A Farm Grows In The City

At AeroFarms’ indoor vertical farm in Newark, N.J., greens grow on shelves 36 feet high Bryan Anselm for The Wall Street Journal

A Farm Grows In The City

Startups are leading the way to a future in which more food is grown closer to where people live

By: Betsy McKay | Photographs by: Bryan Anselm for The Wall Street Journal

May 14, 2017 10:05 p.m. ET

Billions of people around the world live far from where their food is grown.

It’s a big disconnect in modern life. And it may be about to change.

The world’s population is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, 33% more people than are on the planet today, according to projections from the United Nations. About two-thirds of them are expected to live in cities, continuing a migration that has been under way around the world for years.

That’s a lot of mouths to feed, particularly in urban areas. Getting food to people who live far from farms—sometimes hundreds or thousands of miles away—is costly and strains natural resources. And heavy rains, droughts and other extreme weather events can threaten supplies

Now more startups and city authorities are finding ways to grow food closer to home. High-tech “vertical farms” are sprouting inside warehouses and shipping containers, where lettuce and other greens grow without soil, stacked in horizontal or vertical rows and fed by water and LED lights, which can be customized to control the size, texture or other characteristic of a plant.

Companies are also engineering new ways to grow vegetables in smaller spaces, such as walls, rooftops, balconies, abandoned lots—and kitchens. They’re out to take advantage of a city’s resources, composting food waste and capturing rainwater as it runs off buildings or parking lots.

“We’re currently seeing the biggest movement of humans in the history of the planet, with rural people moving into cities across the world,” says Brendan Condon, co-founder and director of Biofilta Ltd., an Australian environmental-engineering company marketing a “closed-loop” gardening system that aims to use compost and rainwater runoff. “We’ve got rooftops, car parks, walls, balconies. If we can turn these city spaces into farms, then we’re reducing food miles down to food meters.”

Moving beyond experiments

Plants at AeroFarms receive light of a specific spectrum

Urban farming isn’t easy. It can require significant investment, and there are bureaucratic hurdles to overcome. Many companies have yet to turn a profit, experts say. A few companies have already failed, and urban-farming experts say many more will be weeded out in the coming years.

But commercial vertical farms are well beyond experimental. Companies such as AeroFarms, owned by Dream Holdings Inc., and Urban Produce LLC have designed and operate commercial vertical farms that aim to deliver supplies of greens on a mass scale more cheaply and reliably to cities, by growing food locally indoors year round.

At its headquarters in Irvine, Calif., Urban Produce grows baby kale, wheatgrass and other organic greens in neat rows on shelves stacked 25 high that rotate constantly, as if on a conveyor belt, around the floor of a windowless warehouse. Computer programs determine how much water and LED light the plants receive. Sixteen acres of food grow on a floor measuring an eighth of an acre.

Its “high-density vertical growing system,” which Urban Produce patented, can lower fuel and shipping costs for produce, uses 80% less fertilizer than conventional growing methods, and generates its own filtered water for its produce from humidity in the air, says Edwin Horton Jr., the company’s president and chief executive officer.

“Our ultimate goal is to be completely off the grid,” Mr. Horton says.

The company sells the greens to grocers, juice makers and food-service companies, and is in talks to license the growing system to groups in cities around the world, he says. “We want to build these in cities, and we want to employ local people,” he says.

An AeroFarms employee inspects a tray of greens.

AeroFarms has built a 70,000-square-foot vertical farm in a former steel plant in Newark, N.J., where it is growing leafy greens like arugula and kale aeroponically—a technique in which plant roots are suspended in the air and nourished by a nutrient mist and oxygen—in trays stacked 36 feet high.

The company, which supplies stores from Delaware to Connecticut, has more than $50 million in investment from Prudential, Goldman Sachs and other investors, and aims to install its systems in other cities globally, says David Rosenberg, its chief executive officer. “We envision a farm in cities all over the world,” he says.

AeroFarms says it is offering project management and other services to urban organizations as a partner in the 100 Resilient Cities network of cities that are working on preparing themselves better for 21st century challenges such as food and water shortages.

The bottom line

Still, these farms can’t supply a city’s entire food demand. So far, vertical farms grow mostly leafy greens, because the crops can be turned over quickly, generating cash flow easily in a business that requires extensive capital investment, says Henry Gordon-Smith, managing director of Blue Planet Consulting Services LLC, a Brooklyn, N.Y., company that specializes in the design, implementation and operation of urban agricultural projects globally.

AeroFarms packaged greens await shipment.

The greens can also be marketed as locally grown to consumers who are seeking fresh produce.

Other types of vegetables require more space. Growing fruits like avocados under LED light might not make sense economically, says Mr. Gordon-Smith.

“Light costs money, so growing an avocado under LED lights to only get the fruit to sell is a challenge,” he says.

And the farms aren’t likely to grow wheat, rice or other commodities that provide much of a daily diet, because there is less of a need for them to be fresh, Mr. Gordon-Smith says. They can be stored and shipped efficiently, he says.

The farms are also costly to start and run. AeroFarms has yet to turn a profit, though Mr. Rosenberg says he expects the company to become profitable in a few months, as its new farm helps it reach a new scale of production. Urban Produce became profitable earlier this year partly by focusing on specialty crops such as microgreens—the first shoots of greens that come up from the seeds—that enerally grow indoors in a very condensed space, says Mr. Horton, who started the company in 2014.

One of the first commercial vertical-farming companies in the U.S., FarmedHere LLC, closed a 90,000 square-foot farm in a Chicago suburb and merged with another company late last year. “We’ve learned a lot of lessons,” says co-founder Paul Hardej.

Among them: Operating in cities is expensive. The company should have built its first farm in a suburb rather than a Chicago neighborhood, Mr. Hardej says. Real estate would have been cheaper.

“We could have been 10 or 20 miles away and still be a local producer,” Mr. Hardej says.

The company also might have been able to work with a smaller local government to get permits and rework zoning and other regulations, because indoor farming was a new type of land use, Mr. Hardej says. While FarmedHere produced some crops profitably, it spent a lot on overhead for lawyers and accountants “to deal with the regulations,” he says.

Mr. Hardej is now co-founder and chief executive officer of Civic Farms LLC, a company that develops a “2.0” version of the vertical farm, he says—more efficient operations that take into account the lessons learned. Civic Farms is collaborating with the University of Arizona on a research and development center at Biosphere 2, the Earth science research facility in Oracle, Ariz., where it runs a vertical farm and develops new technologies.

Blossoming tech

New technology will improve the economic viability of vertical farms, says Mr. Gordon-Smith. New cameras, sensors and smartphone apps help monitor plant growth. One company is even developing augmented-reality glasses that can show workers which plants to pick, Mr. Gordon-Smith says.

“That is making the payback look a lot better,” he says. “The future is bright for vertical farming, but if you’re building a vertical farm today, be ready for a challenge.”

Some cities are trying to propagate more urban farms and ease the regulatory burden of setting them up. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed created the post of urban agriculture director in December 2015, with a goal of putting local healthy food within a half-mile of 75% of the city’s residents by 2020. The job includes attracting urban-farming projects to Atlanta and helping projects obtain funding and permits, says Mario Cambardella, who holds the director title.

“I want to be ahead of the curve; I don’t want to be behind,” he says.

Many groups are taking more low-tech or smaller-scale approaches. A program called BetterLife Growers Inc. in Atlanta plans to break ground this fall on a series of greenhouses in an underserved area of the city, where it will grow lettuce and herbs in 2,900 “tower gardens,” thick trunks that stand in large tubs. The plants will be propagated in rock wool, a growing medium consisting of cotton-candy-like fibers made of a melted combination of rock and sand, and then placed into pods in the columns, where they will be regularly watered with a nutrient solution pumped through the tower, says Ellen Macht, president of BetterLife Growers.

BetterLife Growers will use ‘tower gardens’ like these to grow lettuce and herbs in Atlanta. Photo: Scissortail Farms

The produce will be sold to local educational and medical institutions. “What we wanted to do was create jobs and come up with a product that institutions could use,” she says.

The $12.5 million project is funded in part by a loan from the city of Atlanta, with Mr. Cambardella helping by educating grant managers on the growing system and its importance.

Change at home

Another company aims to bring vertical farming to the kitchen. Agrilution GmbH, based in Munich, Germany, plans to start selling a “plantCube” later this year that looks like a mini-refrigerator and grows greens using LED lights and an automatic watering system that can be controlled from a smartphone. “The idea is to really make it a commodity kitchen device,” says Max Loessl, Agrilution’s co-founder and chief executive officer, of the appliance, which will cost 2,000 euros—about $2,200—initially.

The goal is to sell enough to bring the price down, so that in five years the appliance is affordable enough for most people in the developed world, Mr. Loessl says.

Biofilta’s Foodwall system of connected containers requires minimal watering. Photo: Ben Mulligan

Biofilta, the company Mr. Condon co-founded, is marketing the Foodwall, a modular system of connected containers, an approach that he calls “deliberately low tech” because it doesn’t require electricity or computers to operate. The tubs are filled with a soil-based mix and a “wicking garden-bed technology” that stores and sucks water up from the bottom of the tub to nourish the plants without the need for pumps. The plants need to be watered just once a week in summer, or every three to four weeks in the winter, says Chief Executive Marc Noyce. The tubs can be connected vertically or horizontally on rooftops, balconies or backyards. “We’ve made this gardening for dummies,” Mr. Noyce says.

The Foodwall can use composted food waste and harvested rainwater, helping to turn cities into “closed-loop food-production powerhouses,” Mr. Condon says.

He and Mr. Noyce were motivated to design the Foodwall by a projection from local experts that only 18% of the food consumed in their home city of Melbourne, Australia, will be grown locally by 2050, compared with 41% today, Mr. Noyce says.

“We were shocked,” says Mr. Noyce. “We’re going to be beholden to other states and other countries dictating our pricing for our own food.”

“Then we started to look at this trend around the world and found it was exactly the same,” he says.

Traditional, rural farming is far from being replaced by all of these new technologies, experts say. The need for food is simply too great. But urban projects can provide a steady supply of fresh produce, helping to improve diets and make a city’s food supply more secure, they say.

“While rural farmers will remain essential to feeding cities, cleverly designed urban farming can produce most of the vegetable requirements of a city,” Mr. Condon says.

Ms. McKay is a senior writer in The Wall Street Journal’s Atlanta bureau. She can be reached at betsy.mckay@wsj.com.

Appeared in the May. 15, 2017, print edition.

It's A season of Renewal At A Farm In Downtown Salt Lake City

It's A season of Renewal At A Farm In Downtown Salt Lake City

By Sandra Olney  |  Posted May 5th, 2017 @ 7:31pm

SALT LAKE CITY — Signs of new life are popping up in gardens across Utah this time of year. And there's a different type of renewal taking root on a farm in Salt Lake's Depot District.

Urban farmer Nikki Long says, "I never used to like my hands to get dirty ever."

But Long has been digging deep into the soil over the past year.

"And now I am touching the dirt and I am planting lots of plants in the dirt," Long says.

Last August, Long started working on the Green Team Farm, a 1½-acre urban vegetable garden in downtown Salt Lake. And that is when Long says she started to feel like "there's a spiritual healing in here (the farm)."

It has taken a combination of faith and hard work to transform this once garbage-strewn vacant lot into what farm director James Loomis calls an emerald eden.

In fact, Loomis says his half-dozen female farmers "want to be here more often and work more hours."

Talking about dedication and perseverance in the face of tough conditions, Loomis says, "If you have any doubt about the work ethic of these women, you come work with me for a day."

The labor can be intense, but the women don't mind the challenging work. They've taken the produce operation through a growing season, a bitter winter and into spring planting. It's been a period of renewal for the farmers as well.

"This has been a great spiritual healing for me. I was so disconnected that just the minute I stepped on this ground, it was like amazing," Long says.

Loomis tells us he knows how to grow vegetables and other farm products easily, but his biggest challenge on the Green Team Farm has been cultivating a sense of pride and self-confidence in the gardeners.

"Growing people's mojo and self-worth, you know I'm still taking notes on how to do that," Loomis says.

Why? Because these women have been trying to dig their way out of homelessness for years now.

"It was real tough. I had to learn how to stand on my own two feet again," Long says.

Signs of new life are popping up in gardens across Utah this time of year. There's a different type of renewal taking root on a farm in Salt Lake's Depot District. (KSL TV)

And just like the green shoots of new growth on the farm, hopeful signs are popping up. Long and two fellow gardeners have moved into downtown apartments in the last couple of months.

"It makes me feel that I can start life again," Long says.

Loomis is excited about what he's witnessed. "I've seen miraculous change in every one of the participants that have stuck with us."

The Green Team Farm is the newest piece of a patchwork of programs designed to put the homeless to work while they find full-time employment and permanent housing.

"It makes me incredibly optimistic for the long-term vision of this farm," Loomis says.

The farmers are also paying their success forward. Everything they grow this season will be donated to a Headstart program for low-income pre-schoolers.

Long stands in the middle of the farm and tells us, "I was meant to be here. I didn't stumble this time, I wasn't forced to be here."

And now look at how she's grown. "I love the soil," Long says.

The Green Team farmers start their workdays with yoga and meditation. It's been life-changing for the women who often suffer from stress and anxiety.

This spring, Long is completing her training to be a power yoga instructor

GrowTO Urban Agriculture Action Plan, Toronto: Urban Food Policy Snapshot

GrowTO Urban Agriculture Action Plan, Toronto: Urban Food Policy Snapshot

Photo credit: Jessica Reeve

Policy name: GrowTO Urban Agriculture Action Plan

Location: Toronto, Canada

• Population: 2.6 million

Food policy category: Sustainable agriculture

Program goals

• Provide urban farmers with more spaces where they can produce food
• Promoting existing education programs and develop new education programs about urban agriculture
• Increase publicity and marketing of urban agriculture
• Direct more funding towards urban agriculture
• Increase composting
• Change local laws to make urban agriculture easier and more profitable

Program initiation

• The GrowTO plan was released by the Toronto Food Policy Council in 2012. The plan was a collaborative effort by multiple food and environmental organizations in the city.
• The Toronto City Council officially adopted the GrowTO plan in 2012, and in 2013 released the Toronto Agricultural Program, which recorded the progress of urban agriculture in Toronto and proposed future actions the city could take to accomplish the goals of the GrowTO plan.
• The Toronto Agriculture Program also led to the establishment of a Steering Committee made up of City Staff from a number of different divisions as well as instrumental community partners. This Steering Committee was tasked with overseeing an outlined initial short-term and long-term work plan.

How it works

The GrowTO Urban Agriculture Action Plan outlines six priorities: linking growers to land and space, strengthening education and training, increasing visibility and promotion, adding value to urban gardens, cultivating relationships, and developing supportive policies.

The first priority, linking growers to land and space, involves taking an inventory of all the public spaces in the city which may be good locations for urban farming, and making those spaces available to groups who want to open new urban farms.

The second priority, strengthening education and training, incorporates multiple goals. One is developing a K-12 curriculum on food literacy and farming skills. Another involves starting community classes that are open to everyone, which would be on topics including composting, food growing, and business planning.

To increase visibility and promotion, the action plan proposes creating a “Grown in TO” brand so customers can easily identify locally grown food. The plan also proposes other marketing strategies, including an expanded, comprehensive website, walking and bike tours, food festivals, and a city awards program, among others.

The section on adding value to urban farms focuses on funding for urban agriculture, with strategies including creating city grants, creating crowd sourcing opportunities, and connecting social investors to farming initiatives. The plan also proposes using city waste to make compost and creating facilities to handle post-harvest food processing.

The action plan proposes cultivating relationships with various institutions, including universities, day care centers, senior housing facilities, city government branches, and various community groups. It includes a commitment to supporting the city’s Growing Food Justice For All Initiative.

Finally, the plan outlines many supportive policies which can stimulate urban agriculture in Toronto. Zoning laws should be updated, and residents should be allowed to keep hens in their back yards and sell the food they grow in their backyards at farmer’s markets, among other changes.

Progress to date

Numerous urban agriculture projects have popped up in Toronto since the GrowTO action plan was adopted. They are located in empty lots, on rooftops, in schoolyards, and on residents’ personal property.

Entrepreneurs and community organizers have looked to urban farming opportunities as a means of supporting economic development, the creation of small businesses, and to build up and enhance communities. Many farmers are now exploring ways to grow indoors or in shipping containers using hydroponics, or other systems, in addition to the many programs and businesses growing outside and in public spaces.

Through the Toronto Agriculture Program, the city has devoted significant time and energy to developing opportunities for urban farmers, such as allowing them to grow their own produce in hydro corridors. This begins to address the dilemma that many would-be farmers face in getting access to land in Toronto and being allowed to sell the food grown on that land.

Toronto has drawn a lot of attention for the development of an urban farm, Black Creek Community Farm, in the City’s Jane and Finch neighbourhood, in partnership with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. This farm has become an embedded part of the community and is a hub for food justice work. Based on the success of this farm, the city is currently exploring the feasibility of establishing another farm.

Why the program is important

Research has shown that urban agriculture is beneficial for human health as well as for the environment. Multiple studies have found that gardeners tend to eat more fruits and vegetables than non-gardeners. Urban farming also increases a community’s food security, since their food is less dependent on distant sources.

Urban agriculture can also lower a city’s greenhouse gas footprint. When more food is grown locally, rather than being shipped from hundreds of miles away, less carbon dioxide is burned in order to provide food to an urban population. In addition, urban agriculture offers the opportunity to reduce waste by composting, and to reduce the need to transport waste out of a city.

Evaluation

The Toronto Food Policy Council and Toronto Urban Growers have recently done a review of GrowTO as well as the Toronto Agriculture Program Work Plan, but a formal review of the work plan, making connections back to the goals outlined in GrowTO, needs to be brought back to the Toronto Agriculture Program Steering Committee at the City. This is expected to take place in 2017.

The Toronto Urban Growers, through Toronto Public Health, have also recently completed a report to develop urban agriculture indicators that would be used to measure the impact of urban agriculture within the City of Toronto.

Learn more

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2012/pe/bgrd/backgroundfile-51558.pdf

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2013/pe/bgrd/backgroundfile-62375.pdf

Point of contact

tfpc@toronto.ca

Similar practices

• The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative has started a large urban agriculture project in Detroit, to combat both unemployment and food insecurity
• Chicago recently began an urban farming initiative using federal grant money. The city will be hiring its first full-time urban agriculture coordinator to oversee the effort to establish more urban farms.

References

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2012/pe/bgrd/backgroundfile-51558.pdf

http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2013/pe/bgrd/backgroundfile-62375.pdf

http://www.co.fresno.ca.us/uploadedFiles/Departments/Behavioral_Health/MHSA/Health%20Benefits%20of%20Urban%20Agriculture%20(1-8).pdf

http://www.ecowatch.com/urban-farming-david-suzuki-1984874080.html

Is Farming In a Box Viable, or Just a Fad?

Is Farming In a Box Viable, or Just a Fad?

May 8, 2017 | Trish Popovitch

Bed in a bag, soup in a jar, cake in a cup and now ‘farm in a box’? As many urban-ag-ers jump on the shipping container farm bandwagon that’s made inroads across the pro-grow community, some are wondering if the farm in a shipping container idea is really as cost effective and sustainable as it may at first appear. Hydroponics has proven a sustainable and reliable method for growing food in the city. Where concrete fields abound, so do vertical towers. Yet some would argue that a successful hydroponics system needs more than an upcycled shipping container to sustain success.

In states with short growing seasons and tumultuous weather, the idea of an indoor, self-contained growing unit employed to produce consistent and plentiful yields and steady revenue streams seems like the ideal solution for spreading sustainability, growing local and decreasing the impact of long established food deserts.Essentially, the typical farm in a box is an upcycled shipping container with approximately 320 square-feet of grow space outfitted with a custom hydroponic kit utilizing vertical growing systems. The farmer, or entrepreneur, who invests anywhere from $70,000 – $125,000 in a single farm unit has the potential to produce hundreds of pounds of leafy greens that he/she can sell to restaurant and wholesale customers, or at the farmers’ market. Some farmers have had success while others have

Nate Storey, founder of Bright Agrotech, the world’s leading manufacturer of vertical grow towers, believes in hydroponics and the water saving science that lies behind his highly successful product. Storey is not a fan of putting his growing containers in, well… shipping containers.

“So my opinion is that shipping containers are great for shipping things around the world and a serious compromise for anything else. I believe that container farming is possible, but shipping containers are the wrong way to do it,” says Storey.

Storey has no issue with the idea of a self-contained farm but every business needs room to operate effectively and for this reason, Storey finds freight containers too small.

“I’ve never known anyone with the patience or bankroll to grow in a freight container for more than a few years,” he says. “And given the fact that they depreciate very, very quickly compared to most other farms, shipping containers are a pretty questionable investment.”

As Storey explains, flexibility is a must in the container farmer’s world. Without room to grow, experiment and even expand, the container farmer is limited. “There are folks like Modular Farms selling containers that are larger than shipping containers and fabricated specifically for plant production. I think that those types of farms have a future,” says Storey. “Those are the types of container farms that will ultimately own the container market because they were designed with intent.”

Even with a preference for the larger container on the market, Storey feels warehouse space is still the best option for many. “Most growers growing in warehouses are doing quite well on the other hand, and warehouses are typically more valuable after years of growing/occupancy than they were before.  Folks are getting better yields because they have more room to operate and more systems flexibility,” says Storey.

In the world of sustainable agriculture, the desire, often the need, to be as sustainable as possible can cause issues. Repurposing can facilitate startups and demonstrate a commitment to bettering the planet through mindful growing practices. Yet sustainable businesses must be sustainable. If rapid expansion is necessary to facilitate the growth of a business, perhaps a warehouse makes more sense than a row of used shipping containers. If leasing warehouse space is not in the startup budget, perhaps a container farm would provide a temporary platform for a new brand. A chance for short growing season states, like that of Wyoming-based Bright Agrotech, to extend the growing season, farming in shipping containers needs careful planning to insure long-term success.

“Ultimately, I’m excited to see anyone farming locally, but we really need to be discerning about what is worth investing in and what is not,” concludes Storey.

AeroFarms Partners With 100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation To combat Climate Change And Food Insecurity

AeroFarms Partners With 100 Resilient Cities – Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation To combat Climate Change And Food Insecurity

AeroFarms, the world leader in indoor vertical farming announces a strategic partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities to combat climate change and food insecurity.

100 Resilient Cities - Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation (100RC) helps cities around the world become more resilient to social, economic, and physical challenges that are a growing part of the 21st century. 100RC provides this assistance through: funding for a Chief Resilience Officer in each city who will lead the resilience efforts; resources for drafting a Resilience Strategy; access to private sector, public sector, academic, and NGO resilience tools; and membership in a global network of peer cities to share best practices and challenges.

Feeding a growing population while stemming the tide of climate change is a major challenge for cities all over the world and AeroFarms will offer its expertise in addressing these pressing issues to the 100RC members.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer our considerable expertise and experience to help make cities more food resilient and find effective and creative ways to address food security, and announcing this strategic partnership at the annual Seeds + Chips Global Innovation Summit in Milan, Italy where Milan is one of the 100 Resilient Cities is the perfect way to kick off this program as we look to build responsible farms all over the world” said AeroFarms CEO David Rosenberg.

AeroFarms joins a prestigious group of other “Platform Partners” that have committed to helping cities around the world prepare for, withstand, and bounce back from the ‘shocks’ – catastrophic events like hurricanes, fires, and floods – and ‘stresses’ – slow-moving disasters like water shortages, homelessness, and unemployment – that are increasingly part of 21st century life.

“In an increasingly complex and challenging world, cities need partnerships with leading companies like AeroFarms to help build a global resilience movement particularly for food security, just when it is needed most,” said Michael Berkowitz, President of 100 Resilient Cities.

Strategic Platform Partners are dedicated to providing 100RC network cities with solutions that integrate big data, analytics, technology, resilience land use planning, infrastructure design, and new financing and insuring products. Other 100RC Platform Partners include Microsoft, The World Bank, Ernst & Young, Siemins, Cisco, The Nature Conservancy, Save the Children, and World Wildlife Fund.

For more information, visit: www.100ResilientCities.org.

About AeroFarms

Founded in 2004 and having built 9 farms to date, AeroFarms® is on a mission to fundamentally change the way the world thinks about agriculture by building, owning, and operating indoor, vertical farms that grow flavorful, safe, healthy food in a sustainable and socially responsible way. AeroFarms patented indoor vertical farming systems make year- round harvests with peak flavor possible while disrupting the traditional distribution channels that lead to massive carbon emissions and food waste. AeroFarms is able to bring the farm to the consumer while mitigating the food safety and environmental risk of commercial field farming.

Obama Gave His First Speech Abroad, Post-Presidency, at Seeds&Chips

Obama Gave His First Speech Abroad, Post-Presidency, at Seeds&Chips

Former U.S. President Barack Obama spoke abroad for the first time since leaving office in January 2017. Hundreds of people attended his keynote speech at the Seeds&Chips Global Food Innovation Summit in Milan, Italy. Obama, dressed in an unbuttoned collar rather than his usual tie, began with remarks about his agricultural policy achievements and why food issues are intriguing to him.

“It is possible for us to make real and steady progress over the next few years,” former President Obama stated. “The path to a sustainable future will require better seeds, better storage, crops that grow with less water, and crops that can grow in extreme climates.”

Obama sat down with one of his advisors and former White House chef, Sam Kass. They discussed topics ranging from innovations in the food sector to the problem of food waste. They also talked about issues like the rise in global sea levels, clean energy, and the future of personalized medicine.

The focus of the 2017 Seeds&Chips Summit is about finding and promoting innovative agricultural solutions for a growing population. Obama stated, “Politicians can help guide change but change is going to happen by what people do every day. Essentially, millions of decisions are being made daily that influence our society.”

Later, he added, “If you want to make progress in food, you have to take into account the farmers themselves. Of course, much of agriculture is dominated by big business, but small and medium-sized farms need to be involved in change, as well. These farmers feel that they are always just a step away from losing their farms. If you put an environmental political agenda over these farmers’ economic prosperity, they will resist changing how they grow crops.”

According to Obama, right now he is writing his third book and enjoying being in his own house again. He has spent much of his time strategizing with former First Lady Michelle Obama about their next phase of work. Obama plans to set up a premiere institution in America that teaches the next generation of activists.

7 Innovative Solutions That'll Help Us Combat Climate Change & Give Us A Chance At Survival

7 Innovative Solutions That'll Help Us Combat Climate Change & Give Us A Chance At Survival

 ANJALI BISARIA 

MAY 10, 2017

If there ever was a time to innovate, it is now. 

The threat of climate change has sprung several architects and designers into action to devise alternatives that work for everyone. Most of these ideas will be taken to fruition in the future to counter every ill-effect caused by global warming.

These 7 solutions will tackle sea level rises, greenhouse emissions, and the changes in rainfall and temperatures. Based on revolutionary technologies, these solutions will give us hope for survival.

1. Skyscrapers that rotate

A building that can self-sustain using the energies present in nature has to be one of the most intelligent solutions to climate change. 

DYNAMIC ARCHITECTURE GROUP

Already under construction in Dubai, a rotating skyscraper designed by David Fisher will power itself with terrace-mounted solar panels and 79 horizontal wind turbines that will be placed between every storey. The focus here is on solar-powered panels wherein the energy will be clean and devoid of emission.

2. Crops that beat the heat

Traditionally, selective breeding methods have helped crops adapt to different climates. But the need to have drought- and heat-resistant crops is the need of the hour. 

BLACK GOLD

Scientists believe that genetic engineering is a great solution for driving characteristics from drought-tolerant species and introducing them into crops. While drought-resistance varieties of maize are being tested in Canada, drought-tolerant wheat is being tested in Egypt.

3. Skyscrapers that are farms

Climate change is making it difficult for crops to grow in a healthy environment and to slow the pace of this disintegration, vertical farms are one of the best ideas anyone has had in a very long time. 

PAWEL LIPIŃSKI AND MATEUSZ FRANKOWSKI

Vertical gardens with hundreds of species of plants have already become a reality in places like Bengaluru and China. Now the focus is on the farms - one is being planned in Africa where a skyscraper of crops will aim to bring Green Revolution to the sub-Saharan Africa. 

But what these farms will really achieve is this - solar-powered lighting, healthy crop cultivation, protection of crops from floods and droughts, and prevention of water and resource wastage.

4. Air conditioners that use solar energy

In a resource limited world that is being consistently pushed into the arms of climate change, we need to think bigger and better. To that end, solar-empowered air conditioners are the next big change we must accept. 

INFO-OGRZEWANIE

Solar-enabled air conditioners continue to cool even when the sun is at its peak and even provide hot water. By using thermal energy, the system compresses air that sprays refrigerant out of a jet. In the process, once this refrigerant evaporates, it sucks in heat. 

5. Houses that float

The sea level is expected to rise by a metre or more by the year 2100. Taking that into consideration, low-lying areas such as Bangladesh, Australia, and the Netherlands will face great peril. 

INHABITAT

Scientists think that houses, communities, and even cities will be "rethought" so that they can withstand a dangerous rise in the sea level. The Netherlands has created what is known as amphibious homes that are anchored to a vertical pile and come equipped with hollow concrete cubes giving the houses the buoyancy they need to withstand a five-metre rise in the sea levels. 

6. Artificial glaciers

Our glaciers are melting and cracking with alarming speed, aiding toward the rise in sea level and dwindling the supply to agricultural lands. Chewang Norphel, who is a retired civil engineer, came up with a genius idea to use artificial glaciers to keep the water supply alive especially in summers.

INDIEGOGO

A resident of Ladakh, Norphel's system pumps water into shallow pools that have rocky embankments. In winters, these pools freeze and once water is added, they gradually form a sheet of ice. In summers, the water melts and aids the sowing of crops. 

7. Cities that float

Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut's intelligent design for a floating city has grabbed eyeballs. His floating sustainable city will be based on a giant lily pad, which according to Callebaut, will win us our fight against rising sea levels. 

VINCENT CALLEBAUT

This floating city will be home to 50,000 climate refugees. It will help in collecting their own rainwater into a centralised lake system which in turn will help in generating power from renewable sources such as the wind, waves, and solar power. 

Climate change is a challenge that needs to be tackled head-on but that effort just can't be the responsibility of a few. We must join forces to either take forward these initiatives or come up with our own solutions to extend the life of our beautiful planet. 

Harris County Pushes Vertical Farming Course

Harris County Pushes Vertical Farming Course

By Mihir Zaveri

Published 10:57 am, Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Staff

Sprouts grow at Moonflower Farms, which uses hydroponics and is Houston's first commercial indoor vertical farm.

Harris County wants to develop a training program on indoor, vertical farming as part of its effort to reduce childhood obesity in north Pasadena.

Commissioners Court this week approved an agreement with the non-profit Association for Vertical Farming to develop a one-semester course that could be taught at an indoor farm in Pasadena. The county has been working with the city of Pasadena to set up the effort.

"The purpose of the training is to teach students and residents about the science and technology of various methods of producing healthy food," county documents state.

The county will pay the association $25,000 for implementing the course.

The industry is extremely small in Texas and the Houston area. But it could be growing.

Internationally, vertical farming has garnered more interest given concerns over population growth, food shortages, a lack of arable land, water supply and climate change. The market is expected to grow worldwide by more than 27 percent annually through 2022, according to Irish firm Research and Markets.

In March, Moonflower Farms became Houston's first commercial indoor farm. The compnay has a 900-square-foot space in south Houston.

County officials said nurturing workforce training in the agriculture technology field could help further understanding of healthy food, in turn reducing childhood obesity in the "food desert" of north Pasadena, according to backup materials provided to Commissioners Court.

Vertical Farm Competes With Conventional AG

Vertical Farm Competes With Conventional AG

 MAY 10, 2017 DAVID KUACK

Famgro Farms is using a vertical farm production system to successfully compete with conventional farming to produce healthier, better tasting food.

Steve Fambro, CEO at Famgro Farms in Oceanside, Calif., isn’t your typical farmer. And his “farm” isn’t the typical agricultural operation. It’s located in a 10,000-square-foot building that was previously used to make surf boards.

Prior to starting Famgro Farms, Fambro, who is an electrical engineer by training, raised $30-$40 million to start electric car company Aptera Motors in 2006. While working at Aptera, Fambro and his wife converted to an organic lifestyle.

“After buying organic produce for a few years I started asking myself why are these products so expensive?,” Fambro said. “I determined a large part of the cost of organic farming is the labor, including the weeding, tending to the plants, etc. I hypothesized that if we could think about things differently and design from the ground up with scale and automation in mind, then we could lower the cost of food. That was really the genesis of Famgro Farms.”

Steve Fambro, CEO of Famgro Farms, developed a vertical growing system that he said is more efficient than greenhouse and field food crop production. 
Photos courtesy of Famgro Farms.

Building a better production system

Fambro, who left Aptera in 2009, started Famgro Farms in 2010. His goal was to produce a premium line of pesticide- and herbicide-free food.

“We don’t sell hardware. We don’t sell technology. We don’t sell farms. We sell the best food consumers can buy,” Fambro said. “We deliver on that promise of fresh, local, chemical-free, always in season and always available.” In order to realize his aspirations, Fambro said a completely new production platform had to be developed.

“We had to design and manufacture every component of it,” he said. “Trying to use off-the-shelf products like lighting and hydroponic systems wasn’t going to work.

“In systems engineering, which is my background, you have to think about everything from how is the electrical power delivered to the building to how it is delivered to the circuit boards. Looking at off-the-shelf components, they become a nightmare when connecting all of the parts in a system. From a system’s engineering perspective, whether it is cooling, water-proofing or serviceability, all of it has been designed to work together.”

Fambro said it took three generations of designing and building a vertical farm platform over a 2-year period to come up with an operable system.

“We are currently using the third generation platform and each one was radically different, better and cheaper than the previous platform,” he said. “That’s a rule of engineering, from concept to production usually takes three reps. “The vertical farm platform we developed has been designed to easily change between a substrate and a hydroponic system. The one we are currently using is a hydroponic system.”

Famgro Farms is growing some microgreens and herbs, but kale is its bread-and-butter crop.

Deciding what to grow

Fambro said his company has grown about 100 different kinds of leafy greens, herbs, flowers and pharmaceutical plants in the vertical farming system.

“The platform is easily adapted for many different plants, both flowering and food crops,” he said. “Right now our focus is just on food items. We went through a phase where we had to stop developing the platform. We proved that it worked and had to develop a brand around this locally-grown, chemical-free food.”

Initially Fambro said his company began with too many crops.

“We would contact retailers and offer them five different kinds of basil,” he said. “They didn’t know which one to buy and they ended up not buying any of them. We pared our offerings down to something that we thought we could grow better than anybody else. The one crop we chose to focus on was kale. Our kale, which we have branded as “Sweet Kale”, is tender and sweet. These characteristics are immediately observable to the consumer. The different kale varieties that we grow are as soft as lettuce. We’re also growing some microgreens and herbs, but the kale is our bread-and-butter crop.”

Famgro Farms sells half of its produce to grocery stores and the other half to restaurants. Retailers of Famgro’s products in southern California include Whole Foods Market, Barons, Cardiff Seaside Market and other local grocery stores.

Famgro Farms promotes its products as being free of pesticides and herbicides.

Addressing food production issues

Fambro said the businesses and consumers purchasing his company’s produce are mindful of labels and environmental issues.

“Most of the lettuce produced in the U.S. is coming from California and Arizona,” he said. “The biggest user of water in California is the agriculture industry. People identify with water use and conservation. They want to know if they can buy a brand that is mindful of the environment, mindful of using no chemicals and mindful of workers’ rights. Customers care about those issues.

“The way we produce leafy greens in this country is broken. The system is so labor intensive. That method of production is not sustainable.”

Fambro said his company has plans for expansion, but that expansion won’t occur in California.

“We are in the heart of “America’s Salad Bowl”,” he said. “If we can compete here, and we do, then that is a real testament to how our company’s technology works. We are able to compete with produce that is grown in fields 100 miles away. That whole value proposition becomes even more powerful the further away one gets from California. If we can compete with cheaper produce, more of which is being grown in Mexico, that validates our model.

“We are producing food and delivering it at the exact time and in the quantities that our customers want it. We are radically simplifying cold storage and the logistics. If you compare production systems, ours might use more electricity than greenhouse or field farming, but you have to consider the total energy use. That includes the energy used to create the fertilizers and other chemicals applied in field farming and the energy in the form of fuel used in tractors and other harvesting equipment. If you add all of that up, our vertical farming system is more efficient and more sustainable.”

Championing The Green Cause

Championing The Green Cause

From 'Zero Waste Runners' to green farmers, Singaporeans are finding ways to help save the environment.

May 5, 2017 5:50 AM

by: TAY SUAN CHIANGtaysc@sph.com.sg@TaySuanChiangBT

ON April 30, nearly 10,000 participants took part in a competitive run that took them through Gardens By The Bay, Marina Barrage and The Singapore Flyer. But this was no ordinary run. The participants were racing towards a "Zero Waste" future at the Income Eco Run.

The participants included a special group of 1,500 runners who took their commitment to the green cause to the next level by racing as "Zero Waste Runners". These runners opted not to receive their respective finishers' entitlements, such as medals for all categories and a finisher's tee for the 21.1 km Half Marathon category in a bid to reduce waste. As a result, 87.8kg of fabric and 150kg of metal were saved.

It was the first time the race introduced the option for runners to race as a "Zero Waste Runner" and it was fully subscribed before registration closed at the start of April.

All 10,000 runners were encouraged to bring their own water bottles to reduce the use of plastic bottles and paper cups. Instead of paper certificates, post-run e-certificates were given out, finisher medals were produced from recycled metal and bio-diesel fuel was used to run the generators.

The event also readily offered sorting cans for trash to be recycled and provided bicycle racks on race day to encourage participants to cycle to the race venue. Participants were also encouraged to carpool or to take the shuttle bus services to the event.

SEE ALSO: Urban farming flourishes in New York

 Marcus Chew, NTUC Income's chief marketing officer, said: "We set out to take ownership of the race this year to champion a sustainable future. We are heartened by the level of participation in this 'green' run, especially the eager subscription for the 'Zero Waste Runner' category. This shows that many of us are ready to do our part for a sustainable future." 

BT Lifestyle looks at other green warriors and initiatives in Singapore.

From city boy to urban farmer

A VISIT to a rice farm in Cambodia changed Darren Ho's life. The self-professed city boy had been working in a bank, but is now a full-time urban farmer.

"I was touring Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, and in Cambodia, I visited a friend's farm, and was amazed by what they were doing and it sparked my interest in sustainable farming," he recalls. "I started hanging out with the farmers on their rice farms."

Instead of doing touristy activities in Thailand and Malaysia, he spent his time working on farms to get hands-on experience and learnt the tricks of the trade.

Later in university, he gave up his finance course, and switched to studying natural resource management and economics at the University of Western Australia, which covered topics such as sustainable agriculture, town planning and agriculture economics.

In between his studies, he found time to start his college's first vegetable farm. Most of his classmates' families owned farms, and he spent his time working there too. "I would be helping out on the fruit, dairy and vegetable farms," he recalls.

Back in Singapore, he spent some time working at Bollywood Veggies, and later at Comcrop and Edible Garden City, both of which are urban farming companies.

Today, Mr Ho, 28, is head of partners at Citizen Farm, a six-month-old production driven farm, which aims to reconnect the community with agriculture while building sustainable urban farming methods.

Located in Queenstown, the 8,000 sq m farm has both indoor and outdoor farming. Inside the farmhouses, hydroponics is used to grow microgreens including baby argula, which Citizen Farm supplies to restaurants such as The Tippling Club and Salted and Hung.

Elsewhere on the farm, vegetables such as spinach, kale and shard are grown. "We choose to grow high value crops, rather than chye sim and kailan since other farms are already growing them," says Mr Ho.

Besides vegetables, Citizen Farm also grows mushrooms, and has the facility to rear fish, such as the jade perch. In the works is insect farming, particularly the black soldier fly.

The black soldier fly larvae play a similar role to that of redworms as essential decomposers in breaking down organic substrates and returning nutrients to the soil. The larvae are also a source of sustainable protein for aquaculture, and animal feed, and pet and human nutrition.

"We practise a closed-loop farming system, and aim to be an importer of food waste, turning waste into fertility through our insect and mushroom project, and become a net exporter of fresh, safe and affordable food," says Mr Ho.

Since Citizen Farm is a production farm, Mr Ho says, "we want to build an e-commerce platform by year-end, where we can sell our produce to consumers". Currently, the farm is only at 10 per cent of its maximum production level.

His family initially wasn't keen on Mr Ho becoming a farmer, but are now fully supportive after seeing what he has done.

With Citizen Farm, Mr Ho hopes to show that urban farming is possible despite the common refrain that there is no land to farm in Singapore. "It is possible to grow vegetables in office buildings at night if a system is put in place," he suggests, adding that urban farming should be for everyone.

For now, Citizen Farm is testing out farming at an unutilised spot under West Coast Viaduct. There, containers have been set up to grow microgreens and mushroom.

Mr Ho says life as an urban farmer is "meaningful. After all, farming produces food that everyone requires".

Even the roof sprouts greenery

ARCHITECTURE firm Woha is no stranger to skyrise greenery. Public housing SkyVille@Dawson and hotels Parkroyal on Pickering and Oasia Hotel Downtown all have lots of greenery. Even its office on Hong Kong Street is filled with greens, such as potted plants along the windows and a vertical garden in the middle of the office.

Even the rooftop has not been spared. Over the last two years, a group of about 20 staff have been working hard to create a rooftop farm.

Architectural designer Jonathan Choe says: "The organic rooftop urban farm aims to show how skyrise greenery can not only look attractive and be an enjoyable space, but it can be productive too."

Mr Choe heads the firm's farming club and he and his colleagues spend Friday afternoons tending to their urban farm.

Over 100 species of edible plants thrive on the rooftop farm, including herbs such as mint and dill, and vegetables such as water chestnut, sweet potato, bitter gourd, and fruits such as passionfruit, bananas, grapes and even strawberries.

The edible plants are grown in fibreglass planters, loose pots, on trellises and within an aquaponics system, all of which are watered via auto-irrigation.

The 200 sq m rooftop farm is divided into two sections. The front is a productive showcase farm garden where staff can sit and chill among the greenery with butterflies and sunbirds, together with a pond filled with tilapia fish and consumable water plants.

The space at the back is used for planting activities, such as potting and propagation, and experiments with different urban farming systems. There are plans to cover this area with a netting so that creeping vines can be grown.

A highlight of the farm is the aquaponics system, which consists of the tilapia fish pond and a sloped planter bed. Water containing fish waste is pumped from the pond into the sloped planter bed, where it is cleaned and filtered by the plants and vegetables growing within and returned by gravity to the fish pond through custom stainless steel water spouts.

"Tilapia fish are hardy, and they grow fast. Our tilapia can be eaten, but we haven't decided if we will do that eventually," quips Mr Choe.

Organic waste produced by the office is collected and composted in both compost aerating tumblers and a warm composting system. Fresh compost and worm castings are then used to return nutrients to the soil.

In addition, there is large tank on the rooftop to collect rainwater, which is filtered and then used to water the plants. Mr Choe says that the rainwater collection tank has enough water for two weeks. The office has also installed solar panels on the rooftop and while the solar power generated is not needed for farming, it supplies around 7 per cent of the power consumed by the office.

Fellow colleague Serena Khor finds it therapeutic to come up to the farm whenever things get too stressful at work.

The fruits of their labour are shared with everyone in the office. "We have colleagues who cook in the office, and often they come up here to snip some vegetables to add to their cooking," she says.

Mr Choe says the challenge was finding the right plants to grow, as some plants do not grow well in a tropical environment.

At the same time, he is surprised to see how hardy some plants are. "I thought some of the plants would be affected on days when there is a thunderstorm, but they still turned out fine," he says.

There are plans to explore the potential of raising chickens and quails in an urban rooftop environment. "If successful, it will improve food security, through integrating skyrise greenery with farming," says Mr Choe.

Back to his roots

CHIAM Yiak Joo, 54, recalls his childhood days growing up on a farm in Mandai, which belonged to his grandparents and was passed down to his parents.

"We reared chickens, pigs and ducks, and grew vegetables and had fruit trees," Mr Chiam says fondly. The family had to give up farming in 1990, when the government acquired the land. "Until today, the land has not been used," says Mr Chiam wistfully.

Mr Chiam spent about 20 years as an IT professional in the research and development, human resource, payroll and semiconductor industries. But the thought of becoming a farmer never left his mind.

Four years ago, he left the corporate world and took a break to spend time with his family, cycling and fishing. "I spent time appreciating life," he says. It was also during this time that he and his wife, a teacher, had the chance to do farming on a small plot of land in Kranji.

There, they experimented with chemical-free farming. "We didn't use any pesticides, herbicides or artificial fertilisers," he says. They grew a variety of vegetables such as lettuce and nai bai, which he distributed to close friends and family.

Today, Mr Chiam is a volunteer farmer at Onesimus Garden on Neo Tiew Road. The Onesimus Garden is a 3.4 hectare plot of land dedicated to the mission of the Onesimus Ministry, which aims to transform lives and touch communities through the use of farm restorative therapy. Mr Chiam is not a member of the ministry.

He has two plots of land in the garden, where he grows vegetables that include chye sim, kailan, okra, kangkong, cucumber, wintermelon and a variety of herbs. His vegetables are grown in soil.

Since he practises chemical-free farming, Mr Chiam uses neem oil and vinegar to get rid of pests. Sparrows occasionally help eat the worms on his land. The soil is fertilised with chicken poop which he buys from a nearby farm.

He is at the farm every day, from around 8am to 6pm. Together with two workers, they harvest the vegetables daily from noon to 4pm. He sells them at S$3 a packet, and has about 100 regular customers. Mr Chiam personally delivers the vegetables to them.

Asked why they prefer his vegetables over those from the supermarket, Mr Chiam shrugs his shoulders. "They don't tell me why they like mine, but they give feedback, when the vegetables look less than perfect," he says with a laugh. "But I guess they must like it, since they would tell their friends about my produce."

He is not content with just growing vegetables and selling them. "I hope to teach people how to grow vegetables in pots or trays, so that they can grow their own food," he says. He hopes to work with schools to help spread the message about being self-sufficient, even if the amount is small.

His wife helps him out on the farm on weekends. His five children, aged 11 to 23, think that their "father is crazy for being a farmer", says Mr Chiam. "But two of them have said that if I'm successful, they would want to follow in my footsteps."

To purchase vegetables from Mr Chiam, contact him at 9856 1829.

Buying into eco-conscious retail

WANT to do your part of the environment but don't know where to start? How about spending the weekend at Green Is The New Black (GITNB): The Conscious Festival?

Now in its third year, and the first festival of its kind, GITNB is a "conscious" festival for people who want to improve the way they think, work and consume while doing more good in the world. Put simply, this is the place where fun meets social environmental responsibility.

Stephanie Dickson, founder of GITNB, says: "Living more consciously is really about living wide awake - understanding how your decisions affect not only you, but also your surroundings and the environment. If everyone of us were a little more conscious in a few aspects of our lives, we would be happier, healthier and lessen the burden on the planet."

At the two-day event, visitors can shop at the Mindful Marketplace and take part in a clothes swap.

For example, shoppers can buy men's shirts from Comfee, a family-run clothing factory in Singapore that uses only bamboo fabric, and from Threadapeutic, an upcycling fashion social enterprise from Jakarta, where the products are made from raw, leftover materials from the garment industry's fabric wastes.

GITNB will also show participants how they can practise conscious eating and consumption. For example, vendor Gain Brands will be selling gluten-free craft beers, touted as a healthier and more ethical alternative to regular beer.

There will also be talks by experts on how participants can be more eco-conscious. For this third edition,there are over 100 regional change makers, over 40 speakers and Ms Dickson hopes to have over 2,000 people attend.

This year, GITNB have co-branded the event to encompass two festivals in one, partnering with SPARK, Asia's first festival that celebrates love, intimacy and relationships. SPARK aims to promote healthy, happy and fulfilling connections with oneself and another.

Ms Dickson says that after two years of GITNB, "we have seen the thirst for knowledge on conscious living and sustainability expanding Singapore-wide. It is really inspiring and validating to see this growing interest and demand across everything from well-being to sustainability, to provenance - to see people questioning where our products come from and who is affected along the way."

• Green is the New Black is on May 12, from 5pm to 10pm, and May 13, from 10am to 6pm, at Equarius Hotel, Resorts World Sentosa. Free entry to the festival. Tickets required for access to talks, from US$75, at http://GITNBxSPARK2017.peatix.com

A Farm Beneath BC Hydro Power Lines In Langley?

Plans call for cultivation of urban agriculture along the 23 acre (9.4 ha) BC Hydro transmission right-of-way between 200 Streets next to the Uplands Off-Leash Dog Park in Langley City. Undated Bing.com image

A Farm Beneath BC Hydro Power Lines In Langley?

Urban agriculture proposed for City site

• Wed May 3rd, 2017 12:00pm

The land beneath the BC Hydro lines that run through South Langley City could make a fine urban farm.

The City of Langley, along with the Metro Vancouver regional authority and Kwantlen Polytechnic University have announced plans for a Langley Urban Agriculture Demonstration Project.

If the project proceeds, it will bring urban agriculture to the 23 acre (9.4 ha) BC Hydro transmission right-of-way between 200 Street and 204 Street, next to the Uplands Off-Leash Dog Park.

The planning process will take 12 months.

It will begin with a community open house scheduled for May 10 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Alice Brown Elementary School gym at 20011 44 Avenue.

“This project aims to bring compatible urban farming to a power line corridor in an established single family residential neighbourhood,” said Roy Beddow, deputy director of Development Services and Economic Development at the City of Langley.

“In addition to demonstrating the potential for local food production, the project will also create community partnerships and educational opportunities while enhancing amenity values in a utility corridor.”

“Reconnecting urban and suburban dwelling Canadians with core food system activities- including ecologically sustainable farming – and facilitating greater understanding and appreciation of their relationship with the land is imperative for our sustainable, resilient future,” said Kent Mullinix, Director of Institute for Sustainable Food Systems at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

For more information about the Langley Urban Agriculture Demonstration Project, visit city.langley.bc.ca.

Vertical Farms Are Green—And Growing

Vertical Farms Are Green—And Growing

AeroFarms is bringing innovation to Newark's Ironbound section and growing salad greens in vertical farms without the use of soil or sunlight.

By Shelby Vittek | May 9, 2017 | Appears in the May 2017 issue

Photo courtesy of AeroFarms.

Newark has a new growth industry—literally.

AeroFarms, an indoor agriculture company, moved to the Brick City from upstate New York in 2015. In April, it expanded into a new facility, the company’s ninth farm and its new global headquarters, repurposing what used to be a steel mill on Rome Street in the city’s Ironbound section. At nearly 70,000 square feet, it is the world’s largest indoor vertical farm.

Vertical farming means growing crops indoors in stacked beds. “This is a new way of farming, and it’s really redefining how we can bring local produce to the cities,” says Marc Oshima, a Morristown native and cofounder of AeroFarms. Oshima, CEO David Rosenberg and scientist Ed Harwood started the business in an effort to address global concerns over food shortages and hunger.

In its original New Jersey location, a 30,000-square-foot indoor vertical farm on Ferry Street, AeroFarms has grown arugula, kale, watercress, mustard greens, red romaine, bok choy and other baby salad greens—all without soil or sunlight.

AeroFarms uses an innovative agricultural method known as aeroponics to grow greens year-round. Plants grow indoors beneath LED lights on a cloth made from recycled water bottles that anchors their roots. Below the cloth, roots are misted with the exact amount of nutrients and water they need. It’s all done without pesticides and with 95 percent less water than traditional farming. It’s more efficient, too: The same seed that takes 30 to 35 days to mature outdoors takes just 12 to 16 days at AeroFarms.

The Ferry Street vertical farm is located in a former warehouse that more recently served as a paintball and laser-tag center. The interior is still decorated with spray-painted neon messages. “Come throw your next party,” screams one wall. Says Oshima: “We’ve intentionally left it up to remember what it was and how we’ve been able to repurpose it.”

A few miles away, students at Newark’s Philip’s Academy Charter School get hands-on experience cultivating greens on an AeroFarms growing bed in their dining hall. The students grow and harvest the greens for use in the school’s salad bar. Last spring, then first lady Michelle Obama visited these young urban farmers.

Beyond educating students and supplying the Newark area with fresh, locally grown produce, AeroFarms has created jobs for more than 115 people. According to Oshima, 85 percent of the AeroFarms team lives within 15 miles of the farm; 40 percent of the staff lives in Newark.

The most rewarding part of the job for Oshima is providing the community with responsibly grown produce. “We open our doors here every Wednesday and set up a farm stand,” he says. “People come in and have access to freshly harvested produce. We always sell out. It’s been tremendous to see the response.”

The company’s salad-greens brand, Dream Greens, sells for $3.99 per package at ShopRite locations in Newark and Bloomfield and at the new Whole Foods in Newark.

Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones: Four Years In

Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones: Four Years In

By Eli Zigas, Food and Agriculture Policy Director

May 1, 2017

Photo by Eli Zigas

The Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones Act will turn four years old this fall, and the California Legislature is now considering extending its statutory life. Conceived in 2013, the act — also known as AB 551 — allows cities and counties to provide landowners with a property tax deduction in exchange for committing their land to urban agricultural use for at least five years. When it was passed, the bill included a sunset provision that would stop any new property tax reduction under the program in 2019, unless the legislature voted to extend it. This session, the legislature is considering a 10-year extension to allow the existing programs more time to develop and give other jurisdictions more time to start incentive programs.  

SPUR was a strong supporter of the original legislation and supports its extension as well, as the program provides a way for some urban agriculture projects to have another avenue to access land and secure land tenure.   

Since its passage, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose and Santa Clara County opted into the program and passed local laws establishing urban agriculture incentive zones. San Diego, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oceanside and Chula Vista are currently in the process of establishing their own zones or considering doing so.

The impact of the legislation has been more modest than anticipated. SPUR contacted all the jurisdictions that had urban ag incentive zones earlier this year and found four parcels across three cities that were currently under contract. For the city gardens and farms on those sites  — including the 18th and Rhode Island Garden in San Francisco and Valley Verde in San Jose — the incentive is providing either access to land or a greater sense of land security than the gardens otherwise might have. For cities and counties, the loss in property tax revenue has been minimal — in all but one case less than $7,000 per year. The fact that only a few property owners and projects have taken advantage of the incentive, and that jurisdictions continue moving forward on implementation, supports the idea of giving the program more time to see how the programs develop.

The extension bill —AB 465 — has already passed the Assembly Local Government and Agriculture committees with unanimous support. It now moves to more committees in the legislature and, if successful, to the governor’s desk in the fall. Given the low cost of establishing urban agriculture incentive zones and the continued interest from advocates and cities, extending the program through 2029 makes sense and SPUR is hopeful that it will pass.

Urban Farm And Mortgage Firm Latest In Line For N.J. Tax Breaks To MoveTo Camden

Urban Farm And Mortgage Firm Latest In Line For N.J. Tax Breaks To MoveTo Camden

Updated: MAY 9, 2017 — 6:45 PM EDT

 VIA AEROFARMS.COM                                                                                 AeroFarms Vertical farm

by David O'Reilly, Staff Writer  @doreillyinq |  doreilly@phillynews.com

Two very different New Jersey businesses -- an online mortgage broker  and an urban farming operation -- are in line for  sizable tax incentives from the state’s Economic Development Authority this week to locate operations in Camden.

E Mortgage Management LLC of Cherry Hill  is awaiting word on a Grow New Jersey Assistance Program Grant that would award it $23.6 million in tax incentives over 10 years if it relocates and builds in Camden.

AeroFarms Camden LLC is seeking a similar grant of $11.14 million over 10 years to build an indoor hydroponic farm in Camden modeled on its operation in Newark, which its website calls the “world’s largest vertical farm.”

The EDA is scheduled to vote on both applications at its Thursday meeting in Trenton.

AeroFarms did not return a request for comment Tuesday, but its website says it grows “leafy greens and herbs” in a 70,000-square-foot urban building “without sunlight, soil, or pesticides.”  Nutrients are misted directly onto the plants’ roots, which are illuminated by LEDs.

The company has been operating since 2015 in Newark, where it grows watercress, bok choy, kale, arugula, red-leaf lettuce, and other baby salad greens. Its process is, according to AeroFarms, “130 times more productive than field farming.” The Newark operation current employs about 60 workers.

E Mortgage’s president and chief operating officer, Kevin Crichton, said Tuesday that his company, with operations in 35 states, had been in discussions with the EDA for more than a year. “We feel pretty hopeful,” said Crichton. “We’re told that if it makes it to the board for a vote, it’s got a good chance.”

Crichton said his firm, which projects $1.5 billion in loans this year, became interested in the tax benefits of relocating to Camden when it saw the sizable incentives the EDA has awarded to other South Jersey firms, including Subaru, New Jersey American Water Co., and Holtec.

Created in 2002, E Mortgage leased 12,000 square feet of office space two years ago at 3 Executive Campus in Cherry Hill, and soon expanded to 17,000 square feet. Crichton said the company, which has about 100 employees, is looking to about double the office space it has now.

But Camden’s waterfront, which Holtec, New Jersey American Water, the 76ers (for their practice facility), and Sun Bank now or will soon call home, has already become too expensive for E Mortgage, according to Crichton. He said  the company was looking instead to build along the Admiral Wilson Boulevard, near Campbell Soup and Subaru’s corporate offices.

“It’s a much better environment than it once was, and it’s really convenient,” said Crichton, who cited PATCO trains, NJ Transit, and Routes 30 and 676, which he said should make the new offices accessible for its current workforce.

He said the company chose not to relocate to the Navy Yard or Florida because it wanted to stay in New Jersey.     

The tax credits are contingent on the companies’ making capital investments, and on the retention and creation of a certain number of jobs. They are paid annually over a decade after the companies complete construction.

Read more by David O'Reilly

Published: May 9, 2017 — 6:45 PM EDT

Bespoke Produce? New Farming Venture Tweaks Veggies to Suit Needs

Bespoke Produce? New Farming Venture Tweaks Veggies to Suit Needs

By Andrew Amelinckx on May 9, 2017

Bowery's indoor farm                                                                                                                 Bowery

You can get bespoke suits, shoes, and furnishings. Now, Bowery, a new indoor hydroponic farming venture based in New Jersey, is offering the same for greens and herbs. Think of it as ‘bespoke’ produce.

Bowery, which officially launched at the end of February, is housed in a repurposed Kearny, N.J. warehouse. They grow vertically using hydroponic methods and LED lighting. The company bills itself as a “seed to store” venture, and currently grows more than 80 different greens and herbs like baby kale, basil, and arugula. Their products are sold at select Whole Foods Markets in the Tristate area, and at Foragers market grocery stores in New York City. What sets Bowery Farms apart from the myriad other indoor farms that are popping up these days is their ability to adjust specific flavors in their produce.

Irving Fain, Bowery‘s cofounder and CEO, likens it to wine terroir. Just as the environmental conditions in which grapes are grown—things like an early frost or a hot summer—affects a wine’s taste, the same can happen with their greens. And since Bowery has total control over their growing environment—unlike the farmer who is growing outdoors, in the elements—they can reproduce the conditions that will affect the plants in the specific way they’re looking for.

According to Fain, various factors, such as light intensity and quantity, or the types of nutrients a plant receives, impact a crop’s flavor profile. Bowery uses proprietary technology—an operating system they call the “BoweryOS”—to automate growing and tweak these different factors in order to optimize for certain characteristics like texture or spice.

The BoweryOS uses an array of sensors, including cameras, to monitor the plants and their climate, amassing millions of data points on the variables that affect the growth, taste, and other attributes of a plant. The operating system can then direct the farm’s hardware to make the changes.

“The taste of produce is a response to the environment they’re grown in.” Fain tells Modern Farmer. “And so being able to do that means we can move different environmental variables, different nutritional parameters, even the spectrum of the light itself, which all have different effects and impacts on the taste and flavor of the plant and even on growth itself.”

Among the company’s clients are celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, who features Bowery’s produce in his New York City restaurants Craft and Fowler & Wells. The restaurateur was so taken by the company’s vision that he also became an investor and advisor.

Fain says the company isn’t just about creating delicious produce, it’s about developing a scalable model that will be able to efficiently and sustainably provide fresh food to a growing global urban population in the coming decades.  He points to a quickly growing population—an estimated 9.6 billion by 2050, with about 70 to 80 percent of those people living in cities. Fain believes he and his cofounders David Golden, who has a background in finance, and systems engineer Brian Falther, have come up with a longterm model to help deal with these issues since they use 95 percent less water than traditional farms and can produce crops 365 days a year without the use of any pesticides. Additionally, their model can be easily replicated in any city in the world, according to Fain.

“There’s a need for what we’re building at Bowery in cities across the country and across the world. We’re already at work on our next farm that’s going to be in the Tristate area and we certainly have plans to expand nationally and internationally as well,” says Fain

Seeds&Chips Starts By Examining How Millennials are Changing The Food System

Seeds&Chips Starts By Examining How Millennials are Changing The Food System

The third annual Seeds&Chips Global Food Innovation Summit started off with a panel titled How Millennials Are Changing the Food System. Speakers discussed why young people are doing more than just taking pictures of their food. Their activity on social media platform indirectly spearheads change in the food industry. Brands have been forced to adapt by altering their marketing strategies and product lines to meet Millennials’ expectations.

According to Tobias Peggs, founder of Square Roots, Millennials are willing to pay more for local food, expect to know where their food comes from, want healthy snack options, and actively seek out nutritious recipes online. His company seeks to bring the farm to the city and coaches young farmers how to grow nutritious food in urban greenhouses. He hopes that his company can help feed a rapidly urbanizing population and allow consumers to know where their food came from and build a relationship with their local farmer.

Two of the ten speakers during the session were entrepreneurs: Danielle Gould, CEO of Food+Tech Connect, a food and innovation community, and Deepti Sharma Kapur, CEO and founder of FoodtoEat, an online ordering service focused on food trucks and corporate catering.

This panel commenced four days of panel discussions and meetings at Rho Fiera in Milan, Italy, with former U.S. President Barack Obama as the keynote speaker. Following his talk on May 9, Obama will also participate in a panel that includes Sam Kass, the former White House chef and current advisor to Obama. More than 200 international speakers are discussing various topics during the four-day event. Panel discussions are centered around strategies to feed more people with less land.

Marco Gualtieri, Seeds&Chips chairman, has put the focus on young people’s involvement this year. For each Seeds&Chips talk, there will be at least one speaker or panelist under thirty and a “teenovator” under 18 years old who presents their vision for the future of food.

This year, he has also gathered young people to participate in a Hackathon for food waste over the next few days. Gualtieri hopes that they can come up with an innovative solution that reduces waste in the food system. The Hackathon is put on in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, University and Research. There is also a space at the Summit called Give Me Five, where young entrepreneurs can meet a leader for five minutes, to whom they can pitch their ideas.

Click here to view the full schedule for Seeds&Chips. Organizers are urging attendees to use #SaC17 in social media posts relating to the Summit.

28 Inspiring Urban Agriculture Projects

28 Inspiring Urban Agriculture Projects

Around 15 percent of the world’s food is now grown in urban areas. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), urban farms already supply food to about 700 million residents of cities, representing about a quarter of the world’s urban population. By 2030, 60 percent of people in developing countries will likely live in cities.

At Food Tank, we are amazed by the efforts of hundreds of urban farms and gardens to grow organic produce, cultivate food justice and equity in their communities, and revitalize urban land. Urban agriculture not only contributes to food security, but also to environmental stewardship and a cultural reconnection with the land through education.

The Urban Food Policy Pact (UFPP), to be signed on World Food Day, will address the potential of cities to contribute to food security through urban agriculture. A technical team of 10 members organized physical and virtual workshops with many of the 45 cities participating in the Pact, and drafted a Framework for Action that includes 37 provisions covering the themes of governance, food supply and distribution, sustainable diets and nutrition, poverty alleviation, food production and food and nutrient recovery.

“The 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognize the importance of building sustainable cities,” says Maurizio Baruffi, Chief of Staff of the Mayor of Milan, Italy. “The City of Milan is partnering with urban areas around the world to embark on this journey, starting from food.”

Do you want to discover urban agriculture projects in your own city, or are you interested in visiting farms during your travels to new urban areas? Check out these inspiring projects, and find even more links to urban agriculture projects below.

Abalimi

Abalimi is an urban agriculture and environmental action group located outside of Capetown, South Africa. The organization supports and assists groups and individuals looking to improve their livelihoods through organic farming.

Alternatives’ Feeding Citizenship

A nonprofit that promotes social and environmental justice in Montreal, Canada, Alternatives’ Feeding Citizenship is growing healthy food to fuel healthy communities. The project engages the community through horticultural training programs while supporting school and neighborhood gardens.

Baltimore Urban Gardening with Students  (BUGS)

An after-school and summer program, BUGS provides children from low-income neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland with a safe place for learning. Kids can garden, visit local farms, and try new foods while improving math and reading skills as well as exploring creative entrepreneurial projects.

Camino Verde

Located in Puerto Maldonado, Peru, Camino Verde’s mission is to plant trees and encourage environmental stewardship through educational programs and public awareness. The project’s Living Seed Bank acts as a botanical garden with over 250 tree species and protects endangered varieties. Camino Verde has planted over 70 different fruit trees, 40 flowering species, and enough trees to cover seven hectares of land.

Canberra City Farm

Serving communities in Canberra, Australia, Canberra City Farms is dedicated to establishing learning hubs where people can collaborate and share their knowledge of sustainable and environmentally responsible food production.

Compost Pedallers

A 100 percent bike-powered compost recycling project in Austin, Texas, Compost Pedallers strives to reduce waste, strengthen the local food system, and connect the community with farms. Residents can sign up to redirect organic waste to local farms and gardens through the bicycle-powered network.

Detroit Dirt

Detroit Dirt is a compost company that helps complete the “circle of life” in food production by regenerating waste into resources. Through partnerships with community coffee houses and local businesses, the organization is hoping to instill a self-sustaining culture of recycling organic waste and provide a valuable resource to urban farms and gardens in Detroit.

Ferme de Paris

A municipal organic farm nestled in an expansive park, Ferme de Paris provides the public with vegetable gardens, orchards, medicinal plant gardens and a number of farm animals housed in sustainably-constructed buildings. City residents can even stay to volunteer if they want to.

Fresh & Local

Fresh & Local is looking to use urban agriculture to improve the health and wellbeing of Mumbai. The organization takes underutilized spaces and transforms them into places of community empowered food production.

Frisch vom Dach (Fresh from the Roof)

An aquaponics project starting on the rooftop of a former malt factory in Berlin, Germany, Frisch vom Dach uses nutrients from aquaculture to irrigate plants in a mostly closed loop.

Green Machine Mobile Food Market

A collaborative project among a number of organizations in Memphis, Tennessee, the Green Machine Mobile Food Market uses a bus to deliver fresh fruits and vegetables to almost 400 customers in the food deserts of South Memphis.

Grignon Energie Positive

Grignon Energie Positive, located in Paris, France, is an experimental farm run by the AgroParisTech program for sustainable development. The farm is working to reduce energy inputs by developing techniques that minimize its carbon footprint while growing enough organic food to feed between 5,500 and 8,000 people annually.

Grow City

Grow City is a nonprofit in San Francisco, California that works to amend the way people consider the division between urban and rural to build a “more secure, sustainable, and fair” food system.

Huerto Tlatelolco

An edible forest in Mexico City, Mexico with 45 tree varieties, a seed bank, and a large section of bio-intensive gardening, Huerto Tlatelolco was created with the objective of building the local community.

La Finca del Sur

A nonprofit farming cooperative in the South Bronx, New York, La Finca del Sur is led by Latina and black women. By empowering minority women through economic and food stability, the project is contributing to social and political equity in an underserved area.

The Last Organic Outpost

The Last Organic Outpost is a research farm that teaches sustainable agriculture techniques to residents of Houston, Texas. The project targets underserved areas and supports local farmers so they can develop a safe, healthy local food economy.

Local Sprout

An urban farm in San Antonio, Texas, Local Sprout grows fresh fruits and vegetables year-round using a hydroponic growing system. The project aims to contribute to food security, provide education, and reduce environmental impact.

Marathon Urban Farm

Marathon Restaurants, a small, sustainably minded chain in Philadelphia, now sources its fresh, organic produce from Marathon Urban Farm. The farm is revitalizing urban land and providing workshops on cooking and composting.

Mazingira Institute

The Mazingira Institute provides training and support for urban farmers in Nairobi, Kenya. The NGO has trained about three thousand urban farmers and organized youth and women’s hubs.

Natural Sound Agriculture and Craft Education

Natural Sound Agriculture and Craft Education is a private enterprise that offers educational opportunities about agriculture and food crafts to increase knowledge about urban gardening, sustainable agriculture, and traditional skills like beekeeping, mushroom growing, and brick-making.

O’Hare International Airport Urban Garden

At the Rotunda Building of O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, 26 vertical, aeroponic towers house herbs, greens, and tomatoes. The project also raises animals that mow the property’s lawn.

Pasona O2

An urban farm in Tokyo that grows over 100 types of produce indoors, underground, and on the exterior walls of the nine-story office-style building, Pasona O2 has been described as technologically intensive.

The People’s Potato

Located in Montreal, Canada, The People’s Potato is a neighborhood collective providing garden and greenhouse space for community members. Volunteers grow and distribute organic produce to the surrounding community and distribute vegan meals through a food bank. The People’s Potato maintains an educational program in the form of monthly workshops and an affordable Good Food Box program.

ReVision Urban Farm

ReVision Urban Farm is a community-based urban agriculture project that grows nutritious, culturally appropriate food for residents of its family home and the Boston community. The project also teaches locals about healthy eating and offers job training for youth and the homeless in the area.

Roosevelt Row Growhouse

Roosevelt Row Growhouse is a revitalization initiative from two artists that transformed a vacant, dilapidated property into a learning center for urban desert vegetable farming, sustainable living, healthy eating, and edible landscaping in Phoenix, Arizona.

SoCal Urban Farms

An urban farm and San Diego-based company that creates and distributes small-scale vertical gardens, SoCal Urban Farms aims to help anyone produce sustainable and healthy food, even with minimal space and poor soil.

Urban Farms of Central Ohio  (UFCO)

A nonprofit organization formed by the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, UFCO transforms vacant or under-utilized land into community gardens to generate a sustainable source of food stability for underserved communities.

The Washington Youth Garden (WYG)

WYG is a community garden that teaches science, environmental stewardship, and nutrition to youth in Washington, D.C. through hands-on gardening experience.

These are just a few examples from a cornucopia of urban agriculture projects happening in these cities. To learn more, read the full lists here:

• Austin
• Baltimore
• Berlin
• Boston
• Charlotte
• Chicago
• Columbus
• Dallas
• Detroit
• Frieburg
• Houston
• Memphis
• Mexico City
• Montreal
• Mumbai
• New York City
• Paris
• Philadelphia
• Phoenix
• San Antonio
• San Diego
• San Francisco
• Tokyo
• Washington DC

What innovative urban agriculture projects are getting started in your city?

Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs, and Lower Food Miles

Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs, and Lower Food Miles

SUBMITTED BY VIVEK PRASAD  ON TUE, 05/02/2017

CO-AUTHORS: IFTIKHAR MOSTAFA

Millions of urban dwellers cultivate vegetables and fruit trees in home gardens, both for their families and for sale. In Dakar, 7500 households “grow their own” in micro-gardens. In Malawi, 700 000 urban residents practice home gardening to meet their food needs and earn extra income. Low-income city gardeners in Zambia make US$230 a year from sales. In cities like Bamako, Accra and Kumasi, depending on crop and season, between 60 and 100 per cent of leafy vegetables consumed are produced within the respective cities with employment figures ranging from 1,000 to 15,000 jobs. Even megacities such as Shanghai, with about 15% population growth per year, one of the fastest growing cities on the planet, maintains its urban farming as an important part of its economic system.

Farm plots amidst apartment blocks in Chaozhou, China

Around 15 percent of the world’s food is now grown in urban areas. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), urban farms already supply food to about 700 million residents of cities, representing about a quarter of the world’s urban population.    

Most cities in developing countries are facing challenges to create formal job opportunities. Urban agriculture can play an important role not only in enhancing food security but also in contributing to the eco-system - improved nutrition, poverty alleviation, local economic development and job creation as well as productive reuse of urban wastes.

Cuba has a system of urban organic farms called Organopónicos, which provides a fresh supply of organic food to the community, neighborhood improvement, beautification of urban areas, as well as employment opportunities. Cuba has more than 7,000 organopónicos, with some 200 gardens in Havana alone, covering more than 35,000 hectares of land, which supply its citizens with 90% of their fruit and vegetables. In Havana, 117,000 jobs in Havana and income for 150,000 low income families were directly provided by urban and peri-urban agriculture.

In Cagayan de Oro City, the Philippines, 9 percent of the economically active population were employed in agriculture. There were 13,000 farmers in the peri-urban area; 40 per cent of all households maintained backyard gardens and 70 per cent of the city’s demand for fish was produced within the city.

In Mumbai India, a Vertical Farming Association has been formed to promote vertical farming and aeroponics, air-based plant growing that requires no soil, no sunlight (LEDs are used instead) and dramatically less water — roughly 95 percent — than conventional growing methods. The targeted groups for his mission are builders, real-estate people, food industry, green house owners, industrialists, and bankers, who own buildings with large roof space.

A sizable area of Bangladesh’s capital city Dhaka and its periphery are engaged in agricultural activities. For example, the business district of Tejgaon in the center of Dhaka has 38 per cent of the land available for agriculture. In addition, about 10 square kilometer of rooftops within the Dhaka City Corporation are vacant and potentially could be used for urban food production.

In developed countries urban agriculture can contribute to the reduction of 'food miles' - with local distribution via farmers' markets and specialized shops. In South London, United Kingdom, Growing Underground is a 7,000 square feet urban farm, which is housed in a network of dark and dingy tunnels originally built as air-raid shelters during World War II. Growing Underground limits the food miles by providing vegetables and salads to local wholesalers and restaurants in London. Similarly in Newark, New Jersey, USA, a 69,000 square-foot former steel factory has been converted into the world's largest urban farm.

Growing Underground, an urban farm in a tunnel.

Urban agriculture has potential for not only to provide fresh and nutritious food for urban consumers but also to create more and better jobs faster for growing youth population. For urban agriculture to play such an instrumental role, appropriate policy instruments must ensure that the sector functions well. Furthermore, strong institutional capacity at all levels of national economies will be needed to deal with challenges that arise from urban agriculture.

Khetify's IoT Powered Rooftop Farm Has Caught The City Dwellers Fancy

Khetify's IoT Powered Rooftop Farm Has Caught The City Dwellers Fancy

Founded by IIT Kharagpur graduates, Kaustubh Khare and Saahil Parekh, Khetify is a startup promoting food sustainability to city dwellers.Chhavi Tyagi  |  ECONOMICTIMES.COM  |  May 01, 2017, 15:46 IST

Imagine having your own little farm that provides you organic vegetables devoid of harmful pesticides and even more dangerous spray painted produce.

This may sound fanciful to city dwellers that do not have the land to grow their own vegetables and are also short on time, but a startup is busy changing the definition of farming.

Founded by IIT Kharagpur graduates, Kaustubh Khare and Saahil Parekh, Khetify is a startup promoting food sustainability to city dwellers. Claiming that 16,000 sq km of rooftop space is being wasted in urban cities, Khetify aims to promote use of this unutilized space to develop small rooftop farms.

"If as a country we can turn just 10% of this into farms, we can produce fresh nutritious vegetables for around 200 million people," estimates Khare, 26.

Explaining the startup's motto 'Desh Ka Culture, Agriculture' Khare said, "We believe that urban India has been disconnected with farms, farmers, and their agrarian roots. Unless cities take control of their food systems, true sustainability could not be achieved".

Khetify develops compost-based modular 'khets' (farms) on vacant rooftops and enables individual households to grow 700 kgs of organic vegetables every year in as small a space as 200 sq ft. Understanding that scarcity of time is as big a constraint on city dwellers as is lack of space, Khetify uses IoT (Internet of Things) enabled drip irrigation system which can be controlled remotely and also helps in conserving water.

In nine months of its operations, Khetify claims to have transformed over 7,000 sq ft of vacant roofs and balconies in Delhi-NCR into small urban farms which has produced over 2,200 kgs of vegetables of 55 different varieties.

Chosen as one of the finalists in the AIM Smart City Accelerator Program (developed jointly by Ashoka University, Microsoft Ventures, and DLabs at the Indian School of Business), Khetify found support from plenty of sponsors.

"They are bridging the gap between the produce in the rural country to the consumers in urban areas. There are just too many steps involved in this process which eventually results in price escalation and crazy margins which are not even percolated down to the farmers. The team is readily available and employ farmers as part of their network," says Holostik Group, group director, Ankit Gupta. Holostik Group is one of the principal corporate supporting the accelerator program.

A team of six, Khetify employs two farmers who execute the function of maintenance for the clients.

The startup is now looking to grow its customer base by approaching schools, housing societies, universities, among others as well as expand its crop portfolio. The target is to make 50 schools and 150 households achieve food security by the end of 2017. This would mean the startup needs to employ an additional 10-15 farmers. However, hiring high quality talent from the domains of agriculture, botany and ecology has been a challenge.

"First of all, there are a very low number of students who take botany as their subject and even those who do, do not want to work in the industry. As for farmers, they also prefer working in factories over choosing farming as a source of livelihood," shares Khare.

Another challenge has been the easy procurement of compost, cow dung and other materials essential to farming. "Chemicals and fertilisers have so pervaded the system that it is extremely difficult to source natural, chemical-free compost. We spoke to several farmers and had to give them detailed instructions to get the right quality. This is going to be a challenge as we scale up," says Khare.

The statup has tuned its back-end operations interface with the informal economy such as daily wage labour, logistics and transport along with dealers of compost, cow dung and bringing standardisation to these has been a challenge.

Khetify charges a one-time fee for the installation of the 'khets', depending on the size of the 'khets' and a maintenance charge for the supply of high quality seeds, saplings, organic fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides among others.

Claiming to have achieved a positive unit economics, the startup generates enough revenue to support its operations and has also received an undisclosed amount of seed funding as part of the AIM Smart City Accelerator Program.

"As part of the program, the startups are encouraged to solve problems with liberal arts perspective. The program advocates government's focus on developing smart cities and Khetify intends to make agriculture a vital part of smart cities," says Ashoka University, director, Priyank Narayan.

Disappointed that the narrative of sustainable cities is grabbed almost exclusively by renewable energy, Khare wants Indian cities to realise the importance of food security.

"If a city can produce as much as possible, as close to where it is consumed using as much renewable energy as possible, it is sustainable. This logic is applied selectively to electricity and fuel (solar, wind, biogas etc) which is the energy that powers a city. We want to apply the same logic to the energy that powers citizens, which is food. Khetify hopes to make cities more sustainable and give its citizens access to nutritious, organically grown food that citizens can trust and trace," says Khare. 

Shanghai Is Building A Massive Agricultural District With A Vertical Farm

Shanghai Is Building A Massive Agricultural District With A Vertical Farm

The farms will primarily grow leafy greens, like kale, bok choi, and spinach.

May 6, 2017

Image: Sasaki

CHINESE CITY SHANGHAI is known for towering buildings, but now it wants towering farms.

The city is building a 250-acre agricultural district, which will function as a space to work, live, shop, and farm food. Called Sunqiao Shanghai, it will include new public plazas, parks, housing, stores, restaurants, greenhouses, and a science museum.

The masterplan was conceived by the design firm Sasaki and is part of a larger plan to turn a portion of the city into an ag-tech hub, Michael Grove, a principal at Sasaki, told Business Insider.

In the mid-1990s, Shanghai’s government designated a 3.6-square-mile area of the city for agricultural production, hoping that bioengineering and biopharmaceutical companies would set up research facilities working in tandem with city greenhouses.

Shanghai only constructed 3 single-storey greenhouses at the time. Sasaki was commissioned to expand the plan for Sunqiao, Grove says. There isn’t a construction timeline yet, but Grove estimates that a crew will break ground on the project by 2018.

Source: Sasaki

The farms will primarily grow leafy greens, like kale, bok choi, and spinach. Those will be sold to restaurants, grocers, or exported. In the future, Grove says the district may also raise fish in vertical aquaponic farms.

While cutting down on carbon footprints, the farms will have large energy demands, using LED lights to grow the food.

Read: This 40-storey skyscraper has trees climbing all the way to the top