Two Ranchi Women Turn Rooftops Into Organic Farm

Two Ranchi Women Turn Rooftops Into Organic Farm

TNN | Mar 11, 2017, 06.00 AM IST

Ranchi: Fifty-year-old Shobha Kumari doesn't need to visit the market to buy vegetables anymore. All she does is climb up to her terrace and pick some.

Krishna Singh's (49) friends go green with envy every time they see her terrace while her own heart swells with pride.

Green love is blooming on the rooftops of these two residents of Ranchi, who have taken out time from their daily life to grow lush, fresh and pesticide-free vegetables, fruits and flowers on the rooftops of their houses.

The urban terrace gardens not only cut a pretty picture but does its bit in conserving nature and supplying healthy produce that goes into the dishes prepared in these two homes.

Both Shobha, a resident of Nivaranpur near Main Road Overbridge, and Krishna (49), who lives in Friends Colony in Pandra, use vermi-compost and cow dung as manure to grow vegetables, fruits and flowers in pots, drums and cement sacs.

Every day, they devote two hours to nurturing the plants with much love and care, the job acting as the perfect stress-buster for them. And as they watch the saplings grow, all tall, lush and beautiful, their joy knows no bound.

"A few days ago, I had grown 2.5kg beans. This apart, my terrace has tomatoes, chillies, brinjals, coriander leaves and other vegetables. I also grow oranges, guavas, litchis, pomegranates and strawberries, besides roses and marigold. I have altogether 250 pots," said a very proud Shobha, whose rooftop garden sprawls across 2,500sqft.

The widow with a green thumb consciously chose to grow her own veggies in 2012 after realising that vegetables available in the market were not only expensive but also harmful because of use of pesticides.

"We cannot ignore the health hazards just like this. Nothing can beat the feeling of seeing my family members relishing my labour of love when they eat dishes prepared with the vegetables I have grown. It's really amazing to nurture these plants. In return, I get satisfaction," Shobha said.

Krishna's rooftop garden spreads across 5,000sqft, which she had reared with equal love and dedication for the past eight years.

"Earlier I used to grow flowers like roses, sunflowers and petunia in small pots. Then, I developed a passion for growing veggies in cement sacs. For manure I stick to cow dung, karanj and neem twigs to protect the plants from insects. I felt elated after preparing vegetables picked from my own garden. Thereafter, there was no looking back," she said.

This 49-year-old is a proud owner of 300 pots, bearing tomatoes, coriander, brinjal, methi, green chillies and radish. "My three children are based outside now, but I click photographs of my rooftop garden and send them. I am excited about preparing vegetable dishes for them when they will come in December. The vegetables are grown without use of pesticides, they are very natural and healthy," the homemaker, whose husband works in AIR, Ranchi, said.

Every day, she uses some vegetables like tomatoes in cooking. "I had grown 10kg tomatoes, one kg coriander leaves and 10kg green onions, which I distributed among my friends," she added, proudly.

Krishna starts growing the vegetables from October every year. "These are winter veggies, which will continue to blossom till March. This is the perfect time for gardening," she signed off.

Livewell Northwest Colorado: Bring Growing Back Home

Livewell Northwest Colorado: Bring Growing Back Home

Andy Kennedy/For Steamboat Today

Saturday, March 11, 2017

In a TEDx Mile High Talk, former three-time Olympian and health expert Jeff Olson described the call of duty during World War II, when Americans bonded together to grow more than 40 percent of the country’s fruits and vegetables in victory gardens. The premise was that larger agriculture ventures could go toward feeding our troops overseas.

But, when the war was over, the gardens withered, and during the next two decades, when the American family working-dynamic began to shift, there was another more toward agricultural imperialism. This imperialism birthed a larger global agriculture, as the U.S. government emphasized to its small farmers to “get big or get out,” for high-production and low-margin growing.

Olson warned that modern “industrialized food is a tragedy of human health, an irony of ecology and a paradox of economics.”

Olson elaborated that the solution to this terrible trifecta is the future of “closed-environment agriculture,” or greenhouses with a vertical twist.

Pioneered by the Dutch and now adopted by most industrialized nations — including 2.8 million acres of greenhouses in China — greenhouse growing is, indeed, feeding the world, and sadly, the U.S. is dead last in this effort. We used to be a net exporter of fruits and vegetables, and we are now a net importer of produce.

While greenhouses can be a viable solution, a better solution could be indoor vertical growing — a marriage of Jetson-like food technology with design wizardry of Steve Jobs.

We stand at the convergence of humanities and technology, and vertical aeroponics serves as nature with aerodynamic design. Imagine 43,000 square feet — about an acre — of your favorite greens. Vertical aeroponics can do it in 4,000 square feet. That’s 90 percent less space, with 90 percent less water, giving three times the nutrient density in the plant. Used by NASA and studied by universities around the world, vertical growing has proven efficient time and again.

I recently traveled to Florida to see the start of this revolution at Living Towers Farm, just north of Orlando. For more than six years, Jan Young’s organization has been growing “beyond organic” food for those in need, teaching the techniques of vertical growing to students and in-home gardeners and selling quality food that “doesn’t have to cost the Earth or have a negative impact on it.”

Even though Florida has the weather for outdoor gardening, it does not have the soil for it. Growing vertically yields more and healthier plants. Young’s eggplants, for instance, yield 8 to 10 fruits on a regular basis — about 30 percent more yield than traditional gardening.

Seeing the vision of Living Towers in person and pondering the economics of vertical growing spins my imagination to what this could mean for a local economy. For example, an acre of commodity corn earns a farmer $1,200; an acre of traditionally grown, organic food earns $12,000; and an acre of vertical aeroponics earns a quarter of a million dollars in revenue for one harvest, according to Olson.

Bringing the concept of Victory Gardens full circle, Olson has teamed up with an organization called Veterans to Farmers, which turns protectors into providers with an urban agricultural training program, creating “agropreneurs.” One of the program’s graduates launched the first vertical growing farm on the Front Range that sold out within a year of production, selling produce to fine dining restaurants on the Front Range.

“People are hungry for beautiful food,” Olson said.

Despite being known as an agricultural state, 97 percent of Colorado’s leafy greens are imported from thousands of miles away. With only a 25 percent increase in Colorado-grown food shift, we’d see 31,000 new jobs, generating more than $1 billion in new wages.

In my own home, we have two commercialized, state-of-the-art vertical growing systems, as do many other friends and peers in town — the Tower Garden has been around six years and is fairly well-known by now as an in-home solution to one of the shortest growing seasons on the planet.

However, it’s the larger installations that now inspire me. The vertical farms popping up around the country are something I would like to emulate. For several years, I have been inspired by the O’Hare Airport installation — more than 100 vertical towers in terminal D that outgrew their mission to feed the restaurants so quickly, they now offer a farmers market for travelers, as well.

I have brought this inspiration to several local nonprofits to start working on a project I hope will soon be growing local food on a larger scale, both for families in need and for those who want fresh produce. For more information, contact Andy Kennedy at andyjkennedy@gmail.com. 

To view Jeff Olson’s full TEDx Talk, visit youtube/ttvIeugcigk.

Andy Kennedy a member of the Northwest Colorado Food Coalition

A Staten Island Urban Farmer - A 26-Year-Old Farmer Grows 50 Types of Produce In The Courtyard Of A New Rental Complex

A Staten Island Urban Farmer

A 26-Year-Old Farmer Grows 50 Types of Produce In The Courtyard Of A New Rental Complex

By KENNETH R. ROSEN 

MARCH 10, 2017

Zaro Bates operates and lives on a 5,000-square-foot farm on Staten Island, which may make her the city’s only commercial farmer-in-residence. But instead of a shingled farmhouse surrounded by acres of fields, Ms. Bates lives in a second-floor studio in a midrise apartment complex built on the site of a former naval base overlooking New York Bay.

The farm itself sits in a courtyard between two buildings at Urby, a development with 571 rental apartments that opened in Stapleton last year. Ms. Bates draws a modest salary and gets free housing, which sounds like a good deal until you discover how much work she has to put in.

The 26-year-old oversees a weekly farmstand on the complex premises from May through November and donates to food banks. In her repertory? Some 50 types of produce — greens, summer vegetables, flowers, herbs and roots. She does this with help from her business partner and husband, Asher Landes, 29.

Let the doubters doubt.

“A lot of people instinctively call it a garden, but we really try to manage it for a commercial market,” Ms. Bates said. “It’s funny that people have different kinds of notions of what a farm is. Some people think it needs to have animals, that it needs to have acreage. We intensively crop this space so that we can produce for market, and that’s why we call it a farm.”

Farming, of course, is a New York tradition. In the late 1800s, loam and livestock were predominant north of Central Park and in what is now the East 50s. In “Win-Win Ecology,” Michael L. Rosenzweig argues that ecological science has rooted itself in the common ground of development and conservation: the use of rich natural resources in places where we work and live.

Farms like Ms. Bates’s, in addition to more traditional farmland, have been around for quite some time. Thomas Whitlow, an associate professor of horticulture who specializes in urban plants at Cornell University, Ms. Bates’s alma mater, said that in the 1940s some 40 percent of fresh market produce in New York was grown in victory gardens.

“Certainly, urban populations in general are very adaptable as conditions change,” Dr. Whitlow said. “They can change within the space of a year. Just a hundred years ago we were almost a hunter-gatherer society and did indeed have farming in major metropolitan areas.”

Ms. Bates had hardly seen farmland as a child. Her parents, who moved to Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, in the early 1990s, rarely took the family upstate. They had the backyard of their home, but no green thumbs between them. The yard was a play space.

After graduating from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell, where she studied developmental sociology, Ms. Bates volunteered as a groundskeeper at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Mass.

“That was the first time that I drove a tractor, did wood chipping, shoveled heaps of snow in the Berkshires winter, then planted in the springtime and just worked outside with a team of people through the seasons,” she said. “That was my first experience with that type of work and really falling in love with that.”

Afterward she intended to travel, maybe visit South America. Her plans were postponed by an apprenticeship at Brooklyn Grange, a rooftop and urban farming consultancy group, where Ms. Bates farmed under the tutelage of the chief operating officer, Gwen Schantz.

“We love designing and installing green spaces for clients, but it’s equally exciting to see others taking this work up, especially young, savvy farmers like Zaro,” Ms. Schantz said.

The group played an advisory role in two fundamental aspects of Ms. Bates’s life. First by helping her start her own consultancy, Empress Green, and by providing the pretenses under which she met Mr. Landes. The two now live at Urby and work on the farm during the spring, summer and autumn growing seasons, traveling abroad in the winter.

The couple had consulted for Ironstate Development, the developer of Urby, ahead of the farm project, and are now consulting with it on a future residential farm project in New Jersey. While Ms. Bates is the affable and gregarious face of Empress Green, Mr. Landes caters to the bees in 20 colorful hand-painted hives on the roofs at the Stapleton development. By his estimate, there are nearly two million bees, and each hive produces 50 to 80 pounds of honey a season.

“In the spring this will be brimming with hemlock and filled with flowers and all the trees will be filled with flowers,” Mr. Landes said of the farm. The bees will “be able to fly about nine miles to find good food. You stand up here and it’s just like a highway. It’s amazing.”

The honey, herbs and produce from the farm are sold at a stand for the community.

“What we did was similar to other farmers’ markets in the city,” Ms. Bates said. “But because it was enclosed in a space that invites hanging out for a while, we really invited people to make it more of a Saturday afternoon activity. That was not just for Urby residents, but also anyone from the general public.”

Ms. Bates and Mr. Landes try to plant according to requests from local residents. The proceeds go to the couple’s company, supplementing the annual salary they each receive from Urby. (Urby and Ms. Bates declined to disclose the amount.) They also host workshops and a book club.

“The priority is to residents,” Ms. Bates said, “but also to build community.”

She has considered offering a community-supported agricultural association in which residents enroll to receive a regular supply of produce, but that would limit her client base. Her current all-are-welcome approach has Ms. Bates seeking other methods of distribution because, while there is a steady growth in demand, she produces more than she can sell even while supporting Urby’s communal kitchen, where Urby’s chef-in-residence hosts classes for tenants. Ideas include a subscription-based meal delivery service.

Even so, she is focused on expansion. Urby is developing another farm plot in the same complex, where now there is just a slab of concrete. Ms. Bates also hopes to offer more educational opportunities as the farm’s output increases.

Residents “want to contribute in some way, or they just feel like their kids should know what a tomato looks like growing in the ground,” she said. “A lot of New Yorkers don’t grow up seeing that.”

A version of this article appears in print on March 12, 2017, on Page RE1 of the New York edition with the headline: The Farm in the Courtyard. 

Zaro Bates and her husband, Asher Landes, farm land between two apartment buildings in Stapleton, Staten Island. They live at the complex, too. 

Credit: Emon Hassan for The New York Times

The farm, seen from a rooftop.

Credit: Emon Hassan for The New York Times

The sunflowers of last July. 

Credit: Emon Hassan for The New York Times

Are Indoor Farms The Next Step In The Evolution of Agriculture?

Are Indoor Farms The Next Step In The Evolution of Agriculture?

BY J.J. O'DONOGHUE

SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES

MAR 10, 2017

You’ve probably heard of farm-to-table, or even farm-to-fork, agricultural movements that emphasize the connection between producers and consumers. But what about factory farm-to-table?

Spread, a giant factory farm that grows lettuce in Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture, is just one of more than 200 “plant factories” in Japan capable of harvesting 20,000 heads of lettuce every day. Their lettuce, which includes frilly and pleated varieties, is grown in a totally sterile environment: There’s no soil or sunlight, no wind nor rain.

The rich, dark-brown soil in which produce has traditionally been grown is utterly alien inside the factory. Instead, the lettuce is grown hydroponically, in a nutrient-rich gelatinous substance. The vegetables grow in vertically stacked trays under LED lights timed to come on during the day and switch off at night.

The lettuce Spread grows in Kameoka — which takes about 40 days from planting to harvest — is packed into bags and shipped to over 2,000 supermarkets across the country. The product also makes it into airline meals, although the company wouldn’t reveal which ones.

At a time when Asian countries are scrambling to deal with the surges and declines in population as well as the effects of climate change, factory farming is a burgeoning business. In Japan, for example, the number of farmers has dropped from a high of over 7 million in the 1970s to under 2 million, and today the average age of Japanese farmers is 67.

Spread, however, is about as far from the pastoral image of a vegetable farm you can imagine. While the facility, and even the concept, sounds futuristic, Spread has been growing lettuce in these conditions since 2006 at its Kameoka base.

This year, it will open another plant factory at Kansai Science City, on the borders of Kyoto, Nara and Osaka prefectures. Between the two factories the company will be able to produce 50,000 heads of lettuce each day.

What makes the new facility different is the level of automation: tasks such as raising seedlings, replanting and harvesting will be done by machines and guided by artificial intelligence, a move that will cut labor costs by 50 percent and boost profitability. In 2016, Spread was awarded a gold medal at the Edison Awards in recognition of its role in agricultural innovation.

On a recent tour of Spread’s facility in Kameoka participants viewed the lettuce through an observation window, while factory manager Naohiro Oiwa communicated via telephone with a worker dressed head to toe in white protective clothing. “When our products first appeared in supermarkets, plant factory-grown vegetables weren’t yet recognized by many people. Our sales staff had a very hard time selling them to retail stores,” Oiwa said.

People wanted to know if vegetables grown without sunlight are safe to eat, he added. Spread has since assuaged some of those anxieties by emphasizing the safety of its growing environment and the quality of its crops.

It also helps that Spread can compete on cost: a bag of its lettuce sells for ¥198, a price the firm can maintain. Field-grown lettuce, by contrast, is subject to the vagaries of the weather, and therefore to fluctuations in price.

So-called vertical farms, such as Spread’s facility in Kameoka, are also able to use water in an extremely efficient way. The company would not disclose, however, how much it spends on something that is essentially free to conventional farmers, sunlight, or, in Spread’s case, LED lighting.

Spread spokeswoman Minako Ando said that the firm’s operations received a boost in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture following the Great East Japan Earthquake, which struck six years ago today. Amid widespread fears that traditionally grown produce could contain radioactive fallout, factory farming, which is mostly done indoors, suddenly looked like a safer option.

It’s important to remember that, while Spread is at the vanguard of technological developments in farming, the history of agriculture has always been characterized by innovation in its tools.

Spread doesn’t see its role as replacing farmers; it seeks to complement and support the agricultural industry as a whole, Oiwa said.

Along the way to profitability — Spread started operating in the black in 2013 — it has developed several patents and is now in talks with partners around the world to set up similar ventures.

With the know-how it has gathered from growing lettuce, Oiwa said, Spread could start mass-producing other vegetables, such as tomatoes, in giant plant factories in the years to come.

Michael Blodgett, an organic kale farmer in Wazuka, a picturesque tea-producing town in southern Kyoto Prefecture, echoes the notion that, when it comes to farming, innovation is nothing new. “From that viewpoint, new and sustainable techniques for growing healthy vegetables are certainly welcome,” Blodgett said.

He noted, however, that the type of farming he and his neighbors practice engenders a sense of community. Advice is solicited from older farmers, and at harvest time neighbors share what they bring in from the fields.

“There is something special about planting seeds in the ground, taking care of the plants by weeding, watering, and love,” Blodgett added.

In the near future it will increasingly be the charge of robots and AI systems to plant, weed, water and harvest the food that ends up on our table. Where exactly that leaves the farmers, or the land itself, remains to be seen.

Food factory: At Spread's facility in Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture, lettuce is grown hydroponically using timed doses of LED light. | J.J. O'DONOGHUE

Why Large-Scale Indoor Farms Will Be Crucial to Feed Our Fast Growing Cities

Why Large-Scale Indoor Farms Will Be Crucial to Feed Our Fast Growing Cities

 SEB EGERTON-READ · MARCH 9, 2017

Technological innovations are enabling a new way of producing food transforming indoor environments into places where fruits and vegetables can be grown without soil, close to the city, with an extremely short supply chain, fully independent of weather fluctuations, while reducing demand on water and chemicals. One of the pioneers of the approach, New Jersey based Bowery, describe it as ‘post-organic’ farming, and momentum is growing behind the idea that a sizeable percentage of some of the fruits and vegetables of the future could be grown using this technique.

On the current path, the world population’s caloric demand will increase by 70%, while crop demand for human consumption and animal feed is expectedl rise by 100%. Meeting these needs with existing agricultural practices will require large areas of additional land, and will increase pressure on the earth’s soil, which has gradually been degraded losing a significant percentage of its nutritional capacity over the last 100-150 years. Meanwhile, the effects of climate change, realised through extreme weather patterns, threaten to negatively impact crop yields and disrupt food supply chains.

Urban agriculture in the form of aquaponics, where fish farming is combined with the growth of vegetables and a self-maintaining system is established has a long history, but the data monitoring and ability to control internal conditions provided by new technologies has enabled the further evolution of hydroponics.

Hydroponic farming involves growing produce in multi-storey warehouses without soil. Seeds are planted in a soil substitute and grown in nutrient-rich water, where water is recirculated, and temperature, salinity and humidity are monitored and controlled to maximise the yield. The method has a number of economic, environmental and social advantages. Here’s a pretty good initial list taken from SystemIQ’s Achieving Growth Within report:

• 90-95% reduction in water demand
• Fertilizer use reduced by 70%
• Use of herbicides and pesticides eliminated
• Food waste at the production stage minimized
• Growing space maximized
• Ability to grow throughout the year
• Shorter supply chain results in lower transport costs and related emissions

Reportedly 100+ times more productive on its land compared against traditional farming, Bowery is one of the most advanced movers in the sector. They’re far from alone, Japan’s Spread declared their initial plant profitable in 2013 and now have plans to open an automated plant that could increase their yield to 51,000 lettuce heads per day, and we’ve previously told the story of AeroFarms, another New Jersey based firm.

It’s also a highly efficient technique in terms of resource use. For example, only 5% of the fertilizer used on large fields is actually consumed by people, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Growth Withinresearch, the rest of the nutritional value is waste across the value chain.  

The new model doesn’t come without criticisms. Growing without soil means that there is little opportunity for regeneration or the development of an ecosystem that ‘feeds itself’, rather the method allows for the development of a large number of linear and separate processes in an ultra-efficient way.

Furthermore, there will always be concerns about the nature of the chemicals needed to grow plants in these conditions, and the types of seeds used. For their part, Bowery take pride in sourcing, “from partners who spend nearly a decade developing the ideal seed, rather than relying on GMOs”. When Circulate asked him about some of the potential trepidations, CEO Irving Fain was quick to highlight that the story of indoor farming is a healthy one, both for crops and people:

“Bowery grows its produce under LED lights that mimic the spectrum of the sun. By monitoring the growing process 24/7 and capturing data at each step, we give our crops exactly what they need and nothing more. Because we control the entire growing process from seed to store, our produce is the purest available – food you can truly feel good about eating”.

For Irving, who is already planning Bowery’s second farm, scale is the next challenge, “we plan to continue to build additional farms, keeping them all close to the point of consumption to deliver products at the height of freshness and flavor, and we hope to serve more cities throughout the country”.

Up front investment costs are a potential barrier, but there’s also an increasingly strong business case associated with indoor farming. Besides the growing number of innovators establishing businesses, SystemIQ’s research estimated that €45 billion of total investment between now and 2025 could create an economic reward across Europe of €50 billion by 2030 with key benefits including the freeing up of land space and reduced reliance upon fertilisers and pesticides.

Pair the potential economic opportunity with the demands expected by a fast-growing global population, and it’s easy to imagine a future where at least part of the food supplied to the world’s largest cities comes from indoor farms located inside the city limits.

Urban Vertical Farming Helps, Inspires, Grows The Green Wave

Urban Vertical Farming Helps, Inspires, Grows The Green Wave

By Eliza Grace | Thursday, March 9

Last week, I went to catch up with an old friend who graduated from Duke last spring. Dr. Spencer Ware, a major in Environmental Science, found his new job by researching urban gardens in the greater Raleigh/Durham area. He stumbled across a small but productive operation called Sweet Peas Urban Gardens. This haven, created by Tami Purdue, takes up an average size plot in the middle of a residential area that features a greenhouse, outdoor garden and a Crop Box. You may not recognize the term "Crop Box," as the concept is quite new. Sweet Peas is home to the fifth one ever created!

The Idea of the Crop Box originated when a few people realized how many empty shipping containers there were laying around. These large metal boxes take up space without a purpose. The solution proposed by Crop Box was to make these spaces into small vertical urban farms. From the ideas conception in 2012, the first model took two years to perfect. As of now, a fully-functioning, fully green Crop Box would cost you about $75,000. Purdue pointed out that the high cost is due to the 50 LED lights that Sweet Peas purchased to grow each layer of produce. LED lights are four times the price of fluorescents, but in the long run save electricity costs that would be needed to ventilate the heat produced by cheaper fluorescents.

The entire container comfortably hosts four layers of a variety of soil-free growing plots. The Crop Box could also feature soil, but Sweet Greens uses a hydroponic system instead, because, why use an unnecessary resource? Their soil-free (hydroponic) growing system uses only decomposable materials which are later composted, and so little water that Sweet Peas water bill went up only four to six dollars per month once the Crop Box was up and running.

The early adaptors of this new system have so-far found that the way to make the fastest profits is through growing micro-greens. Micro-greens have a growing cycle of only 10-14 days. They are packed with flavor, nutrients(up to 40 time higher levels of vital nutrients than their mature counterparts) and are part of a growing market. This means produce can be churned out in a quick and efficient manner. The system is also made more cost-effective and sustainable by thriving without the need of any chemical fertilizer inputs. The more difficult part has been finding the market to sell to.

Sweet Peas made their mark by starting at the local farmers market in Raleigh. Until recently, micro-greens have gone underutilized and under cultivated in the kitchen. However, with a growing trend towards eating healthy and local, people have started to recognize micro greens as a perfect garnish with lots of different flavors. Sweet Peas alone harvests a large variety. When I visited, Purdue and Spencer showed me varieties of wheatgrass, radish, broccoli, kale, cilantro and much more than was all soon to be harvested. The whole operation was diverse, concise and beautifully efficient in producing delicious organic micro-greens.

While the whole operation requires a large investment to get started, Sweet Peas Urban Garden made its money back in just two years. This includes the time it took to get Sweet Peas recognized as a supplier to the area. After spending time at the farmers market, local chefs caught on to the Sweet Peas mission and fell in love. These gourmet, farm-to-table chefs are the backbone of the micro-green business, a small but budding market in the N.C. triangle.

While the Crop Box also takes work to maintain, Purdue has found a lot of free help, and new friends, through using the website WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms), which lists farms worldwide where people are welcome to live for free in exchange for farm work. In addition to this money-saving tactic, Sweet Greens makes local deliveries by bicycle. Both of these methods are not only good for business, but good for the health and spirit of those running the business.

Because of the success Sweet Greens has seen, Purdue is considering investing in a second Crop Box. There is a possible deal in the works with Whole Foods that could launch their operation to a much larger scale, and even without Whole Foods the demand has still been continuously growing.

While a growing desire for fresh local foods exists, many urban areas continue to lack initiative. When exceptional people such as Purdue of Sweet Peas decide to take action and start a project, people notice. No matter how small the operation, a new trend can be created through a growing appetite and awareness for local, organic food. Every individual with any size plot of land has the power to grow their own food, and Sweet Peas is a larger symbol of that. If this small shipping container can be turned into a profitable farming project in two years, we should all spend more time thinking about the future possibilities of urban and vertical farming. People from around the world have traveled to Raleigh to see Sweet Peas Urban Farm and it’s Crop Box initiative. If their little box can serve as a model for the rest of the world, then no effort is too small to help innovate new models to feed an ever-growing population.

Many Thanks To Dr. Spencer Ware and Tami Purdue for welcoming me on their farm and talking to me about the project!

Eliza Grace is a Trinity junior. Her column, "the green wave" runs on alternate Thursdays.

The Rooftop Growing Guide: How To Transform Your Rooftop Into A Garden Or Farm

The Rooftop Growing Guide: How To Transform Your Rooftop Into A Garden Or Farm

Tapping into the expanding market for rooftop farming and green roofs, this is the first stylish, easy-to-use book for urban gardeners interested in utilizing their roof space for growing food.

As more people experiment with growing their own food in urban and suburban areas, farms and edible gardens are popping up on rooftops across the country. But there can be challenges, as rooftop spaces have their own unique set of rules for soil maintenance, watering, crop management, installation, and more. Author Annie Novak cofounded America’s first fully landscaped green roof farm, and her expertise shines in The Rooftop Growing Guide, the first book for a general audience on how to make an edible rooftop garden thrive. Novak has visited and interviewed rooftop farmers and gardeners across the country, so her advice works no matter where you live. With sample crop plans, case studies from around the country, and notes on harvesting, fertilizing, and more, The Rooftop Growing Guide provides inspiration and practical advice for a new generation of urban farmers and gardeners.

The Rooftop Growing Guide was photographed by Naima Green and Jackie Snow (unless otherwise noted) with Lucas Foglia; illustrations by Annie Novakand Lauren Heanes.

For a full list of experts and sites profiled in this richly researched book, please look under Resources.

UMass Hydro To Grow Fresh Produce For Students Year Round

UMass Hydro To Grow Fresh Produce For Students Year Round

Posted by Callie Hansson on March 8, 2017 · Leave a Comment 

Christina Yacono/Collegian

If you look out of the campus-side windows in Franklin Dining Commons after the sun has gone down, you can see a mix of white, blue and magenta lights illuminating the inside of the Clark Hall Greenhouse.

These lights mark the home of the UMass Hydroponics Farm Plan, where Dana Lucas, a junior sustainable food and farming major, and Evan Chakrin, a nontraditional student majoring in sustainable horticulture, have been working throughout the winter growing fresh leafy greens.

Back in December, the duo received a $5,000 grant from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture to grow produce year-round on an on-campus hydroponic farm. Hydroponics, a method of farming with water and nutrients in place of soil, allows for a continual harvesting cycle.

Along with limited pesticide use and saving 90 percent more water than a traditional farm, the farm will produce approximately 70 heads of lettuce a week, every week of the year. Lucas and Chakrin emphasize the importance of this perpetual cycle in meeting the University’s sustainability efforts.

On the University of Massachusetts website, it states, “The University recognizes its responsibility to be a leader in sustainable development and education for the community, state and nation.”

“I don’t know how we can say our food is sustainable at UMass if it’s only grown 10 weeks of the year in New England,” Lucas said.

The location allows UMass Hydro to get their greens across campus by either walking, biking or driving short distances, leaving almost no carbon footprint.

“I think this is something that really excites me and Evan because we really see a demand for fresh, local food and this is a way to actually fulfill it,” Lucas said.

Although the farm’s production capacity cannot currently meet the needs of the dining halls, Lucas and Chakrin are looking into alternative options to get their greens on the plates of students.

“We’re kind of just centering on student businesses right now because they’re smaller and they’re run by our friends, so we can easily get into the market,” Lucas said.

Their first official account is with Greeno Sub Shop in Central Residential Area.

Last week, Greeno’s hosted a special where UMass Hydro’s microgreens were free to add to any menu item.

In a statement posted to their Facebook page, they stated, “One of the goals of our mission statement is to source locally whenever possible, with UMass Hydro right down the hill, this is almost as fresh as it can get.”

Chakrin and Lucas are currently working on getting their greens served at other on-campus eateries.

In addition to adding more accounts, there is a strong focus on getting other students interested in the emerging field of hydroponics.

“We can use this as a teaching facility for students. The techniques we’re using are used in multi-acre industrial greenhouses for lettuce, so we could scale right up potentially,” Chakrin said.

The two are hoping to work UMass Hydro into the curriculum in Stockbridge, allowing students to work hands-on with the systems while also earning credits.

“Maybe we can do a one credit, half semester thing or something,” said Chakrin.

“There has been some discussion about having an accredited course for next fall where we can teach what I’m assuming are mostly going to be Stockbridge students, but we’re open to anybody and everyone who’s interested in getting involved with hydroponics,” Lucas said.

The grant covered the cost of seeds, equipment and other miscellaneous items like scissors, but the responsibility of building the farm fell entirely on Lucas and Chakrin.

“It felt really cool that we were given this much responsibility I feel like, to just buy the stuff and then build it,” Lucas said.

Chakrin noted how one of the biggest obstacles faced in getting the project off the ground was finding an available space on campus.

“Initially we were just asking for a 10-by-10 closet somewhere, then our professor was like ‘Do you think this greenhouse will work?’ and we were like ‘Of course!’” Chakrin said.

“He kind of posed it as a bummer that we weren’t going to be in a closet and we were like ‘No, no, no that’s fine!’” Lucas said, laughing.

“Without the space, none of it would be possible, so being allowed to use this space is just huge and we’re so lucky to have that,” Chakrin said.

Out of the entire space granted to UMass Hydro, only a portion of it is currently being used.

In order to make use of the underutilized space, Chakrin and Lucas are hoping the future of UMass Hydro involves more funding.

“We want to see Dutch buckets and a vertical system in here so we can show students the breadth of what you can do with hydroponics,” Lucas said.

Visitors are encouraged to stop by at the Clark Hall Greenhouse on Tuesdays between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Callie Hansson can be reached at chansson@umass.edu.

Program Educating and Uplifting East Oakland Kids

Program Educating and Uplifting East Oakland Kids

By Shelby Pope MARCH 7, 2017

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It started with a lemon tree. Kelly Carlisle didn’t grow up gardening. She didn’t have a windowsill herb garden. She knew about farming, of course, but in her mind there was a disconnect: food just sort of showed up at the grocery store. She worked a corporate job, wearing fancy clothes and heels to work. But she had gotten laid off during the recession, and one day a few years ago, she ended up at a Bay Area nursery with her daughter. They bought a lemon tree, and as it slowly started to flourish, so did Carlisle’s interest in gardening.

Around the same time the, she found herself reading more and more articles about Oakland, where she spent her childhood: about its status as one of the country’s most dangerous cities, the high rate of teen prostitution and dismal school dropout statistics. She wanted to do something that combined a concrete way to help Oakland’s kids with her newfound love of gardening. So in 2010, she started Acta Non Verba: Youth Urban Farm Project (ANV), a nonprofit that introduces low-income East Oakland children to the joys of gardening while contributing financially to their future. Local children farm a small plot at Tassafaronga Recreation Center and sell the produce through farmers markets and a CSA. All the proceeds go into individual savings accounts for each child, earmarked for their education. There’s also an eight week summer camp, camping and field trips, and community farm days. Since their founding, they’ve served over three thousand local kids.

“For generations, our communities have been told that farming is not for us,” Carlisle said. “When we talk to our kids about what a farmer looks like and where farmers live, it’s very abstract. Nobody knows a farmer, it’s all what they’ve seen on TV. There are no 4-H clubs in the flatlands.”

The financial aspect of the program was inspired by San Francisco’s San Francisco Kindergarten to College Program, where every kindergartner entering a public school is given a savings account with $50, with incentives for families that regularly contribute. (Research has shown that children are more likely to attend college if there’s money set aside for it).

But the money is just part of the way Acta Non Verba (Latin phrase meaning: actions not words) prepares children for the future. Most of the kids Carlisle works with want to be athletes, musicians, actresses–or cops, so they can carry a gun. The program allows them to explore the sprawling agricultural industry, to show them a field and a future that could be theirs.

“If you’re not into getting dirty, not into planting and harvesting, there’s all these other things that you can do,” Carlisle said. “There’s being a soil scientist, being an entomologist, pest management. That, to me, is as important as STEM.”

It hasn’t been easy. Like Carlisle, many of the kids have grown up disconnected to where their food comes from. And in East Oakland, where most kids grow up with acute food insecurity (most qualify for reduced lunch), an emphasis on pesticide-free local produce can seem precious or irrelevant. Once, the garden yielded a bumper crop of collard greens. Carlisle offered some to a woman in the neighborhood. The woman was suspicious, unbelieving that the park’s small garden could actually yield something and that Carlisle had grown it.

The greens were safe, Carlisle said. She had farmed them herself. “She’s like ‘Why would you call yourself that? No girl, we’re not farmers, you’re a gardener,’” Carlisle remembered. “I was offended, but it’s something to think about; trying not to sound superior. The farm-to-table movement doesn’t always feel like it applies to folks in my community. But to grow culturally relevant produce like collard greens and mustard greens, the community is starting to come around and see that, like with me, food is grown, it doesn’t just show up at the grocery store miraculously.”

To help share her message, Carlisle involves parents, both as volunteers and paid positions so the children’s healthy eating education is reinforced at home. She also makes it fun: she talks about a local boy named Jordan, who’s always thrilled to share his new knowledge about plant biology, or a pair of sisters whose eyes light up when it’s time to sing camp songs.

Thing could be easier, Carlisle acknowledges. She’d like to be able to afford more employees. She’d like there to be a grocery store near the farm, a nice one emphasizing healthy options. She’d like to only focus on food issues. But the more time she spends in East Oakland, the more she’s forced to confront other issues, like the area’s high rates of child asthma, or the giant crematorium that’s slated to be built near her farm. But Carlisle, who served in the Navy and whose parents also started their own nonprofit–“Service is probably ingrained in my DNA,” she said–isn’t going to give up anytime soon.

“One thing that we don’t think about in these high tech days is that we’re all here because somebody cultivated and worked with land,” she said.

“Even every single culture has some kind of agriculture going on. For me, farming is not only something that soothes my soul and makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something in a day, it’s also a connection to something bigger than myself, to a community and something innate: trying to improve my community through hard work and cultivation of land.”

AUTHOR: SHELBY POPE

Shelby Pope is a freelance writer living and eating her way through the East Bay. She’s written about food, art and science for publications including the Smithsonian, Lucky Peach, and the Washington Post's pet blog. When she’s not taste testing sourdough bread to find the Bay Area’s best loaf, you can find her on Twitter @shelbylpope or at shelbypope.com

Farm-To-Table Amenities Yield Profits

Farm-To-Table Amenities Yield Profits

Even on small infill sites, residential builders and developers are making room for vegetable gardens.

By Jennifer Goodman

Farm-to-table-centered communities are a big draw for home buyers, but they can also mean more profits for builders and developers. With creative land planning, communities of all sizes can tap into the growing interest in fresh produce and backyard gardens.

Farmscape, the largest urban farming venture in California, works with developers, architects and cities to turn cookie-cutter urban communities into agrihoods. The gardens not only attract a higher future sale, but also draw in a wider demographic of individual property buyers who are looking to live in a more interactive community environment, says Farmscape co-founder Lara Hermanson. Here, BUILDER talks with Hermanson about the benefits and challenges of agriculture-based amenities.

How many agrihoods have you worked on? What do they entail?
Farmscape currently has 15 agrihoods in various stages of development. Several multifamily projects were completed last year and have been feeding those apartment communities since July. Trellis (a new Pulte development in Walnut Creek, Calif.) just broke ground last month. We also have a half dozen additional projects still going through the entitlement process. All our projects start with the design, and we take into account the architecture, branding and community demographics as well as the microclimate.

From there, we assist our clients through the entitlement process, appearing at all review meetings to help educate city councils, community members, and design review commissions on what this new amenity/landscape entails. After approvals, we work with the installation team to get the project built, and then get sent to the HOA or apartment management team to schedule maintenance. Finally, we get in front of our end user-the community, to create volunteer opportunities and workshops so they can get their hands dirty as well.

How much do they cost?
Installation for a small agrihood starts around $20K and goes up from there depending on complexity and size. A small agrihood could consist of 8-10 raised beds, 6 orchard trees and mulching. Large agrihoods can include more sizeable orchards, row crops, vineyards and ornamental garden. Large or small, the final result is a product that encourages residents to enjoy the perks of rural farm life with none of the responsibility.

What type of value do they add to a project?
Good landscaping and maintenance can add around seven percent to a commercial or residential property. Excellent landscaping (such as Farmscape's gardens) can increase the value to up to 28%. Agrihoods also have the ancillary benefit of creating a sense of place for communities, increasing resident well-being, and enhancing pride of ownership. We have experienced easy approvals in city councils, thanks to resident enthusiasm for agrihood projects.

What are some other benefits?
Generally, developers can expect fewer resubmits and greater community support during the entitlement process alongside Farmscape supporting developers through the design, installation, maintenance and programming phases. Additionally, In Santa Clara, the community rallied behind the Win6 agrihood development, with over 300 community members regularly attending City Council meetings in support of the project. They even created #Agrihood t-shirts and an online campaign to move the dial for the developers.

Does a community need a lot of land to have residential farming?
Not necessarily. A small agrihood can be designed to suit a 500 square foot space, and are very appropriate for infill developments. Larger suburban development can expand to several acres. We design each project to match the neighborhood and the future residents.

Running with setup costs from $55,000 to larger plots of $1 million per development, the gardens include row crops, raised beds, orchards, vineyards, and edible-inspired ornamental landscaping. Farmscape trains and manages local team members in the Farmscape method, and offers continual training and support to agrihood communities. The final result is a product that encourages residents to enjoy the perks of rural farm life with none of the responsibility.

Why do you think there is such an interest in gardens?
I think there's several reasons. Most households have two working adults, who don't have a lot of downtime for gardening. Coming home to an awesome vegetable garden, that they don't have to work themselves, is a great perk. Also, the drought in California has made everyone re-think their landscape. Agrihoods, with smart drip irrigation, use a lot less water than traditional lawn. Besides, no one wants their home to have the same landscaping as an office building. But most importantly, people love to eat good food. If they can eat a fresh picked salad every day and take a homegrown peach to work, life is pretty good.

About the Author

JENNIFER GOODMAN

Jennifer Goodman is Senior Editor at BUILDER and has 17 years of experience writing about the construction industry. She lives in the walkable urban neighborhood of Silver Spring, Md. Connect with her on Twitter at @Jenn4Builder.

A D.C. Urban Farm Takes On Urban Problems

A D.C. Urban Farm Takes On Urban Problems

Whitney Pipkin

Monday, March 6, 2017 - 12:44am

Urban farming can serve needs of local communities beyond nutrition.

Little more than grass used to grow on the two-acre plot behind a middle school in the District of Columbia where tomatoes, okra and infrastructure for food entrepreneurs will begin cropping up this year.

In a ward of the city with just two grocery stores serving more than 70,000 residents, fresh produce is hard to come by. But the Kelly Miller Farm, which will be situated behind a middle school with the same name, aims to offer much more: youth programs, a community garden accessible to seniors and a commercial kitchen from which area residents can launch food-based businesses.

"It’s like a food system in a box — in one space, in one community," said Christopher Bradshaw, executive director of Dreaming Out Loud. The D.C. food justice nonprofit is partnering with the city and a half-dozen other organizations to run the farm in a way that generates revenue while also meeting the community’s unique needs. "I don’t know too many places combining those things," Bradshaw said.

With $150,000 in seed money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) — through programs promoting farmers’ markets and specialty crops — and a mix of other local grants, the founders plan to build infrastructure such as hoop houses and a greenhouse while transforming a gutted shipping container into a commercial kitchen space. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring and be completed by midsummer.

A USDA spokesman said the farm will serve as a model for organizations across the country that want to help consumers understand how their food is produced, especially in urban settings. But what sets the farm apart from a rooftop garden in the district’s restaurant row is that it’s catered to the people who live in this often-underserved part of the city, not just the ones who work or spend money there.

After attending the district’s historically black Howard University, Bradshaw, 35, stumbled into urban agriculture while trying to teach in an after-school program at a public charter school that has since closed. The students would arrive each day with stomachs full of the Teddy Grahams and Kool-Aid the school provided as snacks only to bounce off the walls during his lessons on "character development." Then, they’d crash.

Realizing he couldn’t teach the children without first addressing their most basic needs, Bradshaw’s nonprofit started a school garden and then a farmers’ market, so parents could buy better food, too. The latter often proved an exercise in staying power more than money-making and, eventually, Bradshaw decided to pursue broader, community-level programs.

Last year, when Bradshaw reached out looking for rentable, farmable land, the district happened to be looking for a partner to help create a model urban farm for the city. The two joined forces.

Bradshaw said he couldn’t have come as far as he has without the help of both city and federal partners who have prioritized food access over the past eight years. Having an outspoken advocate for this brand of work in the White House’s first lady hasn’t hurt, either — although it’s left him leery about the prospects of a new administration this year.

Involving The Community

Bradshaw started the Kelly Miller Farm project, now months in the making, with a step he now knows is crucial to success: Asking people who live in the community what they want.

A short walk from two housing projects in a neighborhood whose population is 96 percent African American and 11 percent unemployed, the farm will serve many people who lack access to healthy food and rely on federal nutrition assistance programs such as SNAP, or food stamps. It became clear to Bradshaw and other organizers in the community that residents wanted and needed food options beyond corner stores.

Josh Singer, a community garden specialist with the district’s Department of Parks and Recreation, said the city model needs to go further than growing a lot of food on a little land to address urban problems such as affordable food and housing. If such projects ignore the context in which they’re growing food and the groups that are already at work in those communities, they may do more harm than good, he said.

"A lot of times, organizations will use these poor communities and their statistics to get grants to do work that the community never wanted in the first place," Singer said. With the Dreaming Out Loud project, however, "we have a whole coalition focused on making this space serve the local community."

Given the area’s specific challenges, growing microgreens to sell at high-dollar to the city’s hottest restaurants — as some urban farms do to make money on expensive land— would not be appropriate, Singer said.

From the beginning, the organizers of this farm wanted to do more than show residents how food is grown; they wanted them to be able to do the work themselves. That’s why the space incorporates a kitchen and incubator where entrepreneurs can work on their recipes and business plans alongside a compost space where locals can get dirt under their nails. Bradshaw said the farm is fundraising to hire a manager and assistants from within the community but that volunteer work is welcome, too.

Partner nonprofits will use the space to teach children from the middle school about food production or to host therapeutic gardening sessions for seniors recovering from addiction. The produce will be sold at a nearby farmers’ market Dreaming Out Loud runs in the ward and possibly through a subscription program. (Bradshaw would like parents to be able to pick up a weekly produce box with their kids from the school.)

Initially, some residents were concerned about the project’s impact on their own properties; construction to rebuild the middle school a few years ago involved work with a wrecking ball that some say damaged the foundations of their homes and left them suspicious of new projects. But after a few meetings during the project’s early stages, many began suggesting ideas for the space.

Boe Luther, 52, has lived in the ward’s Clay Terrace neighborhood his entire life and said the farm project couldn’t come at a better time. As the owner of two ice cream trucks and a regular at the neighborhood’s existing community garden, Luther is eager for others to have the chance to become food entrepreneurs. They could use the project’s kitchen space to make salad dressings or salsas, he said, or grow cut flowers to sell at the market.

"We’ll have to do the research and see what people want," Luther said. "But a lot of citizens of Ward 7 are happy about it."

Walking The Talk

Beyond the neighborhood, organizations that work to improve access to nutritious food in the city’s poorest areas are rooting for the farm’s success. The city’s newly minted food policy council, of which Bradshaw is a member, sees the farm as a stage for many policies they’ve espoused on paper, including growing both farms and food access in the city’s poorest enclaves.

"The Kelly Miller Farm is embodying those values, said Laine Cidlowski, the district’s food policy director.

After seeing firsthand the big impact of a small garden, Luther thinks a vibrant farm has the potential to bring much more than food to the neighborhood: "Jobs, training, careers, opportunities, peace of mind, serenity — it brings all of that."

Inside The Computerized Lettuce Factory Of The Future

Inside The Computerized Lettuce Factory Of The Future

High-tech farms in urban warehouses can grow 100 times more food using 95% less water than old-fashioned operations depending on soil and sunshine.

Farming, even in its modern, hyper-industrialized form, still relies on some very old-school technology: the sun, dirt, seasons, tractors. It’s all a bit messy and inefficient, at least by the standards of modern technologists, who are more accustomed to server farms that churn through data 24/7.

It’s not that surprising, then, that the self-declared farms of the future look more like an Amazon data center than an organic apple orchard. A wave of companies are rushing to figure out how to grow commercial volumes of food in giant urban warehouses, using LED lights instead of sun, and stacked shelves of nutrient solution instead of soil.

This particularly tech-centric model of urban farming us run by computer systems that monitor thousands of points of data and constantly adjust growing conditions. Marc Oshima, co-founder of AeroFarms, one of the world’s largest vertical farms, says the company uses “in-depth growing algorithms where we factor in all aspects from type and intensity of light to nutrients to environmental factors like temperature, humidity, CO2 levels, and we create the perfect recipe for each variety.”

While conventional agriculture companies engineer their crops to design plants suited to their environment — improving mildew resistance, for example — these companies are engineering the environment to match the plant.

None of this is cheap to set up. New Jersey’s AeroFarms has raised more than $50 million and says it can grow 2 million pounds of food each year in the “growing towers” in its 70,000 square foot facility in Newark. Gotham Green invested $8 million to build a rooftop farm in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood. In February, New Jersey startup Bowery Farming, which attracted $7.5 million in a seed round, began selling locally grown leaf vegetables at Whole Foods and a few area restaurants, including Tom Colicchio’s Craft in Manhattan.

These high-tech farms — often led by entrepreneurs with backgrounds in finance and other non-farm businesses — are “definitely more expensive, but the expense is balanced out by more productivity,” said Irving Fain, CEO of Bowery and former Citigroup investment banker. Bowery estimates his facility is 100 times more productive per square foot than a typical farm.

Fain said Bowery’s operating system automatically monitors “hundreds of thousands of points of data on plant health, quality, growth, yield, taste and flavor.” Bowery is also designed to “take processes that are manually intensive and automate them” so that “the farm runs itself,” more or less. And because the environment is tightly controlled and there are no seasons, there are more harvest cycles — AeroFarms has up to 30 harvests each year.

So far, these capital-intensive indoor farms have focused on growing trendy greens that can be sold to the area’s salad-eating yuppies — baby kale, butterhead lettuce, arugula, and basil. A box of AeroFarms greens goes for $3.99, and Bowery Farming’s salad greens retail for $3.49, which is a lot more than a head of iceberg lettuce. And that’s the main challenge these startups face: there’s no shortage of cheap produce in supermarkets today.

It’s a pricey, niche product for now, but the companies have bigger plans. “As we scale, we plan to continue to drive down our costs and deliver the highest quality produce at a price that makes it even more accessible to all,” said Fain.

Oshima said AeroFarms is looking at other crops: berries, peppers, and cucumbers. “Our lens is on how we can transform agriculture around the world,” he said.

Realistically, these vertical farms “will never grow enough to feed cities,” said Danielle Nierenberg, cofounder of the nonprofit Food Tank. Grains like wheat, for instance, simply require more space than a warehouse can ever provide. But at the very least, she said, they bring some fresh food to urban communities, and may one day even create a new type of urban green space.

Bowery grows its greens hydroponically in a commercial warehouse in Kearny, New Jersey. The company says its farm requires 95% less water than a traditional farm and uses no pesticides or chemicals — and its location means its greens need to travel less than an hour to make it onto Manhattan restaurant plates.

These products can’t be called organic — that label generally refers to food grown in soil —so Bowery describes the model as “post organic.”

“This is the next evolution in produce,” said Fain. “The USDA’s organic standards were written at a time when the technology that’s available today simply didn’t exist.

The high startup costs associated with these ventures — the lights, the software, the urban real estate — mean the risks are also high. “Unless you’re in a place with geothermal power, this can be very energy inefficient,” said Food Tank’s Nierenberg. “In the same way we romanticize rural agriculture, we can romanticize growing food in urban places.”

In January, the hydroponic farm FarmedHere closed its 90,000 square foot facility in Chicago and pulled the plug on plans to invest $23 million in a new farm in Louisville, Kentucky. The company’s high labor and energy costs meant it needed to sell huge volumes of produce to break even, CEO Nate Laurell told the Chicago Tribune. “The more I learned about the reality of farming, it led to a change of strategy”

Atlanta vertical farm PodPonics closed last year. Its co-CEO Matt Liotta recently spoke of the tough realities of the business at an industry conference. PodPonics achieved a cost per pound of $1.36 — less than the cost of shipping organic lettuce from California. The company had an offer from Kroger to order $25 million woth annually, if it could build the farm to support it.

“This was our wildest dream, we were ready to go, this was everything we wanted. And then we realized how much capital this was going to require, how many people we were going to have to hire,” said Liotta. “We were simply incapable of building everything they wanted.”

“This is really a manufacturing game,” Liotta said. “It is not an art. If you want to do art, get a garden.”

Urban Farming Insider With Professor Aaron Fox: Urban Farming Expert and Educator

Urban Farming Insider With Professor Aaron Fox: Urban Farming Expert and Educator

Dr. Aaron Fox is an urban farmer and professor who was recently hired to start an Urban and Community Agriculture program at Cal Poly Pomona in the Los Angeles area.

He and his colleague, Eileen Cullen, are developing classes on production, business, policy and community development all related to urban farming. 

They will be offering a “Minor in Urban and Community Agriculture” starting Fall 2018. We caught up with Aaron to discuss his insights on urban farming, discussing:

- Is urban farming just a fab? 
- How do you plan for a commercial urban farm correctly?
- What are trending crops he is hearing urban farmers are growing
- What conventional urban farming wisdom is wrong
- Questions he most commonly answers from his students interested in urban farming, and his answers

and much more! Interview below: 

Introduction

UV: Can you tell us a little more about the urban farming minor program you're developing at Cal Poly Pomona, a little bit about yourself, and your students? 

Aaron: We're getting lots of students that want to learn how to produce food, but they want to do it in the places where they're coming from, like East LA and
more densely populated areas.

So that requires some particular skills and a little bit different than traditional ag programs. 

So they hired two of us. They hired me. I was most recently at Michigan State University. And they also hired another professor, Dr. Eileen Cullen, who was a professor at University of Wisconsin, Madison.

UV:  What's your background?

Aaron: My background is, I did my PhD at North Dakota State University in organic agriculture. I was particularly looking at pest management in organic systems but honestly it was in larger scale, more traditional agriculture. 

My real experience with urban food systems was actually prior to graduate school when I was working actually in the area you're in right now. I was up in Monterey (California).

I was working in Salinas a lot on school gardens, nutrition, education. I was helping out a local farmer there on her CSA. 

So I got a lot of experience actually prior to my academic career in urban agriculture.

I think one of the other reasons that I was hired for this position is I'm really passionate about teaching, and Cal Poly Pomona is a school that focuses on teaching and in particular it focuses on a learn-by- doing approach, so they really want students to get hands-on experience, and that's how most of my classes are run.

Last week we had a drip irrigation class and so we just installed a drip irrigation system up in a garden on campus. And we have composting labs where we're building composting systems, etc. 

So it's actually a pretty exciting time to be here right now because we're really building this program from the ground up and we're getting a lot of good feedback, not only from the students but from numerous community organizations in the area that want to partner with us.

UV: And are those organizations commercial or what is their nature?

Aaron:  It's a wide variety. We're getting commercial operations, especially indoor
vertical farm operations that are interested in our students, potential hires, or interns. 

Then we're also working with non-profit organizations that are working on food access and food justice and trying to bring urban agriculture into the greater Los Angeles area, specifically to address a lot of the food insecurity issues that are happening here.

Is urban farming over-hyped?

UV: So the next question I have is, I was talking to someone the other day and he's been involved in urban farming for many years, before it became what is it today. He was kind of griping about the overdatafication and he was describing the urban farming movement, or at least parts of it as almost like a fetish.

So what is your opinion on the gaudiness of urban ag versus its actual utility? Some people might say, you can't really do urban ag at scale, but at the same time it does have these proven community benefits for urban communities. 

How do you separate the wheat from the chaff there as far as the concept of urban ag and its utility?

Aaron: There's lots of research on how urban agriculture can benefit communities, on how it can improve access to nutritious food, how it can enhance incomes, how
it can have social benefits for bringing people together, etc.

Personally for me, especially when I have these young students that are coming in and wanting to do this, one thing that's really exciting is that in agriculture for a very long time now, we've been trying very hard to figure out how to get the next generation of folks interested in agriculture.

We haven't really done a very good job. I mean, the average age of a farmer in the United States is 58 of course. But it's been around that same age for like 30 or 40 years now.

So I think one thing that we're realizing is that through urban agriculture, we can get folks excited about food and farming again. That's really important because we've gotten so disconnected from food and from farming that we don't value it anymore. We don't value our farmers. 

We don't value our food. There's consequences to that.

So there are lots of tangible benefits, but I think there's also some broader implications too, to not just urban agriculture but to agriculture as a whole.

Most common beginner urban farming questions?

UV: Right. So next question. You mentioned your students and their enthusiasm. I think that's really interesting because I think a lot of people who come to our
site, they may not be students formerly but they come to the site to engage in student-like activity of learning about urban farming and getting their feet wet at the very least. 

So I think it would be helpful if you talked about a couple questions or concepts about urban farming that you repeatedly deal with with students, maybe stuff that seems to be difficult or important to understand and you think that anybody, whether they're a student or not who are trying to learn urban farming, what are a couple of those tough questions and what are the answers?

Aaron: Okay. That's a big question. Honestly, the thing that ends up tripping people up the most with this is not actually growing the plants.  We're trying to make sure we impart that with our students. 

(Also), we want to make sure that they're not just prepared to grow something in a vacant lot or grow something hydroponically indoors, but that they also understand that to be a successful in this you have to understand policy and rules. You have to understand business.

You have to understand marketing. You have to understand social issues and community issues.

One of the biggest things that I start off with in one of my classes is, I ask them, "What you really need to figure out is your purpose and why you're doing this."

Because that should really dictate everything else. If you're doing this for profit and you're trying to make a business model out of this, you're going to go down a very different path and you're going to be looking for very different things than if you're doing this for an education purpose or for a community purpose.

So I think the growing aspect, it's not that it's easy but that it's relatively straightforward and that there will be trouble-shooting along the way, but the difficult part is actually figuring out why you're doing this and what your goals are. 

Honestly, all the (urban) farmers I've ever worked with, it almost always ends being the same thing. I hear them say, "I grow the best tomatoes," or, "I grow the most beautiful greens and nobody's buying it."

That's not where you should be. You should actually reverse that and you should figure out who you're going to be selling to, what they want and then you grow it. Right? 

Rather than growing something and then figuring out what to do with it. I think that's tough for a lot of folks to ... That's not how a lot of us get into urban farming, right?

(We typically start) not from the business and marketing aspect. To be successful, you're going to have to take that into account. That applies to if you're doing it for a
community garden too.

I've got lots of folks who say, "We got permission rom the city to use this land and we've got it all set up. And we've got irrigation and ools. And nobody's coming out."

I'm like, "Well, you probably should have figured out who was going to use this before you set it all up."

You gotta figure out what the purpose is and who this is going to affect before you take your first step.

UV: So to rephrase with that kind of anecdote, one thing you find is that people neglect certain parts of the planning process.

Aaron: Yes.

UV: Okay. Right. So a follow-on question to what you just said, you highlighted how
there's differences between a profit urban farming system and, let's take for example, a community benefit system. 

So you could you go through a couple bullet points of what each one has maybe in common, maybe what the differences are. People might ask, "Is the crop that you're going to grow be targeted for size or what are the characteristics for isolating those two specific use-cases?

Aaron: Yeah, I think the easiest thing to concentrate on that subject is if the crops are going to be growing for profit system, you're going to need to figure out the crop that's going to bring you the highest return.

We built an indoor growing facility here on campus just out of a shipping container, and I made the same mistake. I let my student just go down the path before we actually figured out exactly what the purpose of this thing was. 

Once he built it all out, we realized there was really nothing that he was going to be able to grow in there that was going to pay for all the cost of maintaining it.

Except for maybe micro-greens, and so that's what he was left with.

Especially if you're in Southern California where we have like essentially 365 days of sunshine. We've had farmers tell us, "Why are you growing something indoors. You can just do it in a greenhouse here."

So you have to think about, especially from a small-scale urban standpoint is, what can you produce that is not only in demand but that you can have a competitive edge on? 

It's basically figuring out what is it that the market wants that they can't get now that you can provide?

Whereas so it's going to be really specialty niche things, and you're probably going to focus on just a handful of products.

UV: What kind of stuff would that be?

Aaron: There's lots of opportunities now for things like micro-greens, for specialty mushrooms.There's some big things right now that we've been asked about. 

There is some opportunity for tropical specialty fruit, but you have to be careful because that's kind of a longterm investment and you have to make sure you have the resources to put in a longterm investment for something like fruit trees.

There's some other opportunities as well, there's some folks that are doing quail eggs and things like that in an urban environment and they're finding some good markets for that. It's really kind of finding the specialty market that you can connect with and communicate with and find what they need. 

There's lots of opportunities for different culturally significant produce items that are harder to find in traditional venues. Things like that.

UV: Okay. That's the for-profit use-case. What about the community benefit side of
it?

Aaron: I think maybe I'll talk about specifically things for educational purposes. Again, if you're supposed to be using it as a teaching garden, you need to figure out what are you going to be teaching.

A lot of folks, they set up a school garden, they just are like, "Well, I'm going to do a pizza garden." And that's perfectly fine, but you have to actually think about what curriculum you're going to be teaching in that class.

Specifically, how are you going to get buy-in from the stakeholders? How is the principal and the teachers and the parents going to maintain interest in your garden. 

It's going to come down to your garden meeting the needs of those stakeholders.

We have a couple students that I've been working with and they said, "You know, I was given permission to take this plot of land over at this school and I've put a lot of effort into it, but I'm not really getting any interest from the administrators or from the parents or from the teachers." 

They said what they're really interested in right now is focusing on cultural heritage and they feel like the garden is secondary. And I told her, "This is a golden opportunity. You just need to shape the garden so that it's growing things that are culturally appropriate. 

You can teach those lessons about cultural heritage in the garden."

Then from a non-profit standpoint, basically it's making sure that the community you're serving is served by the things you're growing. It's interesting.

This is kind of like a longterm process. But in an urban environment where you're trying to get more stakeholders involved ... I have this non-profit that I was working in Long Beach, and they were growing all these funky heirloom tomatoes that were I'm sure delicious, but nobody wanted them.

Because in the community they we're in, they wanted the boring spherical red tasteless tomato because that's what they were used to.

So you have to take baby steps with some of these things and meet folks halfway, try and provide some opportunities for them to listen to you, you to listen to them and figure out how you can meet everybody's needs.

UV: Great. So one question for you and then I'll have to finish with a couple of rapid-fire questions. The last formal question I have is, you mentioned your background is in pest management with the commercial scale. In your opinion, do you think beginners in urban farming need to worry about pests? And if they do, what are some issues they may encounter and how does the commercial pest management downsize to the urban farming pest management, if it does?

Aaron: Yeah. That's a great question. Because I've actually had some urban farmers tell me that they're working on such a small scale that they don't really need to worry about pests because they're so intensive and they're so on top of things that they'll just be able to deal with it when it comes up. And I think, honestly, that's just a huge gamble.

I think they're just lucky that they haven't encountered anything yet. The main thing that you can gather from the larger scale commercial growers is just all the cultural methods of managing pests. 

There's reasons why the larger guys are rotating their crops. There's reasons why they're doing cover crops. All these things.

The feedback I get from the smaller scale urban guys, it's like, "I just don't have the time and space for that." If that is the case, I understand that there's some legitimate space issues, you're going to have to prepare for that and realize that you're inviting in some potential pest issues.

So I think pests have definitely been a problem. We've got some invasive pests down here that are just preventing folks from growing any brassicas in the summertime. And that's huge. That's a huge swath of crops there.

UV: What are some examples of those pests?

Aaron: Bagrada bug is the one I hear about the most. It just tears up (brassicas). There's a lot of opportunity to grow kale because there's a lot of restaurants and smoothie shops and juice shops and stuff that really want kale, but you try and grow it i the summertime down here and it just gets torn apart by bagrada bugs.

UV: Okay. Bagrada. Bagrada bugs. And is like a kind of aphid or what is that?

Aaron: It's in the same broad category of sucking insects. Yeah. It's a true bug.

What's interesting about that is it's originally from somewhere I think in Africa. How did it get here? Where was it first seen? Did it come in through Mexico or something like that? 

The fist place they saw it was at the Port of Los Angeles. That's how things get in around here.

So that's a big one. I think it's really those types of big invasive ones that we have real problems with. With aphids and things, folks feel pretty comfortable with ways of controlling them. 

Again, whether they're using just physical control methods, like spraying them off their crop, or actually introducing some biological control or using some kind of natural pesticide, etc.

But it's every once in a while that these big pests come in and there's no solutions to it. It sometimes comes down to cultural methods. There's folks in the UC system that just kind of said like, "Just stop growing brassicas for a while." Which again is a tough call.

But I'm actually doing some research right now, looking at whether we can figure out some ways to control some of these big insect pests, like bagrada bugs. 

There's some opportunities actually in smaller-scale agriculture because of course the big guys are dealing with this. But one thing that I'm looking into, and this sounds crazy, is actually using a reverse leaf-blower to suck the things up.

Aaron F. Fox: Again, you can't do that in larger scale. It's just the logistics and feasibility are absurd. But if you're dealing with an acre or less, that's not too hard a proposition.

Rapid Fire Questions

UV:  Cool. Well, I don't want to be irresponsible of your time. But the other quick questions we usually do, first one being what is your favorite fruit or vegetable? Or both if you can't decide?

Aaron: Okay. Vegetable, I've got a huge list of it, but I think I'll say that I reallyappreciate cool season crops.

I know that they don't get a lot of respect. But Ilove beets and I love broccoli and I love Brussels sprouts. I feel like they've gotso much flavor and there's so many interesting things you can do with them. 

I feel like I'm having to contain myself here.

Fruits are interesting because I've always loved blueberries, but my wife and Ihave both spent some time living abroad in tropical countries.

So we love a lot of these tropical fruits. Typically the places we've lived before Southern California, we didn't have access to them, but on campus here we're starting togrow a few tropical things, like we've got some mangoes growing, we've gotsome rambutan growing. 

So we'll see if those turn out. We're actually growing coffee here, so it's cool to see what we're going to be able to accomplish.

UV: Next question is, what's your favorite urban-thought- related bookthat you think people should check out? Since that's kind of a narrow topic, if you can't think of one, what's your favorite book in general that you think people should check out?

Aaron: That's a good question. One thing that I find is that folks will read one book orone method and they'll feel like that's the only way to do it. 

So what I would really suggest folks do is get your hands on books that tell you to do things just in as completely different ways as possible.

I try and teach my students about spin farming and I try and teach them about permaculture and we talk about just how radically these two things can be. 

(We also talk about of course, how similar they are as well.) 

I think it's good to really expose yourself to abroad swath of material out there and get an idea of all the different ways of doing this and really start figuring out your own way.

UV: Okay. With that being said, do you have a specific title in mind?

Aaron: I think I will refrain from giving a specific title. I think there might actually even be legal issues with me sponsoring something.

UV: What about a non category-specific book, any book?

Aaron: Any book? Oh my goodness. Typically when folks ask me what my favorite book is, one of the books that comes to mind is a book called "Mountains beyond Mountains." 

It's about Paul Farmer who's this public house expert that setup a clinic in Haiti. It's really inspiring, but honestly one of the most inspiringparts is just the concept that the title says. 

Basically, it's this Haitian proverb ofsaying that beyond mountains there are mountains, right? 

There will always be challenges and there will always be things to overcome. And that's not supposed to be a pessimistic way of looking at it. 

It's just a way of saying beprepared and be savvy and be ready to take on this adventure and to be excitedabout it and to be passionate about it, but also be realistic about it.

UV: The last one is what's one belief about urban farming that you believe in and that's contrary to conventional belief or conventional wisdom?

Aaron: That's interesting because I kind of am the "conventional wisdom guy" here, so...You're talking to a scientist.

 Let me see if I can come up with something. 

Well, one thing I would like to say is this idea that (urban farming) is a fad, right? 

I have a lot of old-timers tell me this whole thing of growing in a city and having local food and farmers markets and stuff, we did that in the 1970s, and it went away. So they said, "What's the point ofyou doing it again? What can you actually accomplish here?" 

I do not think that this is a fad. I think that this is a really legitimate way of bringing people together, creating communities through food and creating really awesome entrepreneurial opportunities for people in the city.

I think if we can stick to some of those core values, this is just going to continueto take off. I think that there's a lot of government support now. There's a lot ofcommunity support. 

There's a lot of industry support for this. And I think, yeah, not every urban farm is going to thrive and survive and not every farmersmarket is going to last indefinitely, but I think this is a really exciting time because I think we're making some really lasting change here and really buildinga really lasting movement.

UV: Great. If people read this article and they want to enroll in your program or atleast find out more information or apply, where should they go?

Aaron: We're still building our website right now, but they can connect with me on Twitter and they're welcome to send me emails. 

Twitter, my handle is my fullname. So that's @aaronfreemanfox. 

I update, especially on the classes I'm teaching and the activities we're doing and the field trips we're going on, the people we're meeting with. 

And then that's connected to Facebook as well. Then for enrollment purposes, we'd love to have folks come out and enroll and be part ofour program.

There's a couple things that are going on. One, in 2018, we're rolling out anurban agriculture minor. 

So you would come here at CalPoly Pomona and you can major in whatever you want to major in and you would have a minor in urban agriculture. 

Then we're also talking abouthaving a public program, a certification program in urban agriculture that you wouldn't have to be a Col Poly Pomona traditional student for.

Thanks Professor Fox!

Aaron Fox, Ph.D.is an professor of urban and community agriculture at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. Follow him on Twitter at @AaronFreemanFox or Facebook at AaronFox. To find out more about the urban agriculture minor program launching at Cal Poly Pomona, check out https://www.cpp.edu/~agri/plant-science/

Why The local Food Trend Will Not Cut It In A Climate Change Future

Why The local Food Trend Will Not Cut It In A Climate Change Future

by Pay Drechsel | CGIAR

Thursday, 2 March 2017 14:23 GMT

ABOUT OUR CLIMATE COVERAGE

We focus on the human and development impacts of climate change

Urban agriculture already plays an important role in global food production, but can it keep cities fed?

Securing sufficient food and nutrition for growing cities is considered one of today’s greatest development challenges.

Getting food from farms to urban centres raises a number of well-known issues: transporting fresh food can be costly and complicated, leading to concerns about affordability, nutritional quality and environmental impact.

But with the advance of climate change, yet another question is quickly rising to the top of the list: how can cities secure a reliable supply of food when droughts, floods and other extreme weather events are frequently interrupting supply chains?

This question is likely to be among those discussed at The Economist’s upcoming Sustainability Summit, and so ahead of the session on “Cities of the Future”, we look at what we actually know about urban food systems and their potential resilience.

GO LOCAL - OR GO GLOBAL?

The local food movement has increasingly been touted as a solution for a reliable, affordable supply of food to cities, especially in the developed world.

Concepts such as “vertical farming” – growing food in skyscrapers using hydroponics to bypass the need for soil or sunlight – has generated a great deal of interest, and it will likely be one of a diverse set of urban agriculture types we will see more of in the future.

Urban agriculture already plays a greater role in global food production than what we might think, with 456 million hectares - an area nearly half the size of the USA - under cultivation within 20km of the world’s cities, and 67 million hectares being farmed in open spaces in the urban core.

Yet, the findings of a recent study imply relying on urban farming is not enough.

In fact, we have found there is little evidence that local food systems are inherently better than national or global ones when it comes to securing supplies. Rather, a diversified urban food supply system, with food originating from a range of sources, might instead bolster a city’s resilience because it would be less sensitive to the impacts of climate change. In this scenario, even if farms near a city are flooded and the harvest lost, food from other sources might still be available.

For example, vegetable supplies in Spain were recently affected by extreme weather after lots of rain and then lots of snow in the Mediterranean. Subsequent shortages of aubergine, courgette and lettuces forced prices up, affecting the domestic market as well as the international market.

Considering the risks of such a dependence on a singular food source, what can we say about the resilience of some of world’s fastest growing cities?

TALE OF TWO WEST AFRICAN CITIES

Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, experienced a 400 percent population increase between 1985 and 2012, swelling to almost 2 million people today. In Tamale, in neighbouring Ghana, the urban population has doubled every decade since 1970, today reaching about 400,000.

Our team recently spent two years tracking more than 40,000 records of food flowing in and out of these two cities. For each entry, we catalogued the place of origin, type of food and destination.

The results showed that both cities relied heavily on agricultural production in nearby areas to meet urban food demand. About a third of the food supplying Tamale originated from within 30km and half from within 100km. Some foods came almost solely from within the city itself; 90 per cent of leafy vegetables, which are an important part of traditional diets and rich in nutrients, were supplied by urban farming.

But both cities also depended on supplies of some food from further afield. For example, Ouagadougou is heavily reliant on imported rice, an important staple food that cannot easily be substituted by other crops. While it is grown in the region, domestic production cannot meet the demand.

At the same time, we also saw that climate change-induced weather events can have grave consequences for urban food supply: in 2007, droughts and subsequent floods in northern Ghana destroyed half of all staple crops. The results were, again, food shortages and rising prices.

INVESTING IN DIVERSE SUPPLY CHAINS

The findings of the Ouagadougou-Tamale study imply that achieving a sustainable, resilient urban food system is not a simple question of either local or global food supply chains; both are necessary. The more diverse urban food supply systems, the more resilient.

Local agricultural production needs to be considered in urban planning because most cities already are dependent on locally produced food. Overall, the extent of urban agriculture on a global scale warrants a reorientation of agricultural policies and development work, which are mostly focused on rural contexts.

Further, locally produced food comes with a set of significant advantages: the carbon footprint is lower, and food reaches consumers when it is fresh. Not least, local production safeguards the livelihoods and incomes of smallholders.

Yet it cannot stand alone; relying on a single cluster of high-rise buildings or peri-urban farms to provide a megacity with all the food it needs is just too risky.

Instead, planning for resilient food systems in cities of the future will require a holistic perspective. Focusing on diversity – including diverse sources, actors, means of transportation and more – may be the first step toward reliably securing food for growing urban populations in the face of climate change.

As we head for a world with many more mouths to feed, variety may be more than just the spice of life – it may be its bread and butter too.

A city farm in East Perth, Western Australia. The UN is urging cities to include food production in its urban planning. Image: 

Inaugural Boston Food Tank Summit to Focus on Investing in Discovery

Inaugural Boston Food Tank Summit to Focus on Investing in Discovery

On April 1, 2017, Food Tank presents its first Boston Summit, “Investing in Discovery,” in collaboration with Tufts University and Oxfam America. The event will gather dozens of expert speakers and panelists who represent farmers, policymakers, businesses, chefs, nonprofit groups, elected officials, and more at the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. See the speaker lineup HERE, and please share this article with people who might be interested in attending the Summit.

Panel topics include Long-Term Solutions for a Healthy Planet, The True Value of Food, Creating Better Food Access, and Farm and Food Innovations.  Moderators for these panels include agricultural professionals and journalists from The Washington Post, National Public Radio, and more.  The Summit can be viewed remotely via a free Livestream at foodtank.com and on Facebook Live.

Confirmed speakers include (in alphabetical order—more to be announced soon):

Lauren Abda, Branchfood; Jody Adams, Trade Restaurant; Julian Agyeman, Tufts University; Patricia Baker, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute; Ian Brady, AVA; Sara Burnett, Panera Bread; Kiera Butler, Mother Jones Magazine; Matthew Dillon, Clif Bar; Jess Fanzo, Johns Hopkins University; Keri Glassman (MS, RD, CDN), Nutritious Life; Oliver Gottfried, Oxfam America; Timothy Griffin, Tufts University; Tamar Haspel, The Washington Post; Lindsay Kalter, Boston Herald; Alex Kingsbury, The Boston Globe; Wendy Kubota, Nature’s Path Foods; Corby Kummer, The Atlantic; William Masters, Tufts University; Congressman Jim McGovern, U.S. Congress (D-MA); Brad McNamara, Freight Farms; Monique Mikhail, Greenpeace; Dariush Mozaffarian, Tufts University; Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank; Michel Nischan, Wholesome Wave; Councilor Ayanna Pressley, Boston City Council; Doug Rauch, Daily Table; Ruth Richardson, Global Alliance for the Future of Food; Lindsey Shute, National Young Farmers Coalition; Matt Tortora, Crave Food Services, Inc; Paul Willis, Niman Ranch Pork Company; Norbert Wilson, Tufts University; Tim Wise, Small Planet Institute and Tufts University.

More than 60,000 people from around the world streamed the last Food Tank Summit in Washington, D.C., at The George Washington University. During the February 2017 event, there were also one million organic views on Facebook Live. One of Food Tank’s goals is to create networks of people, organizations, and content that push for food system change, achieved in part through the conversation and connections cultivated at these Summits. Future 2017 Summits will take place in new locations for the first time: New York, Los Angeles, and Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Buy tickets for the Boston Summit on April 1, 2017, and become a Food Tank member. If you or your organization is interested in sponsoring an upcoming Food Tank Summit, please email Bernard Pollack at bernard@foodtank.com for more details.

Wannabe Urban Gardners, How About This Indoor Farm to Get You Started?

Wannabe Urban Gardners, How About This Indoor Farm to Get You Started?

By Trevor Mogg — March 2, 2017 12:40 AM

If the idea of urban gardening appeals but you're concerned about space, then the Altifarm is definitely worth a look.

If you’ve always fancied tending your own vegetable garden but live in a place so small that such a hobby seems impossible, then there may be a solution.

The Altifarm is a modular solution for wannabe urban gardeners that lets you grow vegetables and herbs year-round, inside your apartment.

The Indiegogo project recently blasted through its funding target, so the Altifarm could be in your lounge, or possibly on your balcony if you have one, within months.

Described as “a complete home farm,” the kit comprises four tiers to keep it compact and, according to its Mumbai maker, can be set up in just five minutes. It’s on wheels, too, so you can easily move it around if necessary,

And here’s another bonus: If watering your garden feels like too much effort, or you’re worried about forgetting such duties, then fear not. The setup includes an automatic watering system, with your only responsibility to fill up the reservoir around once a week.

If your apartment doesn’t let in much natural light, the Altifarm also offers a low-power light pack that provides all the necessary light wavelengths to get your greens growing fast. There’s even a purpose-built greenhouse extension pack — essentially a clear plastic covering with a zipper — to protect your plants from extreme weather should you choose to put your Altifarm outside.

If you’re still making excuses about why you can’t grow your own food at home, then consider how everything that you produce will be free from all of those nasty chemicals used in modern-day industrial farming.

More: New farming startup takes agriculture indoors

Of course, as the Altifarm is fairly small, growing large fruit and vegetables would be something of a challenge. But the startup helpfully suggests nourishing edibles such as strawberries, raspberries, bell peppers, lettuce, herbs, and even broccoli and cauliflower. But take note, the setup doesn’t come with soil or seeds, so it’s entirely up to you how you fill it. The green-fingered crew behind the kit has a website providing tips on how to get started with your Altifarm with posts such as “12 awesome foods that are perfect for your indoor garden” and “a guide to growing vegetables and flowers from seeds.”

The Altifarm’s Indiegogo page offers a range of deals depending on how many extras you purchase with the base product. Prices start at $179, offering a decent saving of $70 on the expected retail price.

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/home/urban-gardeners-altifarm/#ixzz4aB3T3NLa 
Follow us: @digitaltrends on Twitter | DigitalTrends on Facebook

ICCEA 2017: Dr. Toyoki Kozai’s Take On Vertical Farming

ICCEA 2017: Dr. Toyoki Kozai’s Take On Vertical Farming

The celebrated researcher and ICCEA Panama keynote speaker looks back on his career and toward the future of controlled environment agriculture.

March 2, 2017
Patrick Williams

Also known as the “Father of Vertical Farming,” Dr. Toyoki Kozai, professor emeritus at Chiba University in Chiba, Japan, has been making strides in controlled environment agriculture for decades. From his work on energy savings and artificial lighting to his studies with in vitro plant propagation and medicinal plant production, Kozai has earned the high esteem of controlled environment agriculturalists worldwide.

Kozai, who previously served as president of Chiba University and has edited numerous papers, book chapters and the books “Plant Factory” and “LED Lighting for Urban Agriculture,” will give the keynote speech on May 17, 2017 at the International Congress on Controlled Environment Agriculture in Panama City, Panama. Produce Grower is proud to be a media partner for the event.

As ICCEA Panama approaches, Produce Grower magazine caught up with Kozai to discuss his vertical farming and lighting research, new technologies and methods of production, and which countries and companies are expressing interest in the growing market.

Produce Grower: Your keynote topic is titled "LED lighting for Urban Agriculture." How is LED lighting different for urban agriculture than for agriculture in other types of controlled environments?

Dr. Toyoki Kozai: By using LED, we can choose an optimal light quality for vegetative growth, reproductive (flowering) growth, and/or secondary metabolite production of crops with use of minimum electricity consumption. Inter-crop supplemental lighting can be conducted most efficiently by using LEDs. LED technology has still been advancing rapidly and the cost performance of using LEDs will be improved further in the near future. Optimal LED lighting recipe for value-added plant production will open a new business (cosmetics, medicinal, plant-derived food/soft drink additives).

PG: What else can ICCEA Panama attendees expect from your presentation?

TK: I will talk about the applications of AI (artificial intelligence) with big data mining, ICT (information and communication technology) with camera image processing, and global and local network with open source database.

PG: How has the vertical farming industry changed since you were a keynote speaker at ICCEA 2015?

TK: Many big private companies such as Philips, Panasonic, Syngenta (Seeds), Apple computer, etc. are entering the vertical farming business.

PG: Can you give us examples of some of the research you have done over the years on vertical farming?

TK: Online estimation of rates of photosynthesis, transpiration (water uptake) and respiration in vertical farms.

Reduction in electricity costs for lighting and air conditioning by improving LED lighting system and lighting period scheduling, operation modes of air conditioners, and optimization of environmental factors other than light.

Standardization and guideline drawing-up of units and terminology used in vertical farming.

PG: Which research projects have you found to be most fulfilling?

TK: The most fulfilling project for the next generation of vertical farms is the online estimation of rates of photosynthesis, transpiration (water uptake) and respiration in vertical farms.

PG: What is a Plant Factory with Artificial Light (PFAL), and why is it important for CEA?

TK: PFAL is a group of vertical farms. PFAL is characterized by its high airtightness, high thermal insulation with a high hygiene level, where they can produce clean and high quality vegetables ready to eat without washing. The PFAL is best not suited to maximize the yields with highest quality using minimum resources and minimum emission of wastes currently, but it will become best in the coming decades.

PG: In an interview with Greenhouse Management magazine in 2015, you said Japanese CEA greenhouse innovation is behind the Dutch? Do you still feel that way? Is Japan catching up at all?

TK: Yes, I feel that Japanese CEA greenhouse innovation is still behind the Dutch. Japanese CEA greenhouses are small scaled and cannot invest a lot for innovations. On the other hand, most greenhouse growers are making profits because the retail prices of vegetables are high in Japan. This situation make Japanese greenhouse growers a bit lazy.

PG: What response would you have for a person who does not think that the high cost of vertical farms is worthwhile? What about in regard to LED lighting?

TK: The cost of vertical farms has been decreasing year by year.

The initial cost per floor area of vertical farms is currently about 10 times higher than that of [a] greenhouse with environment control units. On the other hands, the productivity per unit floor area of leafy vegetables is about 10 times higher than that of greenhouse, meaning that initial cost per production capacity is comparable. Also, the yield in vertical farms is not affected by weather and pest insects. The direct production per kilogram of fresh vegetables in vertical farms and greenhouses is currently comparable in Japan.

However, you need very high skills (knowledge, experience, etc.) to manage the vertical farms.

The price of LEDs has been decreasing year by year. On the other hand, the introduction of LEDs to vertical farms is justified only when they know which LED is best and how to use it.PG: You recently released the book "LED Lighting for Urban Agriculture." What led you to develop this book? How is it different from other books on the market?

TK: Recent technological developments in LEDs, image processing, big data mining, [and] DNA sequencing are remarkable. I intended to include such recent technological developments in "LED Lighting for Urban Agriculture." In “Plant Factory” published by Academic Press in 2015, these technologies were described very little.

PG: What does the future look like for vertical farming?

TK: It is promising. Commercialization of vertical farms started in Asian countries such as Japan and Taiwan since 2010. It is going to be started in the Netherlands this year. Russia has a strong interest in the vertical farming business.

Commercialization of strawberry production in vertical farms started in Japan two years ago. Commercialization of high-wire cherry tomato production has been considered in the Netherlands. Many private companies are interested in the production of medicinal plants in vertical farms.

Patrick Williams is the associate editor of Produce Grower magazine. pwilliams@gie.net

Fish And Fresh Greens At The Farmory in Green Bay

Fish And Fresh Greens At The Farmory in Green Bay

By: Kris Schuller 

Posted: Mar 02, 2017 07:04 PM CST

Updated: Mar 02, 2017 10:18 PM CST

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) - An old armory turned into the Farmory continues to move forward in Green Bay. We head inside this indoor farm that one day may provide the perch for your favorite fish fry. 

Inside an old armory now called the Farmory - fish swim and greens grow. A collaboration of many aimed at creating this indoor farming system, to eventually help people learn how to help themselves.

“We want to transform the local food economy and show there is an opportunity for Wisconsin residents to grown year-round either in their homes or businesses for themselves.” said Alex Smith, director of the Farmory.

In operation for a year, part of NeighborWorks Green Bay, this non-profit indoor aquaponics farm grows yellow perch in tanks and leafy greens in potted soil. 

“It's a symbiotic relationship between the two,” said Jimmy Pandl, a member of the board Farmory. “The fish waste feeds the plants; the plants need the water and it's recirculated to help the fish grow.”

Farmory Director Smith says the goal is to have 50 aquaponic systems in operation by the fall and to grow 173,000 pounds of mixed salad greens each year. In fact, it is a crop that is already bringing in cash.

“February 1st, we actually sold our first batch of mixed greens to The Cannery and they’ve been using them ever since,” said Smith.

As for the perch Pandl expects they'll bring 50,000 fish per year to market.

“We want to do perch because of the history in the community here and because of the demand really - we know we can sell it,” said Pandl.

“People love yellow perch, it's the Wisconsin fish for any fish fry,” said Smith.

But to operate at capacity as an indoor agriculture center the Farmory needs to raise $3.4 million.  Smith says those efforts are underway and the goal will be met. She believes the community sees the Farmory's value and the area's need.

“The Farmory is really here for a long-term solution to the food insecurity in this community,” Smith said.

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Indoor Farming Company Launches in Kearny

Indoor Farming Company Launches in Kearny

Caitlin Mota | The Jersey Journal

By Caitlin Mota | The Jersey Journal
on March 02, 2017 at 2:34 PM, updated March 02, 2017 at 4:16 PM

KEARNY - A new farming company is growing its produce at a quicker and more cost-effective rate than traditional farms.

The secret to the success? The produce is grown indoors.

Bowery, based in the southern section of Kearny, was founded two years ago by Irving Fain and officially launched last week. The company dubs itself as the first to grow "post organic produce."

"We have completely pure and clean crops," Fain said.  

By growing produce - like kale and arugula - indoors, Fain said the company eliminates dealing with harsh weather conditions and is able to bring its products to local retailers quicker then other distributors. 

Fain previously worked in software and described himself as an entrepenuer. He wanted to take what he learned in the tech industry and find a way to address agricultural issues.  

"I saw the power of technology and the power of innovation technology," he said.

More than 70 percent of the country's water supply is used for agriculture, Fain said, though only a fraction of that is necessary for crops to grow. 

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Using hydroponic techniques and software that controls the atmosphere inside the farm, produce crews significantly quicker without using any pesticides. 

Bowery currently sells six products in locals stores, including the new Whole Foods that opened in Newark on Wednesday. Celebrity Chef Tom Colicchio uses the produce at his New York restaurant and has made investments in the company, Fain said. 

The company currently employees 13 people with more hires expected as the it expands. A second farm is already in the works, though Fain said the exact location in the tri-state area hasn't been decided. 

Caitlin Mota may be reached at cmota@jjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitlin_mota. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.

America’s First Urban ‘Agrihood’ Feeds Detroit’s Poor For Free

America’s First Urban ‘Agrihood’ Feeds Detroit’s Poor For Free

After hitting rock bottom, Detroit is looking up.

Asof 2008, more people live in cities than in rural areas. The United Nations predicts that by 2050, 66% of the world’s population will reside in urban centers. This urbanization comes with its own unique set of challenges — especially when it comes to food.

Detroit has been a food desert since 2005. The US Dept. of Agriculture defines a food desert as an area where residents are unable to access fresh, nutritious, affordable provisions. In 2010, 23.5 million Americans lived in conditions like these. Food deserts make it difficult for residents to eat well, contributing to obesity and increasing risks for illnesses like diabetes and heart disease.

America’s First Urban Agrihood

The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative, a non-profit, was founded in 2012 to empower urban communities. The group uses agriculture as a platform to promote education, community and sustainability. In November, the Initiative debuted the first urban agrihood — a community designed to provide city dwellers with easy access to locally grown food.

Detroit’s agrihood sits in the North End neighborhood, which once housed middle and upper class families. Now mostly vacant, the North End is in decline. Only one grocery store remains.

Tyson Gersh is the president, co-founder and farm manager of the Initiative. He tells Paste Magazine to think of the agrihood as “a residential development strategy with a working farm at the center.”

The Initiative’s agrihood consists of a three-acre development, including a two-acre garden, a sensory garden for children and an orchard with more than 200 fruit trees. The urban garden provides over 50,000 pounds of fresh, local produce every year to the 2,000 families who live within a two mile radius of the farm. And they do it all for free.

Similar communities exist in areas in Illinois, Arizona, Vermont, Idaho and California. Others are under development in Washington, North Carolina, Florida and Ohio. Detroit’s agrihood is notable mainly because of its location. In Detroit, where the median household income is barely over $25,000 a year, building an agrihood is much different than building one in Davis, California, where the annual median income is almost $75,000.

A Brief History of Community Gardening

The name agrihood seems fresh and modern, but community gardening is far from being a new idea. During World War II, private plots in urban centers produced 40% of the nation’s fresh vegetables. Most of these victory gardens closed down after the war ended.

Agrihoods also share similarities with Israel’s kibbutzim. First established in 1909 in what was then the Ottoman Empire, these small communities let early Zionists farm the land and live according to principles of equality, communal ownership and social justice. Kibbutzim are credited with contributing to the agricultural and political development of the state of Israel.

Today, community gardening is coming back in a big way: In a 2014 study, the National Gardening Association said that from 2008 - 2013, there was a 17% increase in home and community gardening. Surprisingly, the fastest growing demographic of food gardeners are Millennials.

New Plans Take Root

The Initiative’s agrihood isn’t done yet: Next, it plans to build a 3,200 square foot community resource center. There are plans for a center for education, a water cistern and a health food cafe. Most impressively, the Initiative will collaborate with a local General Motors assembly plant to build a collection of tiny homes inside a shipping container.

Each home will contain 320 square feet of living space, including two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. Employee volunteers will build the units using 85% scrap metal materials donated by GM. Once completed, university student caretakers will live in the units, run the farm and use the land to conduct agricultural research.

In 2015, Detroit News declared that the city was no longer a food desert. Agrihoods can’t take all the credit for this new development, but they’re certainly helping.