is actually astonishing. For instance, just one company in Holland produces and exports almost 100 million kilos of tomatoes (100,000 tonnes).
But if all types of crop are considered, it is the US which is the hydroponics centre of the world (refer to timeline 20:45 in the video mentioned above). There, one company, Aero Farms, has begun picking up dilapidated and abandoned warehouses and reshaping them into hydroponic farms. As one of its managers puts in, “Today, we can produce more than 130 times what a person can conventionally produce in one acre.” This is done by multiplying the layers of farm shelves in our hydroponic farms, and also increasing output.” Thus, effectively, with a 130 x output, economies and technologies are brought into play making this one of the most incredible industries in the agriculture sector.
And when people tell hydroponics scientists that their way of farming is unnatural, they chuckle. They point out that organized farming is barely a thousand years old. Compared to the millions of years the earth and its natural evolution has been around, it is farming that is unnatural. Hydroponics is only one way to doing what nature does, but in a better and more scientific manner.
As Aero Farms managers point out, once a crop is harvested, it begins to lose its nutritional value and its flavour very rapidly. Hydroponics allows a farmer to grow the crop next to consuming centres. Thus a hydroponics farm on the terrace of a building located in a business district can supply fresh crop to workers as well as to restaurants in this very district. There is less of transportation, hence hardly any transportation or refrigeration costs. Moreover, the crop is both safe and fresh, hygienic and nutritional.
Some of the key players in the world’s hydroponics market include AMCO Produce Inc., American Hydroponics, Inc., Argus Control Systems Ltd., BetterGrow Hydro, Eurofresh Farms, General Hydroponics, Inc., Greentech Agro, Llc, Heliospectra AB, Hydrodynamics International, Inc., Hydrofarm, Inc., HydroWholesale Inc, Koninklijke Philips NV, Logiqs B.V., Lumigrow, Inc., and Village Farms International.
Expect this list to grow longer as Asian companies have now begun to look at hydroponics as the next big market. Already, since South Korea is the hub for LED lights, almost half the leafy vegetables in that country are said to be through the hydroponics route. China has begun to embrace it, because it uses barely 10% of the water plants conventionally use. As the plant grows on shelves, and as the water gets recycled, there is little evaporation, little of water going into the earth, and hence you actually get more crop per drop than even drip irrigation. Even energy costs have tumbled as most hydroponics plants use solar power instead of the more expensive power through the power grids.
Media to nutrients
It is the nutrients market that got one Indian company – HiMedia – to begin looking at the hydroponics market very seriously. HiMedia is a group headquartered in Mumbai but with its main laboratories in Nasik and it is one of the largest players globally in the biological media industry. It produces media required by industries related to pathology, pharmaceuticals and food. HiMedia’s brochure proudly defines itself as one of the top 5 media companies in the world.
What started as a home enterprise by the Warke family, in 1973 gradually grew into a firm dealing with microbiology, animal cell culture and gradually to plant cell culture. The last phase was accidentally triggered by an incident when a consignment of HiMedia was rejected by Australia because that country was not comfortable with India’s quality standards especially when related to animal cell cultures. The Mad Cow disease was a dreaded word, and hence cell cultures from animals were deemed suspicious especially if they originated in countries like India.
So the Warke family began experimenting with plants to source cell cultures from there. The HiMedia management believes that when it comes to plant based culture, their group could be the world’s largest player.
A chance meeting with the legendary Jim Rogers in China in 2006 brought them global attention and an association with VWR Inc, one of the biggest players in this line of business. That brought HiMedia more credibility and today it exports its products to almost all major markets in the world, including EU, USA, Japan and Korea. Today, even though 35% of its product is still sold under the brand names of some of the biggest players in the world, the remaining 65% sells under the HiMedia brand.
Working on plant cultures brought the company close to identifying the molecules that plants need to grow healthily. Today, HiMedia has protocols for over 50 different plants relating to nutrition and growth. That in turn has got the Warke family into hydroponics. Today the management is looking at this business segment a lot more seriously than most people do in India. The Warke family has decided to call this division Higronics.
The case for India
But why should India look at hydroponics?
There could be several reasons why India may have no option but to embrace this method of farming.
The first is that it is economically viable (see chart). The figures are indicative, from just one vendor. But as more vendors start entering this field, prices could drop. What is needed is a sound government policy on the one hand, and active handholding of the farmer on the other.
Second, this is the closest one can get to fresh food, uncontaminated by pesticides and insecticides.
Third, at a time when agriculture itself is being buffeted by climate change including unseasonal rain and hail storms, hydroponics is a way of managing to grow plants under controlled conditions. Thus, you could recreate the atmosphere of say Gangtok in the middle of Maharashtra and actually focus on growing medicinal plants that normally found in the North East parts of India.
You could control all the variables, including the strength of active ingredients which have tended to degenerate and deteriorate over a period of time.
Fourth, it could be the best solution for the Indian government when it comes to land acquisition. The government could offer farmers land for land, and work out ways whereby the hydroponics company would handhold the farmer to teach him how to master the technologies involved. That was the strategy Narendra Modi used when he was chief minister of Gujarat. He allowed micro-irrigation companies to get the subsidy amounts only after another specified government agency certified that they had handheld customer farmers. That way, farmers would be able to stick to farming even if the landholding was very small (you can grow as much as 130 times the conventional amount on any plot of land).
Fifth, with a controlled supply of nutrients and with hardly any pesticides being used, the cost for crop management begins to diminish.
Sixth, since consuming markets are close to producing centres, the transport miles shrink, leading to a further reduction in costs. As farmers learn to strike deals directly with consumers, and as they learn to space out crop production so that a limited supply is available every day, they can move away from rapacious middlemen as well.
And lastly, this is one way to reduce farmer distress. These new technologies have the power to reduce the germination life of plants from around 30 days (the conventional time span for plants) to just around 11 days. Thus the farmer can rotate his crop more often. That allows him to keep pace with changing tastes. A higher crop intensity also helps him to better his earnings. It is also one way to bring farming closer to food processing centres and embrace the cold chain system that agriculture so sorely needs.
There is also one more factor that would endear urban investors to this opportunity. The sale proceeds from the agricultural produce got through hydroponics invites zero taxes. That could add another dimension to urban incomes altogether.
Hopefully, weather vagaries and farmer distress with soon compel the government to sit up and embrace and promote this method of farming.
(The author is consulting editor with Moneycontrol.com)
First Published on Jun 25, 2018
Urban Agriculture Starting To Grow In London, Ontario
Urban Agriculture Starting To Grow In London, Ontario
Urban agriculture, as defined by the city, is “the process of growing, processing, sharing and distributing food within the city.”
June 22, 2018
After about a year of discussing it, London is finally implementing its urban agriculture strategy which, by the looks of it, is flourishing.
Urban agriculture, as defined by the city, is “the process of growing, processing, sharing and distributing food within the city.”
The strategy is intended to guide people who are growing and harvesting food in the city for themselves, for social enterprises such as community kitchens or food banks, and for sale.
Urban Roots is a local volunteer-run not-for-profit urban farm that began its operations last summer on a hectare of land in the city that was a former horse pasture.
At the time, the fledgling enterprise was in farming limbo as it waited for an urban agriculture policy from the city to help guide them.
Urban Roots volunteer Mariam Waliji weeds the zucchini and squash rows at their garden plot located off of Hamilton Road near Highbury Avenue in London. (Mike Hensen/The London Free Press)
Now, one of the Urban Roots founders, Richie Bloomfield, said the city strategy has enabled his group to expand from planting one tenth of a hectare last season to more than 0.4 hectares this spring.
“Truthfully, it doesn’t feel like a lot has changed and that’s a good thing,” Bloomfield said.
City planner Leif Maitland said the city is making sure it is aware of urban agriculture needs and is trying to reduce barriers for those wanting to grow food. To do so, the city has established a steering committee to help implement the strategy, which was written in November.
“It’s about education and connection,” Maitland said.
Urban Roots already has connected with community partners and has made it part of the organization’s mandate to do so, said Bloomfield.
Bloomfield said they have adopted a three-tier model in which one third of what is grown at Urban Roots is sold to local restaurants in the city such as The Root Cellar or Locomotive Espresso. Money raised helps fund the farming operation.
Another third will be sold at cost at the farm gate to community members once a week as well as to social enterprises such as Edgar and Joe’s cafe at Goodwill Industries.
The final third will be donated to places such as the London Food Bank and the Crouch Neighbourhood Resource Centre on Hamilton Road.
“Last year we barely got in the ground and scrambled to do something,” Bloomfield said. “This year is more of a trial (of) … what can we do with this model and see if its sustainable.”
Bloomfield said when it comes to testing soil quality, the farm is still relying on guidelines for Toronto, because the city has not implemented guidelines yet for urban agriculture soil quality.
Maitland said while community gardens have soil quality guidelines, he thinks the way to make sure farms are being placed on the right plot of land is by looking at its environmental history.
“What we’ve looked at is helping people find spaces that don’t have an issue,” Maitland said.
Bloomfield said Urban Roots is “humbled” by the volunteer support they’ve received.
The organization has been able to plant a variety of crops including carrots, beets and lettuce and will be holding a summer solstice launch on Saturday to show off what it has done and what it plans to do with its community partners.
While Bloomfield said the founders of Urban Roots didn’t have green thumbs before, he said they’ve grown into it now.
“We have done a lot of learning ourselves, but that has truly been a community supportive effort,” Bloomfield said. “So many people have the knowledge we don’t and they’ve shared it with us.”
IF YOU GO
What: Urban Roots Summer Solstice Launch Party
Where: 21 Norlan Ave., London
When: 9 a.m. to noon
An Agricultural Revolution
An Agricultural Revolution
JUNE 16TH, 2018 CATHERINE MORRIS0
Ino-Gro Inc. uses high-density vertical farming techniques coupled with automation and remote monitoring software to create a climate-smart food production system.
How GreenTech is transforming the agricultural industry in Saint Lucia and beyond
In the past, successful farmers relied on the land, the weather, their instincts and a little bit of luck. Thanks to a boom in ‘green technology’ there are now a lot more tools at their disposal. The uptake of GreenTech among agricultural pioneers is helping to modernise the industry and streamline farming, as well as aiding the Caribbean in achieving its goal of food security.
CREATIVE TECH
More than US$800m was invested in agricultural technology (‘agtech’) globally between 2012 and 2016, according to research group CB Insights.
“Technology has been the main driver of change in most industries, and agriculture is no different,” says Warren Kellman, Managing Director of Ino-Gro Inc, a hydroponic farm in Barbados. “New technologies are being created every single day around the world and people are coming up with creative solutions [to environmental challenges].”
Ino-Gro Inc is one of those creative solutions. Launched in 2016 by Kellman and a friend, the farm is the first of its kind in Barbados and consists of a 40ft shipping container stacked with walls of leafy greens and operated through a fully automated, online system. Kellman and his team can monitor and control the environment – temperature, humidity, LED lighting – within the container through an app downloaded to their smartphones. Sensors, timers and alerts feed them information in real-time, with all data available via the cloud.
The vertical farming model allows Ino-Gro Inc to practise high-density farming in a relatively small area. Kellman says the container is equivalent to one acre of farmland and produces around 40kg of produce a week, including three different types of lettuce, mint, basil and edible flowers. Demand is high and the produce sells out every week, with hotels, restaurants, chefs and the general public eager to buy local.
Ino-Gro Inc’s success, however, was not guaranteed. There were challenges along the way but Kellman says he was not just motivated by turning a profit. “When we started, we wanted to find a way to make money but also do something good. We import too much. The population of the Caribbean is only going to grow, we need to find more sustainable ways to produce enough food.”
PRECISION FARMING
One of the biggest obstacles for Ino-Gro Inc was the initial expense. “These are high tech systems; the main challenge is the cost associated with them. It is one thing to buy them in the United States, but then you have to get them to the Caribbean,” says Kellman.
Ino-Gro Inc’s computerised container was developed by US firm Freight Farms but Kellman would like to see the Caribbean develop its own agtech industry. He is working as a consultant with Saint Lucia’s TeleCarib Labs, Inc to help develop a model, climate-controlled, indoor farm. “We are working on being the first to create, design and build this type of model farm. We want to find a more affordable solution so we can overcome the challenges of cost and, from there, we can approach other countries who are interested. Our aim is to manufacture in the Caribbean, reduce the cost of these systems and enable a lot more people to grow their own food.”
A prototype for the farm will be established before the end of the year at the TeleCarib Labs’ campus, and will be “data-centred”, according to Kellman who says sensors will collect information that can be analysed to maximise productivity. “It allows for more accurate farming. We can analyse the data and make calculated decisions.”
VIRTUAL HUB
When the TeleCarib Labs farm becomes operational, it aims to sell directly to consumers through a virtual platform created by Tri Farms Ltd, a Saint Lucia company founded by local entrepreneur Garvin Francis.
Tri Farms’ eCrop is the region’s first virtual agricultural hub where producers and buyers can connect online. Producers simply log on, create a profile for their farm and let potential buyers know what they are selling and when it will be available. This direct service allows farmers to pre-sell their goods and gives buyers certainty so they can plan their purchases and minimise supply chain risks.
The system, which went live in January 2017, is used by the Saint Lucia Hotel and Tourism Association to host its Virtual Agricultural Clearing House (VACH) which encourages hotels, restaurants and food and beverage distributors to buy local. Francis says that helping Saint Lucia limit its food import bill was the impetus for Tri Farms Ltd when he first began brainstorming the idea over a decade ago. “Agriculture has been lagging in Saint Lucia and tourism provides an opportunity for local producers,” he says. “It sounds simple on paper but it’s not that easy – the market is so fragmented. There was a disconnect in terms of information; you could have a glut of one item one week and the next you might not find it on the island.”
Francis, who has previously worked in both the tourism and agricultural sectors, teamed up with Melvin Felicien whose background is in IT. Together they developed Tri Farms’ forecasting tool which is primarily aimed at buyers in the tourism industry. “Availability and consistency are very important in the tourism sector. Those buyers needed a tool that could predict what was coming on the market,” says Francis. “There is no reason why the hotels should be importing any produce that can be grown locally.”
There are now around 80 farmers registered with Tri Farms’ eCrop service. The company is looking to acquire more capital so it can scale up operations to make the system more intuitive and offer users an app. Francis says: “As with any tech company, capital is our biggest restriction, but this product has so much potential. There is quite a bit of focus now on building these platforms to create linkages. That is the future of agriculture – the availability of information through the use of technology. I anticipate a huge buzz and some creativity coming out of the Caribbean.”
THE NEXT GENERATION
If the agricultural industry is to reach its potential, however, the next wave of entrepreneurs has to be engaged. “The awareness is there but it’s not where it needs to be, especially when it comes to the younger generation,” says Kellman who wants to see more technology in schools and regularly invites kids to Ino-Gro Inc to show them how the system operates and spark their interest. “They come to our farm so they can get introduced to this new technology and become familiar with the way farming will be in the future. That is part of our mission – to not only grow and supply food, but also to educate people and let them know the importance of food security.”
It’s also the goal of TeleCarib Labs, which aims to launch its Future Farmers Entrepreneurship Programme next year. This initiative will give students the opportunity for hands-on experience at the model indoor farm, as well as skill development workshops and online learning.
“TeleCarib Labs will transform farming by linking innovation with education,” says Kellman. “There is plenty of opportunity in the agricultural industry. I would encourage young entrepreneurs to never settle, never give up and keep up to date with the technology that’s out there, not just in their own country but all over the world.”
To learn more, visit:
African Smallholder Farmers Embrace GPS-Based Digital Solution
Techno Brain
African Smallholder Farmers Embrace GPS-Based Digital Solution
Smallholder farmers are the most vulnerable to impacts of climate change, with rain-fed agriculture accounting for more than 90% of farmed land in sub-Saharan Africa. These farmers face many risks, including drought, disease and pest epidemics. But a new GPS-based digital technology may help many African smallholders improve their crop yields and income.
The new technology solution was initially deployed in India and is now being pushed across the African continent in countries like Malawi and Tanzania. This solution is the fruit of a partnership between Techno Brain (Microsoft) and the National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi (NASFAM) and ETG Farmers Foundation in Tanzania, respectively.
The technology solution will collate data, starting with the farm’s location using Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates, expected rainfall and weather patterns, land type and soil nutrition. The collated data will be processed via intelligent cloud to create insights that help farmers in Africa make better farming decisions.
Farmers will receive tips on their mobile via SMS and voice platforms. These insights will include: best crops to plant, optimal sowing week, pest growth alerts, adverse weather notices, preferred harvesting time, market information and general farming tips. According to cp-africa.com, Microsoft says that the implementation of this solution will also enable development of new agribusiness models and make agriculture a viable livelihood for many farmers across the continent.
Publication date: 6/18/2018
A Farm Just Opened In Front of City Hall For The Summer
JUNE 15, 2018
A Farm Just Opened In Front of City Hall For The Summer
And It's Hosting A Bunch of Free Events
BY EMILY ROLEN
PhillyVoice Staff
PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL CENTER/FOR PHILLY VOICE
The PHS Farm for the City is an interactive farm at City Hall that will offer free workshops and informational panels all summer.
Philly's public parks got some serious additions this week.
Thursday marked the grand opening of the long-awaited Rail Park, and we've got you covered on background and what it looks like. It's open 24/7, so go check it out and tell me what you think.
And today, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society launched "Farm for the City" right smack dab in front of City Hall.
This interactive exhibit an actual working farm is for the public to learn about community gardening through workshops, public forums, and activities that run into late September.
It looks like a major feature of the farm will be programming — free workshops, farmers available to chat, how-to's on gardening and opportunities to support local community gardeners. Some of the programs include information about soil, how to start a garden from the ground-up, how to live a zero-waste lifestyle and how food can be medicine.
Some of the crops in this garden include chard, onion, mustard greens, carrots, fennel, African eggplant and lots of herbs.
The project is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage in an effort to highlight the role community gardeners play in neighborhoods and the impact gardens can have on communities.
The park is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. You can check out a list of workshops and events here.
EMILY ROLEN
PhillyVoice Staff
READ MORE PUBLIC PARKS FARMING PHILADELPHIA CITY HALL PUBLIC HEALTH
Ivy Tech Greenhouse Dedicated
Thursday, June 14, 2018
Ivy Tech Greenhouse Dedicated
Facility reflects ag program boom
ASHLEY SLOBODA | The Journal Gazette
When Ivy Tech Community College Fort Wayne started its agriculture program about five years ago, officials were already pondering options for growing it.
Dreams of a greenhouse – a facility that could bridge the campus' agriculture and culinary programs – soon followed.
On Wednesday, Ivy Tech showed off its new greenhouse during a two-hour dedication event.
“This is really a community project,” said Chancellor Jerrilee Mosier, listing the numerous donors.
At more than 3,000 square feet, the facility cost about $498,000. It opened in January with hydroponics capabilities – growing plants with water and no soil.
“We want to train students on the same equipment they can expect to see with industry leaders today,” Kelli Kreider, agriculture program chair, said in a statement.
The greenhouse teemed with life Wednesday.
Tomatoes, carrots, hot peppers, sweet peas, kale, arugula, orange mint, pineapple sage, endive, spinach and basil were among the plants growing in the bright, roomy space.
At the dedication, Kreider noted she grew up as a soil farmer and credited Rob Eddy, an expert in hydroponics, as the mastermind behind the greenhouse.
The facility replicates a new trend in agriculture – vertical farming, Eddy said. It's a way to grow food locally in metropolitan areas, connecting consumers with fresher food.
Rebecca Marshall – one of the seven original agriculture students – attended the event, telling the crowd she's “very jealous” of the resources now available to students.
This year marked the program's largest graduating class – about 20 students. Enrollment for the fall has already surpassed 80, Kreider said, adding she's excited that enrollment continues to grow.
Agriculture education is important, Mosier said, sharing statistics about jobs available in agriculture.
Nationwide, nearly 58,000 job openings in food and agriculture are expected each year from 2015 to 2020, she said, but there's a shortage of graduates – about 35,000 annually.
Along with educating Ivy Tech students, the agriculture program is also benefiting Easterseals Arc students, who are taking classes this summer, college officials said.
Mosier said Ivy Tech takes the “community” in its name seriously.
“We need to be integrated and really support community efforts,” she said.
Hydroponics Farm In Downtown Shreveport Progressing
Hydroponics Farm In Downtown Shreveport Progressing
- Jun 15, 2018
Michael Billings
TownNews.com Content Exchange
A farm in downtown Shreveport. Not something you would expect to hear about or see.
Well, you probably never will see this particular farm. It's behind an old brick wall in downtown Shreveport.
"We're at 406 Cotton Street. This used to be the old, originally Alltel and then Verizon's networking building. We're in the process right now of removing the old wires and networking equipment and retrofitting it to be an indoor hydroponics farm," said Michael Billings of Cotton Street Farms.
Hydroponics farm (File photo).
For those of you not familiar with hydroponics, Billings explains: "Hydroponics separates/removes the plant from the dirt. We use a medium, with a mixture of water and nutrients. We have computers that monitor everything so we can provide the exact nutrient level for that plant."
"It's kind of a futuristic ... perhaps ... look at growing food. But it's also local food. So it's food grown locally in Shreveport, which is kind of a great thing," said Carl E. Motsenbocker, LSU AgCenter horticulture professor.
Cotton Street Farms plans on producing lettuce, kale, spinach, herbs, micro greens, mushrooms and some hops for local beer makers. Billings says he can produce about a million dollars worth of produce in this space per year.
Construction continues in the interior of Cotton Street Farms.
"We'll be setting up rows, vertical growing rows. It will look something similar to a library. Tall stacks about 8 feet tall with power and water going to all of them," said Billings.
He says the vegetables will cost about the same as what you would expect to pay at Whole Foods, but they will be freshly picked within hours and stay good much longer. Motsenbocker agrees with that assessment based on his experience.
"We have a small hydroponics system at LSU. We harvest with the roots on and it'll stay in your refrigerator for four to six weeks, I mean it lasts a long time," Motsenbocker said.
Ordering and delivery of these vegetables will be quite futuristic as well. Customers will use an app called Waitr. Many of you probably already use it to get Chinese food or pizza delivered. This Caddo Magnet graduate hopes to have his products on your doorstep this fall.
"We're not just growing plants, we're growing Shreveport and we're very excited about it," Billings said.
Equipment that will be used in the hydroponic process at Cotton Street Farms.
Cotton Street Farms made it to the top 5 of the Louisiana Startup Prize presented by EAP -- Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program -- last year. Billings says what he learned through that was invaluable, and he's competing again this year for the top prize.
RELATED STORY: EAP producing results with new startup companies
This article originally ran on ktbs.com.Tags
- Agriculture Cotton Street Farms Hydroponics Michael Billings Lsu Agcenter
- Carl E. Motsenbocker Shreveport Waitr Louisiana Startup Prize
- Entrepreneurial Accelerator Program Farm Economics Food Botany
- Vegetable Cotton
Locations
Italy: 90 Tons of Basil Plants Produced Using Hydroponic Techniques
Italy: 90 Tons of Basil Plants Produced Using Hydroponic Techniques
Il Bettolino is a cooperative producing basil and aromatic herbs employing the Floating System. It sells its produce directly to retailers and owns 10,000 sq m of state-of-the-art greenhouses managed professionally. In 2017, it produced 90 thousand tons of produce.
"We're a cooperative that has decided to focus on high-quality and technology. We are one of the few, if not the only ones, to produce basil in Emilia-Romagna in such a large area. We have both the traditional and organic ranges but, at the moment, organic basil is only sent as potted plants. In 2017, we produced 450,000 pots. Coop Italia recognised the Vivi Verde Bio certification to our basil," explained president Francesca Benelli.
"The cooperative currently employs 27 disadvantaged members as well as 40 people part of a social inclusion programme. Cultivation represents 80% of the turnover generated by all activities. A couple of years ago, we became part of Agribologna."
"We grow excellent-quality produce with state-of-the-art techniques and pay great attention to the environment thanks to cogeneration and integrated control. The energy for the led lighting and heating for the greenhouse are supplied by the public body at a lower price. Our company also holds the ISO 1401 certification for basil cultivation in pots and water tanks and for its packaging."
Basil sowing is carried out automatically on the top part of the plateau so as to also add sterile material. At the end of each cycle, plateaus are sterilised and reused in compliance with out quality and environmental management and Haccp systems.
In addition to selling plants and packaging them in trays, basil is also processed to make pesto and packaged in pots. Around 70% of the production is destined to be sold in ports but, a few years ago, the business has started collaborating with a company from Liguria to make pesto under the "Amici in Campo" brand.
Archive photo
Greenhouses are heated thanks to bio-gas produced by the decomposing of waste from municipal plants. This reduces the consumption of fuel and helps lower environmental impact.
Contacts
Cooperativa sociale il Bettolino sc
Via S. Veneria 90/A
42046 Reggiolo (RE)
Tel.: (+39) 0522 650000
Email: presidenza@ilbettolino.it
Web: www.ilbettolino.it
Publication date: 6/4/2018
An Aquaponic Farm Produces Both Crops And Fish In A Self-Contained System
An Aquaponic Farm Produces Both Crops And Fish In A Self-Contained System.
Ndwewe aquaponic farm continues to thrive
June 9, 2018
example of an aquaponic system created by Durban University of Technology (DUT) students.
The modern-day aquaponic system, which has its roots in South China and Southeast Asia, is rapidly gaining in popularity.
Here on home soil, an aquaponic farm in the rolling hills of Ndwewe, which was established by a group of big-hearted Durban University of Technology (DUT) students back in 2016, continues to thrive.
From subsistence farming in rural areas to large-scale commercial farming in peri-urban areas, as well as vertical and indoor farming by hobbyists to feed neighbors and beautify urban spaces, when it comes to aquaponics, the possibilities are endless.
Situated in the Noodsberg community, the project came about as a partnership between international non-profit organization Enactus and the Ford Motor Company Fund, the philanthropic arm of the global automaker.
Recycled drums and organic compost used to grow tomatoes
Every year, Enactus and Ford call on universities and colleges around South Africa to design innovative, student-led projects that address critical community needs.
Also read: Bold KwaDukuza couple follow their hearts in farming
Guided by academic advisors and business experts, participating Enactus students develop the kind of perspective and skills that are essential to leadership in an ever-challenging world.
“We can have these innovative concepts and ideas, but without sponsorships, they would never be realized,” said Luvo Gugwana, Enactus DUT President, who has led the KZN aquaponic farming project since its inception two years ago.
Aquaponics in a nutshell
Aquaponics is a combination of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (the soil-less growing of plants).
This form of agriculture produces both crops and fish in a self-contained system.
The fish waste provides food for the plants, and the plants filter the water for the fish.
Example of the fish tank used for the aquaponic system
Vegetables grown in aquaponic systems are organic and pesticide free and are said to have better flavor and a longer shelf-life than vegetables grown in hydroponic systems or in the soil.
Once they reach a certain age or size, the fish can be sold unprocessed on the informal market, or gutted and gilled and sold on ice to retailers and restaurants.
"Because of low water usage, effective nutrient cycling, and needing little space to operate, aquaponic farms boast a small environmental footprint."
Gugwana and his team set up three aquaponic systems for Philani Ngcobo, the beneficiary of the project, who always had a passion for agriculture, but was beset with challenges which prevented him from realising an increase in his crop yield.
Although start-up costs for an aquaponic system can be high, the running and maintenance costs are relatively low.
“Each of the aquaponic systems is composed of a fish tank and the growing mediums,” explains Gugwana.
“Each fish tank can accommodate at least 300 fish. And we have two types of growing mediums: the one with clay balls, and the other one with floating rough systems. In the one with the clay balls, we grow heavy plants like cabbages. In the floating rough systems we grow lightweight plants like lettuce.”
“In 2017, we did a recycling drive to collect empty two-liter plastic bottles to construct a second greenhouse.
We also use recycled plastic drums, and PVC pipes for vertical farming.
"We use organic compost where we grow tomatoes. And each drum can accommodate more than 80 crops.”
In honor of World Environment Day on 5 June and Youth Month in June, Ford would like to commend the efforts of the Enactus DUT students on their continued success with this project,” says Dudu Nxele, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Ford Motor Company of Southern Africa.
“We hope to see their wonderful work replicated in other areas, and the continued upliftment of our communities.”
Nourishing Cities With Nature
As rates of urbanization increase globally, city planners are working to reverse decades of reckless growth by returning nature to the built environment. Fortunately, technology and bold thinking can help strike a long-elusive balance.
Nourishing Cities With Nature
Jun 11, 2018, CARLO RATTI
As rates of urbanization increase globally, city planners are working to reverse decades of reckless growth by returning nature to the built environment. Fortunately, technology and bold thinking can help strike a long-elusive balance.
BOSTON – Ever since the ancient Greek poet Theocritus wrote his pastoral idylls romanticizing rural life, people have been pondering how to build cities that are in concert with their natural surroundings. But with rates of urbanization growing exponentially around the world, the need for greener cities has never been more urgent. Fortunately, innovation and technology can help strike this long-elusive balance.
Bridging the urban-rural divide has long been a focus of city planners. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European cities experienced unprecedented growth as huge numbers of people moved from the countryside to newly booming metropolises. As these cities grew, they become overcrowded and polluted, which inspired a new generation of thinkers to search for solutions.
One of these visionaries was Britain’s Ebenezer Howard, who in 1898 coined the term “garden city” – which he defined as residential communities built around a mix of open spaces, parks, factories, and farms. Soon, London was surrounded by leafy suburbs designed to keep high-quality housing and abundant green space in equilibrium. Howard’s mantra was to bring the city to nature.
A few decades later, on the other side of the Atlantic, Frank Lloyd Wright conjured up Broadacre City, an imagined suburban development balancing the built environment with the wild. And back in Europe, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, an architect, and designer known as Le Corbusier, was sketching visions of utopian cities that seamlessly enveloped the natural world.
And yet, while each one of these ideas was revolutionary for its time, they failed because they relied heavily on the automobile and promoted urban sprawl. In fact, most early urbanization in the West was characterized by development patterns that crashed against nature, connected not by green spaces and parks, but rather by endless ribbons of impervious pavement. As planners recognized the shortcomings of twentieth-century remedies, they sought to reverse the equation: how can nature be returned to the city?
New York City’s High Line, an aerial greenway built from a converted rail bed that opened in June 2009, was one of the first projects to capture this new ambition in urban planning. From London’s (now defunct) Garden Bridge to Seoul’s Skygarden, projects are being designed to better incorporate nature into the urban fabric.
Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay is among the more ambitious efforts. At the park’s Supertree Grove, photovoltaic cells harvest energy from the sun, and rainwater is stored in the steel trees’ “canopy” to feed vertical towers of foliage. Dehumidified air is even collected to help cool adjacent buildings.
Meanwhile, in Germany, a startup called Green City Solutions is building mobile moss-covered walls to clean polluted air and help lower urban temperatures. The company’s CityTree concept – essentially a natural filtration system – is being tested from Mexico City to Milan.
We are even witnessing a boom in urban agriculture, as advances in hydroponic and aeroponic farming techniques make it easier to grow vegetables in confined spaces. While cities will never replace rural areas as the world’s main source of nutrition, a higher percentage of food can be cultivated in urban areas. New ventures like Freight Farms in Boston and InFarm in Berlin are already harnessing these technologies to bring urban farming to more people.
As innovative solutions like these take root, urban planners are turning their attention to even bolder endeavors. One concept that my colleagues and I have explored is custom-designed urban ecosystems and climates. In Milan, we recently unveiled our Living Nature exhibit, a 500-square-meter (5,381-square-foot) pavilion that can recreate four seasons simultaneously under the same roof. The goal of the project was to spark conversation about sustainable design and to illustrate the surprising ways that nature will be integrated into the cities and homes of the future.
More than a century ago, the French geographer Élisée Reclus astutely predicted that people would always need “the dual possibility of gaining access to the delights of the city …and, at the same time, the freedom that is nourished by nature.” Reclus’s ideal was visionary, if premature. But today, thanks to new technologies and bold thinking, the urban-rural divide in city planning is slowly closing.
CARLO RATTI
Writing for PS since 2014
Carlo Ratti is Director of the Senseable City Lab at MIT and founder of the design firm Carlo Ratti Associati. He co-chairs the World Economic Form Global Future Council on Cities.
Pure Flavor® Growing Momentum with New Products, Awards, and Expansion
Pure Flavor® Growing Momentum with New Products, Awards, and Expansion
Leamington, ON (June 21st, 2018) – Greenhouse vegetable production is in full swing in every region of North America which is meeting surging consumer demand heading into the heart of summer. Pure Flavor®’s family of growers are producing more than ever before fueling the company’s momentum in the marketplace. This, in turn, is setting up opportunities to connect with retail & foodservice partners at the United Fresh Trade Show & Convention in Chicago, June 26-27.
“We have a very positive momentum in the marketplace and gaining more steam season over season. Coupled with our brand refresh, increased acreage & product offering, expansion to Georgia, and now receiving Greenhouse Awards for Best Overall Cucumber, Best Cocktail Cucumber, and Best Beefsteak Tomato Grower, it’s been a busy year for us and we are only in June!”, said Jamie Moracci, President.
As a vertically integrated grower/marketer, Pure Flavor®’s year-round programs are supported by a family of growers across many regions to ensure consistency in supply.
With increased acreage and demand for more products, Pure Flavor® will be launching 2 new items at the United Fresh Trade Show & Convention; a Fresh Salsa Kit & a Fresh Guacamole Kit. This in addition to rolling out new top seal packaging for its complete line of snacking tomatoes. Pure Flavor® will be showcasing these items, including their very popular and kid-friendly Mini Munchie Snack Sized Veggie Program in the Featured Product Showcases at the trade show.
“The Fresh Salsa Kit & Fresh Guacamole Kit were created in formats that are convenient for both retail & club stores, the kits touch on everything fresh for the DIY enthusiast”, stated Matt Mastronardi, Executive Vice-President. “Consumers want to spend more quality family time together creating flavorful meals. Fresh focused meal solutions like the Salsa & Guacamoles Kits are fast, easy, and fun! The beauty of these kits is that you can customize them as you see fit to add in your own flavors”, said Mastronardi. (Link: http://www.pure-flavor.com/FreshKits2018 )
“Our Georgia greenhouse project is moving along swiftly with the first phase of 25 acres scheduled to be completed late this summer”, said Moracci. The company announced in late 2017 that the expansion to Fort Valley, GA would be a 3-phased approach with a total of 75 acres of high tech greenhouses being built over a 5-year period. “By growing year-round in the southeast, it will allow us to reduce food miles to our customers while consumers get to enjoy fresher product on the shelves”, add Moracci.
To learn more about Pure Flavor®, visit Booth 819 at the United Fresh Trade Show & Convention in Chicago June 26-27 or visit Pure-Flavor.com.
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About Pure Flavor® -
Pure Flavor® is a family of greenhouse vegetable growers who share a commitment to bringing A Life of Pure Flavor™ to communities everywhere. Our passion for sustainable greenhouse growing, strong support for our retail & foodservice customers, and focus on engaging consumers is built on a foundation drawn from generations of growing expertise.
How To Become An Urban Farmer
Monica Rose / Photo by Elizabeth Lavin
How To Become An Urban Farmer
Plus, find out which Dallas neighborhoods will let you keep chickens.
BY D HOME PUBLISHED IN D HOME 100 IDEAS FOR LIVING A BEAUTIFUL LIFE IN DALLAS 2018
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JILL BROUSSARD AND ELIZABETH LAVIN
Monica Rose tends to her thoughtfully planted culinary gardens as a painter would contemplate every stroke—she nourishes, pinches, gathers produce, replants. At 28, she is quietly pioneering a farm-to-table movement from the backyards of many Dallas homeowners. In 2014, she launched Edible Landscapes Dallasafter repeated requests to cultivate personal, “menu-specific” gardens. She now has the incredible challenge of designing, installing, and maintaining nearly 100 bespoke gardens for homeowners in Highland Park, Addison, Plano, Arlington, and Dallas and also offers landscape, floral, and interior plant design services.
Chickens101
Dannye Butler’s Dallas backyard is home to an impressive coop with eight chickens. For others interested in keeping an at-home coop, she recommends feeding them chicken scratch and feed, as well as oyster shells, grits, fresh fruit, and fresh vegetables. (Watermelon, blueberries, corn on the cob, wheatgrass, and sprouts are just a few favorites.) But what type should you keep? Fellow enthusiast Marin Fiske recommends chickens that can handle the heat, like Red Stars, Easter Eggers, and Leghorns. In the summer, give them “chicken-aid” (an electrolyte mix similar to Gatorade). In the winter, warm oatmeal will do. Don’t forget the dust baths.
Bees101
Local beekeeper Miriana Andreeva researched through blogs, Facebook pages, and local educational classes before getting bees. She keeps stevia, salvia, peonies, roses, herbs, and holly in her backyard for them to feed on. “There’s a plethora of options for them to forage freely,” she says. If you plan to follow suit, open the hive every eight weeks to check on the bees, but monitor weather conditions, humidity, blooming plants, and “traffic patterns” daily. But the biggest part of beekeeping is education. Join a group and take classes at the Trinity Valley Beekeepers Association or the Texas Honeybee Guild. “BeeGirl” Christi Baughman teaches classes in Seagoville, as does Round Rock Honey in Rowlett.
Decoding: Can you keep chickens in your neighborhood?
Highland Park
If you live in HP, best to keep your creatures elsewhere—no bees or chickens allowed.
Dallas
Within Dallas city limits, you can keep pigs, chickens, turkeys, cows, sheep, goats, and horses at your residence. See city code for exact regulations on amount of space required.
University Park
Like its neighbor, bees and chickens aren’t allowed within UP city limits.
UA Magazine no. 34 – Measuring Impact
UA Magazine no. 34 – Measuring Impact
Linked by Michael Levenston
Assessment of the urban or city region food system is an important basis for improved and evidence-based policy-making and planning for more sustainable and resilient food systems.
RUAF
May 2018
In the past year, we have seen the development of various assessment and indicator frameworks to help cities to map the current status and performance of their city region food system. With this magazine, we like to explore how such assessment frameworks have concretely supported planning and policy, and have enabled cities to measure and monitor changes in relation to food strategies and action plans.
Opinion UA Magazine
Editorial UA Magazine
Assessing City Region Food Systems
City Region Food System Assessment and Planning
The NADHALI Approach for Assessing and Planning City-driven Food Systems: When rapidity meets complex realities
Involving Citizen Experts in Sustainability Assessment of the City Region Food System
Improving Urban Nutrition in Africa and Asia Through Policy Change
Assessing Food System Resilience
Building Resilient Food Systems for Urban Food Security. Examples from Baltimore City, Maryland
Assessing the Capacity and Resilience of Melbourne’s Foodbowl: The Foodprint Melbourne project
Assessing the Impact of Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events on the Food System in the City of Toronto
The Inclusion of Food in Quito’s Resilience Strategy
Vulnerability and Resilience of the Colombo Urban Food System to Extreme Weather
Resilience of Urban Food Supply in West Africa
Food System Data and Indicators
A City Region Food System Indicator Framework – A new resource for cities
New York City Food Indicators: Sharing lessons for the next decade
Good Scholarship on Urban Agriculture and Food Systems
Measuring Progress in Sustainable Food Cities: A Toolbox for Action
How Ede Municipality Developed a Tool to Monitor Improvement of the Local Food System
Communicating Goals and Impacts of Urban Food Sharing
Measuring Urban Agriculture for Sound Policy in a North American City
Resources UA Magazine 34
Backpage
Read the complete magazine here.
NYCHA Residents Cultivate Urban Farms
NYCHA Residents Cultivate Urban Farms
By: ANTWAN LEWIS
- MAY 23 2018
NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Farms in New York City are pretty common. But when the farm is in the middle of an NYCHA housing complex, now that is uncommon. The urban farm at the Howard Houses in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn is one of six citywide that are part of an NYCHA program called Building Healthy Communities.
Its primary goal is to help underserved communities get better access to healthy organic foods and learn more about the impact it has on healthier eating habits. Manning the farms are NYCHA residents who are trained by agriculture experts.
"We have actual farmers in-house that are training them, but we have our local organizations that are managing our farms with to train them in the field," program director Jennifer Tirado said.
"I never knew that people that grew up in this type of environment would ever think about growing in our area and the way we live," trainee Shanique Green. "It's different"
Whether it is beets or collards or parsley, the housing residents determine what crops are planted in their complex. And once the fruits and vegetables are grown, the tenants can come and get some just like any farmers market. It costs them just scraps—literally.
"So imagine a banana peel, an orange peel," Tirado said. "They provide us with organic food scraps, and it doesn't have to be organic, just scraps period, and we give them produce."
NYCHA's urban farms operate for 10 months beginning each May. And at the end of that cycle, the other trainees transition from core members into the workforce, as the program helps them find jobs in a horticulture-related field where they proudly show off their green thumbs.
"So it's nice to learn about carrots and how they're a root crop so you can't take them out, once you take them out the ground that's it, you cannot grow them anymore," trainee Lisa Kelly said. "You have to wait until they're in season again. So that's something that I like, yes."