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Hong Kong Urban Farmers Find Bliss In Rooftop Gardens
Hong Kong Urban Farmers Find Bliss In Rooftop Gardens
Nov. 27, 2017
iStock photo
Rooftops in densely populated Hong Kong are fast turning greener and more fertile as urban farmers seek to grow crops from their homes and offices and create a more liveable community.
Kale, cherry tomatoes, radishes and all kinds of herbs are blossoming atop commercial and residential buildings, with farmers believing that they can surmount space restrictions and make the city a more pleasant home for its urban dwellers, reports South China Morning Post.
Some 60 rooftop farms and 1,400 farmers have emerged locally over the past decade, and a handful of farms are added each year, said Mathew Pryor, an associate professor and head of the landscape architecture division at the University of Hong Kong.
More than 7.38 million people now live in just 2,754 square kilometers in the city, and only 24 percent of the land is developable urban area. Hong Kong is likely to stay the world’s most densely populated city in 2025, according to a Bloomberg study.
Sustainable living group Rooftop Republic is one of the city’s most active farming groups. It now manages 33 farms spanning 30,000 square feet.
“Growing up in high-rise, high-density cities such as Hong Kong naturally disconnects us from nature,” said Andrew Tsui, co-founder of the two-year-old start-up.
“So I started thinking, as ordinary working city dwellers, how we could incorporate nature into our lifestyle.”
Working at a private equity fund until five years ago, Tsui has always been interested in sustainability in his projects. He grew curious to see whether it could take root in Hong Kong.
“[Urban farming] was still mainly in the U.S. and Europe at that time, where people have bigger pieces of land and can build community farms around neighbourhoods,” he said.
Tsui then started a part-time interest group and tested rooftop farming. In 2015, he co-founded Rooftop Republic with Pol Fabrega, who had worked in the non-profit and education sectors, and Michelle Hong, whose expertise included marketing, communications and project management.
Now the social enterprise serves corporate clients by turning their rooftop space into farms. The group also provides workshops and organizes community activities.
All the city’s rooftop farming groups are formed spontaneously from the bottom up, Pryor claims.
His research shows that the farmers are usually either young professionals or early retirees concerned about the environment.
To them, rooftop farming is much more than just about producing food, Pryor says. In fact, none of the farms produces much food or even intends to.
“The key product of urban farming is really happiness,” he said. “It’s the social cohesion and the community interaction.
“They grow a few tomatoes that you wouldn’t buy in the shops, and they are really, really happy, spending weeks posting images on Facebook of their two tomatoes.”
Pryor describes the potential for urban farming as enormous. He estimates that Hong Kong has more than 600 hectares of farmable rooftop area.
Demand for farming in the city is also high. Some 1,500 people, for example, have entered a lucky draw for 55 planting plots in the community garden at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park in Sai Ying Pun this year, according to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, which operates the space. The planting plots can be rented for four months at a time.
But Tsui and other urban farmers face significant regulatory hurdles.
To transform an idle rooftop into a farm or set up a garden for a new building, one must secure several approvals from the buildings department and other government offices.
NYC Passes New Urban Agriculture Bill
The New York City council passed a bill today that will create the city’s first centralized digital hub meant specifically for urban agriculture. This hub will be run entirely by the city and will hopefully be seen as a resource for both new and established businesses.
NYC Passes New Urban Agriculture Bill
The bill will create a new digital hub will help organize urban farmers throughout the city
By Pat King
December 11, 2017
Photo credit: iStock
The New York City council passed a bill today that will create the city’s first centralized digital hub meant specifically for urban agriculture. This hub will be run entirely by the city and will hopefully be seen as a resource for both new and established businesses.
This bill, entitled 1661-A, is sponsored by council member Rafael Espinal, at the request of Eric L. Adams, the Brooklyn Borough President, and passed overwhelmingly with a 47-0 vote in the City Council. According to Espinal, this bill will bring a new excitement to New Yorkers who are looking to go green and healthy with the expansion of the urban agriculture sector.
“Our bill creates, for the first time, a resource for urban farmers and community gardeners to start-up and grow an urban farm,” said Council Member Espinal, “Our urban farmers are operating in an ambiguous and grey area, not receiving the support and information they needed from our city government. Smart, innovative urban-farming techniques are leading the food revolution and supplying healthy locally grown food to our communities. It is time NYC step up and support this movement with our own digital tools to make it easier for these entrepreneurs and acknowledge our commitment to this industry. This is only a first step in my undivided commitment to growing this vital sector, and I look forward to working with all stakeholders to develop more influential policy in the near future.”
The website will be run by the New York City Parks and Recreation Department in collaboration with educators and representatives from existing community gardens. The site, which will go live on July 1st, 2018, will act as a one-stop-shop database for those looking to get involved with local urban gardens and farms and to help aid those who are looking to start their own. The site will also provide guidelines by the New York City Department of City Planning and New York City Department of Small Businesses to assist prospective urban farmers to develop new centers in their communities.
Hong Kong Urban Farmers Find Bliss In Rooftop Gardens
Hong Kong Urban Farmers Find Bliss In Rooftop Gardens
Sustainable living proponents praise benefits but lament regulatory hurdles
PUBLISHED: Saturday, 25, 2017
Rooftops in densely populated Hong Kong are fast turning greener and more fertile as urban farmers seek to grow crops from their homes and offices and create a more livable community.
Kale, cherry tomatoes, radishes, and all kinds of herbs are blossoming atop commercial and residential buildings, with farmers believing that they can surmount space restrictions and make the city a more pleasant home for its urban dwellers.
Some 60 rooftop farms and 1,400 farmers have emerged locally over the past decade, and a handful of farms are added each year, according to Mathew Pryor, an associate professor and head of the landscape architecture division at the University of Hong Kong.
More than 7.38 million people now live in just 2,754 square km in the city, and only 24 per cent of the land is developable urban area. Hong Kong is likely to stay the world’s most densely populated city in 2025, according to a Bloomberg study.
Will a lack of open space damage generations of Hongkongers?
Sustainable living group Rooftop Republic is one of the city’s most active farming groups. It now manages 33 farms spanning 30,000 sq ft.
“Growing up in high-rise, high-density cities such as Hong Kong naturally disconnects us from nature,” says Andrew Tsui, co-founder of the two-year-old start-up.
“So I started thinking, as ordinary working city dwellers, how we could incorporate nature into our lifestyle.”
Working at a private equity fund until five years ago, Tsui has always been interested in sustainability in his projects. He grew curious to see whether it could take root in Hong Kong.
“[Urban farming] was still mainly in the US and Europe at that time, where people have bigger pieces of land and can build community farms around neighbourhoods,” he says.
The key product of urban farming is really happiness
MATHEW PRYOR, HKU
Tsui then started a part-time interest group and tested out rooftop farming. In 2015, he co-founded Rooftop Republic with Pol Fabrega, who had worked in the non-profit and education sectors, and Michelle Hong, whose expertise included marketing, communications and project management.
Now the social enterprise serves corporate clients such as local developer Swire Properties by turning their rooftop space into farms. The group also provides workshops and organises community activities.
All the city’s rooftop farming groups are formed spontaneously from the bottom up, Pryor claims.
His research shows that the farmers are usually either young professionals or early retirees concerned about the environment.
To them, rooftop farming is much more than just about producing food, Pryor says. In fact, none of the farms produces much food or even intends to.
“The key product of urban farming is really happiness,” he says.
“It’s the social cohesion and the community interaction.”
“Everybody I met in a rooftop farm, community farm, or weekend farm – they are blissfully happy,” he says.
“They grow a few tomatoes that you wouldn’t buy in the shops, and they are really, really happy, spending weeks posting images on Facebook of their two tomatoes.”
Pryor describes the potential for urban farming as enormous. He estimates that Hong Kong has more than 600 hectares of farmable rooftop area.
Demand for farming in the city is also high.
Some 1,500 people, for example, have entered a lucky draw for 55 planting plots in the community garden at Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park in Sai Ying Pun this year, according to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, which operates the space. The planting plots can be rented for four months at a time.
But Tsui and other urban farmers face significant regulatory hurdles.
To transform an idle rooftop into a farm or set up a garden for a new building, one must secure several approvals from the Buildings Department and other government offices.
Officials should recognise the positive impact of rooftop farming, Pryor contends, and clarify how to navigate regulatory issues, as many building owners are reluctant to transform their rooftops due to legal uncertainties.
“Once you do that, I think everybody will be doing it,” he says. “Hong Kong could be a huge model for citywide farming as a social activity.”
Planned Community On Boston South Shore Will Be Laboratory For Sustainable Cities
Planned Community On Boston South Shore Will Be Laboratory For Sustainable Cities
November 12th, 2017 by Steve Hanley
Sustainable cities are a hot topic among government leaders and policymakers worldwide. Cities everywhere are struggling with exploding populations as more and more people move to urban settings. The United States has 10 cities with populations of more than one million. China has 116 and that number is growing fast. Many world cities were built long before the automobile and the computer and are woefully unprepared for the challenge of supporting more people.
Graphic credit: LStar Ventures
Urban planners are faced with a welter of challenges from traffic management to air pollution. Where will the water come from for all those people? How will their waste products be disposed of? What about quality of life considerations and healthy living standards? Somewhere on that list, urban planners have to consider the impact their cities will have on the environment, as nations strive to meet the carbon reduction goals agreed to at the Paris climate accords in 2015.
What Makes Sustainable Cities?
Part of creating sustainable cities involves using the internet of things to help smooth the flow of people, goods, and services. Sensors embedded into water distribution systems can help manage how water is used, minimize the energy needed to run pumping stations, and detect where leaks are occurring. Other sensors inside trash containers can notify managers which need emptying and which do not, making trash collection more efficient. Traffic flow monitors can help manage traffic lights to keep cars and trucks flowing smoothly. Computers could reroute traffic around obstructions automatically.
Sidewalk Labs, a subsidiary of Google/Alphabet, is working with 16 cities in North America to help them integrate computer technology into their infrastructure. The idea is to promote efficiency and thus lower the total amount of power needed to keep the cities humming. It also will prepare the way for the autonomous taxis and ride-hailing services that will be arriving shortly.
From Abandoned Navy Base To Sustainability Laboratory
An abandoned naval air station south of Boston, Massachusetts, is the site of an experiment in how to build the sustainable cities of the future. Known as Union Point, it is a 1,400 acre parcel of land that overlaps three nearby towns. LStar Ventures is the developer, creating a new city from the ground up with help from global engineering and design firm Arup.
“While cities are having to retrofit themselves to accommodate things like electric vehicles, the cool thing about building a city from the ground up is that we can think about this stuff now,” says Cameron Thompson of Arup, which is focusing on sustainability issues.
Energy efficiency is baked into all new buildings planned for Union Point. All commercial structures will meet LEED Gold or Platinum standards. Internet of things technology will be included to monitor and control all mechanical and electrical systems for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment. LED lighting will be used exclusively inside and out. The buildings themselves will be networked together to minimize the total electrical needs of the commercial part of the city.
By focusing on sustainability, Union Point hopes to become a magnet for businesses looking for new home for new corporate homes — a place where their employees can live and work in a healthy environment. LStar also hopes to draw high-tech companies whose leaders are enticed by its focus on sustainable living. For those who need to commute to Boston, a rail line is already in place that provide access to the city in as little as 20 minutes.
A Focus On Renewable Energy
Renewable energy will play a big role in providing electrical energy to the new city. Rooftop solar will be installed on most of Union Point’s downtown buildings and a solar farm will be constructed nearby. Grid-scale battery storage technology will be utilized as the costs decrease over time. “The project has come at a perfect time because a lot of the necessary technologies are becoming affordable and readily available,” Thomson says. The goal is to make Union Point a zero-emissions city by 2050, with solar and wind power being predominant in the energy mix.
Meanwhile, LStar Ventures is working with National Grid to make the electricity available from the local grid cleaner. Massachusetts, like many other jurisdictions, is looking at transitioning to 100% renewable energy by mid-century, something researchers told the COP 23 climate summit in Bonn this week is achievable worldwide.
Plans call for 4,000 residential units and 10 million square feet of commercial space. Rooftop farms will provide local restaurants with some of their produce. Beside green public spaces within the community, Union Point will be surrounded by 1,000 acres of green habitat with 50 miles of hiking and bike trails. Although the first commercial buildings will be finished by the end of 2018, the entire project is expected to cost $5 billion and take 15 years to complete. There are already 500 homes in the Union Point community that were built by the prior developer, which exited the project in 2015 and sold its holdings to LStar.
Sustainable Cities Are Coming, But Slowly
Sustainable cities are a work in progress. The lessons learned from the Union Point project will help other communities meet their sustainable cities goals faster and more economically. Ngai Yin Yip, assistant professor at Columbia University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering, tells The Huffington Post that weaning ourselves from fossil fuels will be a long and often painful process. “It’s a huge gap we’re probably not going to be able to close in one leap,” he says.
He adds that Union Point’s gradual approach makes the most sense. “We still have a lot of lessons to learn about how we build our cities so that they are truly sustainable, so that they can achieve a near zero carbon footprint. And these lessons a lot of times might need to be learned the hard way.”
Political considerations can help or hinder that effort. In the three towns surrounding Union Point — Weymouth, Abington, and Rockland — local officials have agreed to work cooperatively with LStar Ventures to accomplish the goals it has set. All three have agreed to expedite the approval process for new buildings within the planned community, in part because of the promise of new jobs in the area. Amazon is considering Union Point for its new US headquarters as is Dutch robotics manufacturer ProDrive. “We all know this could be an economic dynamo for the region,” said Allan Chiocca, the town administrator for Rockland.
Menasha's Fork Farms is Changing The Face of Farming -- And Helping Schools, Pantries
Menasha's Fork Farms is Changing The Face of Farming -- And Helping Schools, Pantries
Maureen Wallenfang, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Nov. 13, 2017
Down on the "farm." Fork Farms' operation has 16 indoor growing modules in Menasha. Here, Stewart McLain, operations manager, left; Alex Tyink, co-founder, center; and Gil Shaw, farm manager, right, stand in front of growing modules.
(Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)
MENASHA - This isn’t your father’s farm.
Or anyone’s vision of a farm, really, outside of a science fiction novel.
This “farm” of indoor plastic growing modules looks like it came off a spaceship.
Fork Farms is a small, young, agriculture technology company that manufactures plastic hydroponic growing modules.
Inside each one, ruffled rows of lettuce grow vertically without a speck of soil or sunlight.
Fork Farms grows lettuce around LED lights inside a module. (Photo: Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)
Fork Farms moved into its current home at 1101 W. Midway Road this spring and ? 16 indoor growing machines. It's in a former flooring store just west of Appleton Road near Piggly Wiggly in Menasha.
Prior to this, inventor Alex Tyink operated out of his apartment and garage. He’s spent eight years working on the modules while holding down a day job. He's never taken a dime from the company and has operated on a slim investment of less than $20,000 gathered from family and friends.
“I believe in food. I know that sounds corny,” said Tyink, 30. “I felt better when I started eating good food instead of burgers and fries. A simple thing can make so much of a difference in our lives.”
He went to school to become an opera singer, not an engineer, so he said the years tinkering were spent learning, evolving and experimenting to get the system right.
Since 2009, he has made 28 different prototypes and invested thousands of hours into the venture.
Social service
Working on the growing machines satisfied his desire to create something that mattered, he said.
Growing fresh produce this way can make healthy food more accessible and create a connection between kids and food.
“Our mission is to put these in food deserts and low-income schools,” he said. “The social service side is very important to me. I never want to lose that.”
Tyink co-founded the company with his father, Steve Tyink, who is vice president of business innovation at Miron Construction, and John Brogan, CEO of Bank of Kaukauna.
His two employees have taken equity before paychecks. Commercial Horizons gave him a sweet lease on the building.
Fork Farms is a limited liability company owned by a group of 14 people, including employees Gil Shaw and Stewart McLain.
Shaw was formerly hydroponics manager at Riverview Gardens and is now farm manager here. McLain, formerly a music teacher in Seattle, is operations manager.
Shaw said the opportunity to join Fork Farms was too good to pass up.
“It’s one of the most innovative systems out there. It’s in a class of its own,” Shaw said.
“This is a real game changer because of its water use, efficiency and space. The potential of this is extraordinary. It can revolutionize arid land growing.”
Fork Farms' growing system already has one patent and two more pending.
Growing modules
The company's first 20 growing modules have been sold to schools, food pantries and individuals.
Local schools include Mount Olive Lutheran School, Fox Valley Lutheran High School, Appleton North High School and New Directions Learning Community in Kaukauna.
At North, the machine was purchased with a grant from the Appleton Education Foundation.
"We love having our machine in the classroom," said Matt Hechel, North's alternative education coordinator. "We have a few students who have taken charge of being our main gardeners."
"I like learning about the hydroponic system and am really surprised how easy it is to grow our produce right in our classroom," said J.T. Zubich, one of the students in charge of the module. "It would be cool if every classroom was able to do this."
Students have eaten salads in the classroom from their harvest. Students and staff have taken lettuce home.
“It’s an improvement on the traditional school garden model,” Tyink said. “It’s highly productive in growing food and makes a nutritional difference in schools. We’re improving the quality of lunch lines.”
Besides making and selling the growing modules, Fork Farms grows lettuce in its Menasha headquarters and sells it to several hotels and a caterer. Its first and largest buyer has been the Best Western Premier Bridgewood Resort Hotel in Neenah.
"We use their Fox Valley blend of lettuces for lunch buffets and catering, and their buttterhead lettuce for weddings and corporate events," said Ryan Batley, food and beverage director. "What's so great about it is that it's local. It stays fresher than anything else we're getting. It's very clean and crisp. A great product. The cost is a little higher, but we think it's money well-spent."
Batley said they use whole butterhead lettuce heads on each plate for weddings.
"One bride called us back and said her guests were still commenting on it weeks later. She said 'I never thought people would remember the salad,'" Batley said.
For-profit/nonprofit partnership
Tyink’s day job is director of programming at Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. He previously field tested his growing machines while working at Goodwill Industries of North Central Wisconsin.
Feeding America now provides ancillary support to Fork Farms in what Tyink calls a “for-profit/nonprofit partnership.”
While Fork Farms is a for-profit business, he said it’s “mission-driven” to educate and feed people.
Growing modules cost $3,500. Feeding America provides education, training and a year’s worth of supplies for an additional $1,500.
Each vertical module can grow 288 plants in a four-by-four-foot space, Shaw said. Each machine can grow 15 to 20 pounds of lettuce in three to four weeks.
Indoor farming has been in the national news recently with the large-scale Plenty operation, a Jeff Bezos-backed indoor farm now expanding into the Seattle area.
But at the same time, some indoor farms have struggled.
FarmedHere, for example, closed its indoor hydroponic growing operation near Chicago earlier this year, reportedly because of high labor and energy costs.
At Fork Farms, Tyink keeps a watchful eye on costs and is in the gener8tor’s gBETA accelerator coaching program for startups.
He said it’s self-sustaining and he hasn’t taken a bank loan.
One of the keys, he said, was keeping energy costs low with LED growing lights.
“All of my research started with energy efficiencies," he said. “We’re running at a higher resource efficiency rate.”
“We kept small and kept capitalization small. We haven’t gone after venture capital because we wanted to know what we had before we made promises.”
Johannesburg Launches First Rooftop Farm Plan
Johannesburg Launches First Rooftop Farm Plan
The Star / 12 October 2017, 2:50pm / Anna Cox
IN BUSINESS: Nhlanhla Mpati is a small-scale entrepreneurial farmer who started a roof-top farm on top of the Chamber of Mines building in the Joburg CBD. Picture: Dimpho Maja / ANA
The first commercial, rooftop small-scale farm has been launched in the Joburg CBD on the top floor of the 93-year-old Chamber of Mines building.
This urban farm has already supplied almost 15kg of basil to the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market and to surrounding cafés and coffee shops during the past 45 days.
The project, called the Urban Agriculture Initiative, was launched by Wouldn’t It Be Cool (WIBC), an incubation and mentorship organisation which helps entrepreneurs get started.
The project has been such a success thus far that the Department of Small Business Development has provided funding for another 100 small-scale farms to be rolled out in the inner city.
The Chamber of Mines intends giving these farmers more space as it still has 400m² of unused space in its heritage building.
Michael Magondo, chief idea sherpa for the WIBC, said they were not competing with residential space, but would be happy to make use of any unutilised space, indoors or outdoors.
The organisation identified and trained Nhlanhla Mpati as one of the first roof-top farmers, as he had some farming experience.
“We want to see all 100 farms rolled out now that we have government funding. We want to create entrepreneurs, jobs, skills and food security.
“There are many vacant government and provincial buildings, plus privately owned ones, as well as deserted parking garages and spaces in which farms can be set up.
“Although the donation of premises is welcome, and some property companies have donated their rooftops to us, we will try to pay market-related rents. All our entrepreneurs are fully trained in business and backed by us,” he said, adding that the aim was to turn Joburg into one big, sustainable ecosystem.
Mpati, who started farming in the CBD in August, said he already had orders for the next six months for basil, as it was out of season.
He proudly shows off his crop, saying the plants were farmed hydroponically, meaning that they don’t require soil and, therefore, use very little water.
He doesn’t use pesticides or insecticides.
He intends expanding to farming spinach, potatoes and carrots, among others.
Mpati, who says his basil grows in 21 days, has been interested in gardening since he helped his granny in Kagiso on the West Rand with the planting of flowers and vegetables, which she loved.
He studied plants and agriculture by himself and is particularly interested in growing specialised plants which are not easily available.
“I do a lot of my own research and I am learning all the time,” he said, adding that he had done several entrepreneurial courses.
“I am very happy so far with this business. Many restaurants are already ordering from me, and the Produce Market is impressed with the quality of my plants. They have already increased their prices because of the high quality of my basil,” he said.
He has preliminary orders for the next six months, but would welcome more.
WIBC has several partners and backers, including the City of Joburg, FNB, the Affordable Housing Company, the Inner City Partnership, Thebe, Botha Roodt, Bizcre8 and Stay City.
Contact Mpati at 081 3141972 for produce or Magondo on 0828577636 for available space.
Herbs From the Underground
Herbs From the Underground
Farm One just opened an indoor rare herb and flower garden in a TriBeCa basement and many prominent chefs are flocking to it.
By ALYSON KRUEGER | DEC. 6, 2017
In the basement of a loft-style building in TriBeCa that houses a vet, a dog swimming pool, an eye-and-ear infirmary, and a two-Michelin-starred restaurant, there is a working farm.
Farm One is a hydroponic facility, which means that the plants do not grow in soil. Many of these farms are located indoors, in controlled environments, with artificial lighting.
The new two-room space, which opened in November in a former cycling studio for high-altitude training and an old storage area, is only 1200 square feet. There is no fresh air or natural light; there is not even a window. Yet the venue can grow around 580 varieties of rare herbs and flowers (200 at a time) that supply New York’s top restaurants. Le Turtle,Le Coucou, Mission Chinese Food, and The Pool get regular deliveries from Farm One, sometimes several times a week.
“I wouldn’t want to pay for a space with great retail frontage,” said Robert Laing, the farm’s chief executive and founder. “All we need is a floor drain, water, power, temperature control, and the ability to seal the space so bugs don’t get in.” The farm does deliberately bring in a few types of insects that are beneficial for plants, like ladybugs. “You can buy them on Amazon,” he said.
Katherine Chester, a farm hand at Farm One, harvests for a morning delivery.CreditSarah Blesener for The New York Times
Seeds are planted in materials like coconut husks and are put in a tray so water and nutrients can circulate below them. LED lights above simulate the sun. Growing time is not long; many plants, like microgreens, are ready in a little over a week.
People who find it weird to eat food grown in a basement have no reason to worry, said Neil Mattson, associate professor and greenhouse extension specialist at Cornell University. “There is nothing icky about it. Plants don’t care whether they get light from the sun or the lamps. It’s the same thing.”
Matthew Hyland, the chef and owner of Pizza Loves Emily, a client of Farm One, agreed. “A hydroponic garden in general is an amazing thing,” he said. “It’s lit nicely; it smells good in there; the temperature is nice; everything about it is very pleasing.”
The plants grow on shelves that can be expanded or contracted like the stacks in a university library (this setup almost doubles the growing space.) On one level there might be anise hyssop, an herb with tiny lavender-colored flowers and square stems that tastes strongly of mint and licorice. On another, mustard green, a plant that tastes a lot like spicy horseradish. The colors are so diverse and vibrant that the head horticulturalist, David Goldstein, has taken to arranging them on trays for parties.
From top: Amazon neon cherry dianthus and neon rose magic dianthus; edible flowers; nasturtium leaves; and anise hyssop flowers. Farm One can grow some 580 varieties of rare herbs and flowers. CreditSarah Blesener for The New York Times
Mr. Laing, a British-Australian entrepreneur with a sharp sense of humor, can walk around the farm and tell you exactly what every variety is and to whom it is being delivered. “This is my favorite,” he said, pulling off a leaf of papalo. “Crush it up a little bit in your hand and smell it first — there is cilantro, citrus peel. It’s super fresh and quite grassy.” He paused. “I never want to sell software again.”
In a previous life, Mr. Laing worked in Japan, where he started a translation software company. After eight years he turned his attention to his true passion: food. He took culinary classes and visited farmers’ markets across the world, discovering many rare herbs he had never heard of along the way. “And I was someone I thought knew about food,” he said. So he started researching ways to bring these herbs to chefs.
Farm One grew out of this research. In April 2016 the new company started growing products at a small indoor farm at the Institute of Culinary Education, also in Lower Manhattan, on Liberty Street. By August, the farm had its first client: Daniel Boulud’s Daniel. By the end of the summer, the herbs had sold out, which led Farm One to open a second location this fall, at 77 Worth Street.
For $50, New Yorkers can take a tour of the farm, tasting dozens of rare flowers while sipping a glass of prosecco, and they are given a box of herbs to take home. Farm One also offers seminars on the basics of hydroponics, and any herbs and flowers not snapped up by chefs are available for purchase through its website. Mr. Laing is discussing bringing the farm to other cities.
The harvest room at Farm One. CreditSarah Blesener for The New York Times
Mr. Laing attributes the farm’s success to two factors: Rare products and low overhead. “Pluto basil can be sold for $40 a pound as opposed to $10 to $15 for regular basil,” he said. And since the farm is small, the cost of expensive LED lights is minimized. Larger hydronic farms like FarmedHerein Chicago have had to close.
Farm One is also poised to cash in on the Instagram-driven food world, where chefs are willing to pay extra money for novelty items like rare herbs and flowers. Mr. Hyland, for example, is besotted by pluto basil. “They are really beautiful looking on a pizza with the little leaves everywhere,” he said. “Customers know it’s a custom-made product.”
Atera, the restaurant upstairs at 77 Worth, brings certain customers down to the farm for tours. It also offers one course in which the chef, tableside, dresses a dish with the herbs sourced from the basement. “Everyone gets pretty excited,” said Matthew Abbick, the restaurant’s general manager.
Farm One is not the only place chefs can procure these herbs; chef farms or wholesalers in California or Ohio ship a variety of rare products across the country. However, New York chefs like that the greens at Farm One are grown locally and haven’t been sitting in a warehouse or delivery truck for days. “Farm One snips the herbs in the morning for an afternoon delivery,” said Victor Amarilla, the executive chef at Le Turtle. “I actually see my delivery guy walking up now. I see him twice a week.” Farm One boasts on its website that delivery is just a 30-minute bike ride away from 90 percent of the restaurants in the city.
At Atera, a restaurant housed in the same building as Farm One, there is a course in which the chef, tableside, dresses a dish with the herbs sourced from the basement. CreditSarah Blesener for The New York Times
There are also the environmental benefits. The farm recycles and reuses water, purging it every three weeks, which minimizes waste. But there are downsides. Studies show that in general, the environmental costs of lighting and heating indoor farms are significantly higher than shipping something across the country that’s been grown in the California sun. “We know it’s an issue and we are working on it with things like getting more efficient LED lights,” Mr. Mattson said.
Other insiders say that hydroponic farming is essential, especially as climate change makes growing seasons volatile and unreliable. “One of the most important things people will need to do over the next 100 years with climate change is bring food creation and cultivation back to cities where people are moving,” said Dan Nelson, an entrepreneur in Brooklyn who is researching the urban agriculture movement and who took a Farm One seminar on hydroponics. “That’s my humanity-level thesis,” he added.
The New York City Council is currently exploring Bill 1661, a piece of legislation to define urban agriculture and bring about industry standards that will help it advance.
The main concern of chefs, though, is having ingredients they can cook with today. And many are applauding Farm One’s contribution to their operations.
“New York has the greatest summer vegetables and fruits and leafy greens, and in the winter, we are in a real dead zone,” said Mr. Hyland. “Having a product year round that we can really be proud of, would be a great win for New York City food.”
Johannesburg's New "Agripreneurs" Dig For Green Gold On Skyscraper Rooftops
Johannesburg's New "Agripreneurs" Dig For Green Gold On Skyscraper Rooftops
by Inna Lazareva | @InnaLaz | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Friday, 1 December 2017 07:00 GMT
Growing vegetables on roofs in the inner city could help feed poor families healthily and create much-needed jobs
By Inna Lazareva
JOHANNESBURG, Dec 1, 2017 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) -
The soaring "Chamber of Mines" building in central Johannesburg, a hub for South Africa's mining industry, is a symbol of a bygone era when pioneers began flocking here in the late 19th century to dig for gold.
Today, it is also the site of a new venture aiming to entice the city's unemployed youth into green entrepreneurship.
The action this time is happening not underground but sprouting from the rooftops of the inner city's iconic skyscrapers.
The initiative to create urban gardening businesses on vacant roofs was launched more than a year and a half ago by the public-private Johannesburg Inner City Partnership.
Farming is hardly the first thing that comes to mind as a source of job creation and entrepreneurship, said Brendon Martens of Wouldn't It Be Cool (WIBC), an innovation incubator leading the effort.
"Agriculture is generally seen as a low-tech, bottom of the pyramid-type activity when it's at the small scale. It's what a single mom does just to make ends meet," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
But Martens and his team are striving to turn the concept on its head by bringing market needs together with cutting-edge farming methods and hands-on business training.
HI-TECH VEGGIES
The initiative uses hydroponics technology, which allows basil, lettuces, spring onions and other crops to be grown in special water solutions without requiring soil or large open spaces.
Here plants grow faster and use up to 80 percent less water than in traditional farming. The technique also eliminates problems like soil erosion.
Another advantage is that crops are grown locally, cutting down on transportation time and costs, and delivering the freshest-possible products to the consumer.
That is a big shift given as much as 80 percent of what is on offer at the Johannesburg fresh produce market, Africa's largest, is imported from outside Gauteng province, said Martens.
"We pull that value into the communities in the inner city that really need it," he said.
The farm atop the Chamber of Mines, where neat rows of plants bloom under plastic high above the traffic buzzing below, began operating in September.
Agripreneur Nhlanhla Mpati tends to his plants in the garden he set up on top of Johannesburg's iconic "Chamber of Mines" building in the city's central business district, South Africa, Nov. 15 2017. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Inna Lazareva
It is already generating a profit, said Nhlanhla Mpati, 29, the "agripreneur" - agricultural entrepreneur - in charge.
Skills learned here can be applied in other places too, he said, inspecting a small pot of lush green basil.
"With hydro-technology, you're not just employing people, you're giving them a specific trade and a specific skill. They take that and use it somewhere else," he said.
In the next three years, about 100 more farms will be set up in the city besides the two now running, and the scheme is already attracting many applications from would-be young entrepreneurs.
Those shortlisted will receive business and technology training.
Ten of the best performers will each be allocated a rooftop farm of at least 100 square metres (1,076 square feet) with about 3,600 plants.
The farmer will pay back a percentage of the total turnover, which will be used to fund the next farm.
Building owners are asked not to charge rent for the first year, but after that they can earn an income from their roof.
"You're creating a perpetual cycle of sustainability. The farmer's sustainable, the project is sustainable - until we run out of buildings," said Martens.
View from the top of the "Chamber of Mines" building in the central business district of Johannesburg, South Africa, Nov. 15, 2017. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Inna Lazareva
"TICKING TIME BOMB"
One of the initiative's main aims is to address the problem of mass youth unemployment in the city and beyond.
South Africa's jobless rate is close to 30 percent, but that rises to nearly 40 percent for those aged between 15 and 34, one of the highest percentages in the world.
In Johannesburg, young people beg for money as they weave between cars in traffic jams. Unemployment is also fuelling high crime rates, with some zones virtual no-go areas after dark.
"It's a ticking time bomb," said Martens. "We need to address that issue in a sustainable way."
Rising poverty in South Africa is also a major concern, said Moroka Mokgoko who works in business development for Rooftop Roots, an urban eco-farming enterprise setting up rooftop gardens in inner-city Johannesburg.
"Hunger is a real issue here," he said. "The legacy of apartheid and its effects are still felt today... You have kids struggling to afford school."
Mokgoko seeks to sell rooftop produce at affordable rates to locals who might otherwise not be able to buy fresh food.
City roof gardening "kills two birds with one stone - you provide food security and you provide jobs for people", he said.
MORE THAN FOOD?
Some experts, however, doubt the potential of urban farming beyond meeting immediate hand-to-mouth needs.
Most farmers do not have enough support, land, technology or capital to reduce poverty on a large scale, said Naudé Malan, an expert on urban agriculture at the University of Johannesburg.
But urban gardens using hydroponics and aquaponics, and run with entrepreneurial vision do very well, generating an income that beats the median wage, he added.
The key to success lies in the shorter and more efficient production and distribution process, he said.
Growing crops in the city cuts down on food miles - the distance food is transported from producer to consumer - and fosters a new retail approach, linking farmers and shoppers directly, Malan said.
Being close to market avoids planet-warming emissions from long transportation, WIBC's Martens added.
And hydroponics requires far less water than normal irrigation - important in a country that suffers from chronic water shortages.
Tending his plants on the Chamber of Mines, Mpati said the rooftop business is ripe for expansion - from using urban gardens for fashion shows and art exhibitions, to tourist trails.
"It's about being innovative and disruptive in the space," he said. "That's why I say that within five years (the farmers) should be millionaires."
(Reporting by Inna Lazareva, editing by Megan Rowling; Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
The Thomson Reuters Foundation is reporting on resilience as part of its work on zilient.org, an online platform building a global network of people interested in resilience, in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation.
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Understanding Humidity and Temperature
Want to maximize your knowledge on humidity and temperature? Here are six topics that are sure to help.
Introduction:
In order to maintain the A1 environment for plants to grow in a controlled setting with artificial lighting, it is essential for you to understand the nature of the environmental influences and how to measure and evaluate them. This blog describes the physical and chemical resources of the following environmental components and their calculations: humidity, temperature, CO2 concentration, air flow rates, and number of air exchanges per hour. In addition, the basic concepts of energy balance, radiation, and heat conduction and convection are outlined in detail.
Temperature, Energy, and Heat:
Temperature is an indicator of the realistic heat energy content of an object or a substance. Many plant physiological processes are affected by plant temperature, which is controlled by the transfer of heat between plant tissues and the surrounding environment. That being so, monitoring and controlling the air temperature is critical for managing plant physiological activity and response. In an indoor environment, air temperature is often controlled at a comparatively constant level, resulting in constant plant temperature and, as a result, consistent physiological activity.
Energy Balance
Any object with a temperature above 0 K (absolute zero) emits thermal radiation, including the plants themselves and their environment. Energy received by plants includes absorbed radiant energy from lights and the absorbed infrared irradiation from the environment. Energy leaving microgreens includes energy lost through emitting infrared radiation, heat convection, heat condition and heat loss thru evaporation. The heat by conduction and convection from leaves is referred to as sensible heat, and that connected with the evaporation or condensation of water as latent heat. Microgreens leaves have high absorption in the photosynthetically activity radiation (400 to 700 nm), but the chemical energy fixed by photosynthesis is inconsequential small compared to the total energy of the plant. Leaves of nearly all species have a low absorption in the close by infrared scale (700 to 1500 nm) because those wavelengths are transferred through or reflected from the leaf. In difference, absorption is high (roughly 95%) in the far infrared waveband (1500 to 30,000 nm), that can contribute notably to the thermal energy load on the plant.
Radiation
Radiation in the far infrared wavebands is essentially blackbody radiation discharged by environment objects. Objects of higher temperature discharge larger quantities of far infrared radiation than objects at a lower temperature. The main source of radiation energy in indoor environments are lights and reflectors. Conventional lights for indoor grow rooms and greenhouses, such as high-pressure sodium lights and metal halide lights, have exterior temperatures of over 212ºF and emit large amounts of far infrared radiation. This radiation is absorbed by plants, causing increased plant temperature regardless of environment air temperature, through hindering control over plant physiological activity. In an indoor environment, this challenge is compounded by the small interval between lights and plants that is advantageous for maximizing space use efficiency and plant productivity. So, it is preferable to use light sources that emit much less far infrared radiation, such as LEDs (30ºC/86ºF) and fluorescent lights (40ºC/104º).
Heat Conduction and Convection
Energy is managing between a plant and its environment at the molecular level. Energy is transferred by conduction from the leaf cells to the air molecules in contact with the leaf. Conductive heat moves the interface between leaf and air is restricted without convective motion due to the low thermal conductivity of air. Conductive heat interchange can also happen between plant parts and other solid or liquid media. However, the impact of this conductive heat interchange on the plant's energy blueprint is small, because plants do not have physical contact with solid objects or liquid media. Controlling leaf and air temperatures evenly at every growing level is important in indoor grow rooms. If air circulation in a grow room is inadequate, air temperatures at the higher growing levels will be warmer than lower levels, causing the leaves in the higher canopy to also be warmer. by providing air movement in the whole grow room, the vertical air and leaf temperature inclines can be minimized, as well as differences within each horizontal canopy.
Humidity
Water vapor is the gases state of water and humidity is a measure of its content in the air. The amount of climatic water vapor can range from nearly zero up to 4% of the total mass of air. Absolute humidity, or humidity ratio, is a measure of the real water vapor content in the air and is communicated as the ratio of the mass of water vapor to the mass of dry air for a defined volume of air. The air can hold on to more water vapor at higher temperatures than at lower temperatures. Relative humidity is temperature dependent and used to communicate the water vapor content of air found on the maximum amount of water the air can hold for a given temperature and pressure. It is almost all expressed as a percentage or ratio of the given water vapor content to the maximum at a given temperature. As a blueprint, if the air temperature becomes less with no change in water vapor content, the maximum water holding volume of the air drops, resulting in a higher relative humidity. Water vapor is produced by evaporation from open water surfaces and evaporation from wet surfaces such as soil and plants. In a indoor environment, plants are constantly adding water vapor to the air through transpiration, which is the evaporation of water from plant surfaces to the environment. Well, actively growing plants can transpire a large amount of water, resulting in a rapid increase in the water vapor content and humidity in a semi-closed indoor environment. When the air conditioning system is operating, humidity is kept under control because water vapor condenses on the cooling coils, dropping the moisture content, and thus humidity, of the air. For that reason, one approach to controlling humidity in an indoor environment is to alternate the functioning of the lights to generate heat and cause the air conditioner to run, resulting in concurrent cooling and dehumidification of the grow room.Dehumidifiers can be installed in the indoor environment that do not rely on the operation of air conditioners. These units may be used in indoor environment applications that require day/night cycles when turning on the lights for dehumidification would be undesirable. They can also be used to avoid operating lights and air conditioners during peak hours use periods, lower energy cost.
Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD)
Relative humidity is commonly used as a measure of air humidity, it supplies no direct information about the driving force of transpiration and evaporation. Instead, the vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is a measure of the driving force, meaning that transpiration and evaporation rates are proportional to VPD. VPD is the difference (deficit) between the amount of moisture in the air and how much moisture it can hold when it is saturated at the same air temperature and is expressed in units of pressure. While water vapor content increases, water molecules apply more force on each other, resulting in a higher vapor pressure. Because air can hold more water vapor at higher temperatures, the maximum water vapor pressure is higher at higher temperatures. When the VPD is too low, transpiration will be reserved and can lead condensation on leaves and surfaces inside the indoor environment. Also, when the VPD is high, the plant will draw more water from its roosting an effort to avoid wilting. If the VPD gets too high, plants close stomata and shut down the transpiration altogether in an effort to prevent excessive water loss. In indoor environment, the idea range for VPD is from 0.8 kPa to 0.95 kPa, with an optimal setting of around 0.85 kPa.
CO2 Concentration
CO2 is a naturing occurring chemical compound. It is a linear covalent molecule and is an acidic oxide, and reacts with water to give carbonic acid. CO2 is a nonflammable, colorless, odorless gas at standard temperature and pressure and exists in earth's atmosphere at this state as a trace gas. Atmospheric CO2 concentration varies with time of day and location depending on adsorption and respiration of plants and animals, and human activity. CO2 is produced from the combustion of coal or hydrocarbons, the fermentation of liquids, and the respiration of humans, animals, and fungi.
Air Current Speed
Air current speed is defined as distance air travels over a specified period of time, such as one meter per second. Air velocity is the term used when the direction of air current speed is specified. Inadequate air current speed around plants suppresses gas diffusion in the leaf boundary layer, which later on reduces rates photosynthesis and transpiration and hence plant growth. Maintaining suitable air speeds indoor environment creates small turbulent eddies around the leaf surface that facilitates gas exchange between the plants and the surrounding environment, promoting plant growth. Low airspeeds can cause variations in air temperature, CO2 concentration, and humidity inside the plant canopy, resulting in inconsistent growth on leaves and other surfaces in the grow room, helping to prevent unwanted growth of bacteria and molds. Fans can be used to circulate air movement and control airspeed within the plant canopy in the grow room. To achieve exact airspeed control, special calculation and design master plans regarding the location, number, and capacity of fans are required when an indoor grow room is built.
Number of Air Exchange Per Hour
Number of air exchange per hour is a measure of how many times the air within a defined space is replaced by new air, which is defined as the ratio of hourly ventilation rate divided by volume of room air. If possible the number should be small for the purpose of controlling the environment and preventing entry of pathogens and pest. But, a minimum air exchange rate should be maintained to prevent the accumulation of ethylene in a indoor grow room, which can cause damage to the plants.
What am I missing here? Let me know in the comments and I'll add it in.
Next week I'll post about lighting.....
Tags: humidity temperature hydroponic specialists urbanagriculture indoorenvironment
This Company Wants To Solve The World's Hunger Problem. Here's How
Plenty, a new San Francisco–based startup, hopes to step up to that plate. The Jeff Bezos–backed endeavor, which has raised $200 million to date, is dedicated to bringing healthy food to everyone in the world, thanks to a unique system of vertical farms. Plenty, a new San Francisco–based startup, hopes to step up to that plate. The Jeff Bezos–backed endeavor, which has raised $200 million to date, is dedicated to bringing healthy food to everyone in the world, thanks to a unique system of vertical farms
This Company Wants To Solve The World's Hunger Problem. Here's How
November 9, 2017
While we love bringing you functional recipes and sharing the latest in superfood trends, it's hard to ignore the fact that some people simply don't have access to the most basic elements of healthy food. In line with our newly shared You. We. All. mission, it's abundantly clear that if some—many—of us can't find or purchase healthy food, the system isn't working for all of us, and something needs to change.
Plenty, a new San Francisco–based startup, hopes to step up to that plate. The Jeff Bezos–backed endeavor, which has raised $200 million to date, is dedicated to bringing healthy food to everyone in the world, thanks to a unique system of vertical farms. Vertical farming is the perfect antidote to many of the problems that plague the modern agricultural world: It doesn't require land (it goes up, not out); soil (which is often depleted of nutrients from over-farming); sunlight (special low-energy UV lamps are used); or pesticides (Plenty will seek official organic certification within the next calendar year). While vertical farming is incredibly effective in all types of environments, it's especially change-making in urban regions, where thousands of gallons of fuel are typically used to ship produce from more far-flung farms (the time in transit significantly reduces the nutrient contents of produce as well), and countries with environments that don't typically lend themselves to agriculture (many mountainous and desert regions). Vertical farming crops can yield up to 530 times more than typical fields, a huge boon when it comes to quickly getting vegetables to the world's ever-expanding population.
The company has opened two vertical farms thus far, in the Bay Area and Wyoming, with plans for a third to debut in Seattle in spring 2018. The new warehouse is twice as large as the company's first and will grow 4.5 million pounds of greens annually—enough to feed nearly 200,000 Americans. With its large investment, the company hopes to eventually have a vertical farm in every major city in the world.
While there is speculation about the company's future plans—rumors include direct-to-consumer delivery done by robots, among other things—one thing is certain: Plenty is poised to quickly revolutionize the way the world eats.
Liz Moody is the senior food editor at mindbodygreen. She's contributed to Glamour, Women's Health, Food & Wine, goop, and many other publications and is the woman behind the...
Urban Agriculture Just Got Serious! Plantagon Is Building 10 Underground City Farms In Stockholm – And Locals Are Invited To Join In…
Plantagon CityFarm® is a new concept for using empty premises for resource efficient and sustainable food production in cities. The first plant is located under Stockholm’s iconic “DN Skrapan” in Kungsholmen, and the goal is to have ten production facilities for indoor production in the Stockholm area by 2020.
Urban Agriculture Just Got Serious! Plantagon Is Building 10 Underground City Farms In Stockholm – And Locals Are Invited To Join In…
Press Release • Dec 01, 2017
Plantagon is building 10 underground city farms in Stockholm – and locals are invited to join in…
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (December 1, 2017) – We hear a lot about smart sustainable innovations coming from Sweden, from turning rubbish into fuel, recycling excess heat from data centres, geothermals etc… Swedish pioneers Plantagon, are now taking on sustainable city farming on an industrial scale.
Plantagon CityFarm® is a new concept for using empty premises for resource efficient and sustainable food production in cities. The first plant is located under Stockholm’s iconic “DN Skrapan” in Kungsholmen, and the goal is to have ten production facilities for indoor production in the Stockholm area by 2020. Now the public is invited to a crowdfunding campaign on the Fundedbyme Investor Platform to support the expansion.
"The reason for a crowdfunding campaign is that we believe that people that care about the future of cities, food production and the health of our planet should be given the opportunity to be a part of the solution. To us, it is important to create and expand together, showing that we are a movement for healthy sustainable food. Together, we can make a difference for safe food production in cities - now and in the future", says Owe Pettersson, CEO of Plantagon International.
The goal of the campaign is to reach between 3.5 and 7.5 million kronor. The minimum amount to participate is set at SEK 1,000. All who participate will get a blueprint for a home-growing system if they would like to start cultivating at home. For all who participate at the level of SEK 10,000 or more, a private guided tour and your own harvest of vegetables and herbs inside the facility are included. Read more about the campaign here: www.fundedbyme.com/plantagon
Collaborators in the project include Samhall (a state-owned company with a mandate to create work that furthers the development of people with functional impairment causing reduced working capacity), ICA Maxi Lindhagen (a very local supermarket store), and world-renowned chef Pontus Frithiof with the restaurant, Pontus Tidningspressen, in the same building.
Ten units by 2020
"The first unit in the DN house is already fully funded and under construction. We aim to sign contracts on plant number two and three in March 2018 to start these in December 2018. Then we continue with plant four and five. The goal is that we have ten facilities running in Stockholm by 2020", says Owe Pettersson.
Plantagon CityFarm Stockholm is part of Plantagon Production Sweden AB, a subsidiary of Plantagon International AB. CEO of the new production company is Owe Pettersson, who is also CEO of Plantagon International AB.
Plantagon's technology for industrial indoor and urban cultivation is a response to the need for new solutions for sustainable food production that can provide for the growing urban population around the world while maximizing the use of unused urban spaces. Cultivation takes place in a controlled environment without any forms of chemical pesticides. Plantagon CityFarm® saves 99 percent of water consumption compared with traditional agriculture and carbon dioxide emissions are reduced to almost zero, while 70 percent of the energy used is reused to heat the offices in the DN House. By saving and reusing resources, production costs are significantly reduced.
What does Urban Agriculture really mean?
For Plantagon, it means that it must be sustainable environmentally, sustainable for society and also economically sustainable. Many players in food tech talk about urban agriculture or city farming, but no one has managed to cover all three goals. Delivering locally and using smart energy systems minimizes costs as well as emissions. Large-scale production using efficient cultivation systems while training the future farmers through Samhall, Plantagon plans on taking urban agriculture to the next level and developing the industry globally.
Please go to investment page for more information
Contacts
Carin Balfe Arbman, Communications Manager, Plantagon, tel. +46-70-633 35 08, carin.balfe-arbman@plantagon.com
Anna Karlsson, Press Contact, Manifest Stockholm, +46-735-20 28 80,anna@manifeststockholm.se
Plantagon International is a world-leading pioneer within the field food security and CSR – combining urban agriculture, innovative technical solutions and architecture – to meet the demand for efficient food production within cities; adding a more democratic and inclusive governance model.
www.plantagon.com www.plantagon.org
New Start-Ups Aiming to Make Singapore As The First Food Sustainable City
Another Makanpreneur start-up, E-Farmer Market, is building an online platform to connect hobby farmers with the local community. Farmers can trade their home grown foods with their neighbours, giving visibility to Singapore’s underground homegrown farmers, and reduce food wastage by redistributing food surpluses.
New Start-Ups Aiming to Make Singapore As The First Food Sustainable City
By Laxmi Iyer
December 4, 2017
PC: Unsplash/Carissa Gan
9 in 10 Singaporeans are concerned with food waste, yet hardly any one is doing anything about it. A survey from the National Environment Agency showed that an average Singaporean generates 140kg of food waste a year, an equivalent of throwing two bowls of rice in the trash every day.
Is this because Singaporeans deem food sustainability as something far-fetched and unattainable?
Food waste has risen by an appalling 50% from 2005 to 2014, mounting to a gruesome 788,600 tonnes of food waste per year in the little red dot. While this figure has since dropped by 0.39% in 2016, a mere 0.39% drop belies a fact that there is still much room for improvement.
Just last month, Channel News Asia announced Singapore Airline’s effort to incorporate more sustainable ingredients in its in-flight meals to promoting environmental sustainability and support for local farmers.
While corporate businesses are inching to be more environmentally conscious, Singapore start-ups are taking it up a notch, with many championing food sustainability at the forefront of their businesses, tackling the problem of national food waste on a much larger scale.
Makanpreneur- Southeast Asia’s first Food Sustainability Accelerator was launched on the 18 November 2017. Four innovative food start-ups were selected, out of sixteen applications, for a four-month training programme by UNFRAMED in partnership with Croeni Foundation, National Youth Council, and FoodXervices. The accelerator program aims to help tech start-ups addressing food sustainability challenges to scale their impact, by offering comprehensive support including rigorous training, coaching programs, funding and the largest impact-network in Singapore.
So what are these start-ups looking at, to improve food sustainability in Singapore?
Some Makanpreneur start-ups are fostering local food production looking to make Singapore -the first food-resilient country, a real challenge, given its land scarcity. Ecolution looks at the next-generation of polyculture farms, where smart precision agriculture technologies are implemented in farming multiple crops in the same space. FarmX has developed a full Internet-of-Things (IOT) system including sensors and automated smart-irrigation, so that urban farming can be made cost-effective, with minimal manpower involvement. Both are currently piloting their solutions with local farms.
In contrast, some start-ups turn online to reduce food waste. Another Makanpreneur start-up, E-Farmer Market, is building an online platform to connect hobby farmers with the local community. Farmers can trade their homegrown foods with their neighbours, giving visibility to Singapore’s underground homegrown farmers, and reduce food wastage by redistributing food surpluses. Similarly, Lasmin has launched an online marketplace with both an Android and an iPhone app, bringing buyers and sellers of perishable food items together, thus reducing information asymmetry and food waste.
Makanpreneur ends on the 28 March next year with a presentation to an audience composed of invited guests from the food industry and impact investment space. The most promising teams will receive a funding of up to $10,000 from Croeni Foundation. Through UNFRAMED’s rigorous training & coaching sessions covering pitching, branding and digital marketing, impact assessment and more, the start-ups will see their businesses scale up to bring even more impact into Singapore’s food sustainability.
Kent To Get Large, Indoor Organic Produce Farm
Kent To Get Large, Indoor Organic Produce Farm
- By Steve Hunter
- Friday, November 10, 2017
Once known decades ago for its many fields of greens as the “Lettuce Capital of the World,” Kent’s about to get its first large indoor organic produce farm.
Plenty, a San Francisco-based firm whose investors include Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com and Kent’s Blue Origin aerospace manufacturer, announced plans this month to open a 100,000-square-foot facility next year near the Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service site along 84th Avenue South.
“Seattle’s emphasis on delicious, healthy food and energy and water efficiency makes the area a natural fit for our next Plenty farm,” said Matt Barnard, CEO and co-founder of Plenty, in a media release. “At nearly 100,000 square feet, Seattle will be home to our first full-scale farm and help set the standard by which our global farm network makes locally grown, backyard-quality produce accessible to everyone. We’re excited about what’s next and look forward to building the Seattle team.”
Plenty’s farm is expected to open in the first half of next year with about 50 employees, including indoor farming engineers, organic growers, and operations experts. Produce grown will be available to Seattle and Vancouver British Columbia area consumers beginning in mid-2018.
“This is a grow we can all get behind,” Ben Wolters, city economic and community development director, said to the City Council at its Tuesday meeting, in reference to the city’s ban against marijuana businesses. “They grow organic produce with LED lights, and yield 350 times what a field of similar size would produce.”
The indoor farm will produce about 4.5 million pounds of greens annually and grow 300 types of produce year-round, Wolters said.
The location near Amazon Fresh, which opened its Kent warehouse this year, makes for a natural connection.
“The idea is Amazon Fresh will buy from here and then ship it out as part of your order,” Wolters said. “They can harvest produce within hours of your order.”
As the amount of domestic acreage that produces affordable fresh fruit and vegetables shrinks while labor and land costs sustain their perpetual rise, Plenty’s expansion is critical to making local, hyper-fresh and organic produce available and affordable for people everywhere, company officials said.
Plenty’s farms, which the company is developing in or near communities around the world, will deliver industry-leading yields of local, backyard-quality produce that’s completely GMO and pesticide-free while remaking agriculture to be both predictable and perpetual given the demands of 7.3 billion people worldwide. Plenty officials say the farms give plants the perfect environment for amazing flavor, use 1 percent of the water and a tiny fraction of the land of conventional agriculture.
The company’s first field-scale farm is in South San Francisco and will start delivering produce to local Bay Area customers within hours of harvest by the end of this year.
“It’s very cutting edge, and the technical and business magazines are covering it,” Wolters said. “It highlights Kent where innovation and opportunity can thrive.”
More Urban Farms, Rooftop Gardens in Singapore With Enhanced Greenery Scheme
More Urban Farms, Rooftop Gardens in Singapore With Enhanced Greenery Scheme
Urban farms, like this one at Raffles City, help to optimise under-utilised roof spaces. (Photo: Edible Garden City)
SINGAPORE: Urban farms and communal rooftop food gardens might soon be a more common sight in Singapore, with the enhancement of an urban greenery scheme.
This was announced by Second Minister for National Development Desmond Lee on Thursday (Nov 9), at the opening of greenery and landscape design event GreenUrbanScape Asia.
The Landscaping for Urban Spaces and High-Rises (LUSH) programme, which aims to replace greenery lost during a building’s development or redevelopment, will be enhanced to improve both the quality and quantity of urban greenery, Mr. Lee said.
This includes encouraging property developers to house urban gardens and communal rooftop gardens in their buildings and increase landscaping on walls and roofs - which can also help lower ambient temperature.
The Tree House condominium in Bukit Panjang has green walls that are designed to reduce ambient temperature. (Photo: Finbarr Fallon)
“Such features have been gaining popularity in our urban landscape, as many Singaporeans have a keen interest in farming and gardening,” said Mr Lee, who is also the Minister for Social and Family Development.
The enhanced LUSH programme will encourage more people to take up urban farming and gardening near their offices and homes, while allowing developers to better utilise rooftop space, he added.
First introduced in 2009, the scheme has contributed to more than 130 hectares of greenery so far, or the equivalent of about 210 football fields.
GREENERY DENSITY FRAMEWORK INTRODUCED
A framework to assess the volume of greenery will also be introduced under the LUSH scheme, with the green plot ratio standards to outline the density of greenery required in a development.
“In this way, developers will be encouraged to consider not just the amount of landscaped area provided in their projects, but also how lush the greenery will be,” Mr Lee said.
The announcement comes as Singapore ramps up efforts to inject more greenery in spaces across the island, with a target of 200 hectares of rooftop greenery by 2030 set out in the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint. Currently, there are around 100 hectares of skyrise greenery across the country, or the equivalent of more than 100 football fields.
The Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum has planter boxes integrated into its facade. (Photo: Finbarr Fallon)
ROOF GARDENS HOME TO “DIVERSE RANGE OF WILDLIFE”
Mr Lee also highlighted a new study, which found 110 species of birds and butterflies on roof gardens across the island, representing 13 and 18 per cent of the total number of bird and butterfly species in Singapore.
Jointly conducted by the National Parks Board and National University of Singapore at 30 rooftop gardens over 20 months, the study also found 24 species of rare or uncommon birds and butterflies. Khoo Teck Puat hospital was found to have the highest number of species recorded, with 61 birds and 37 butterfly species.
“This joint study suggests that with careful design planning, urban roof gardens can play host to a diverse range of wildlife, and help complement the equally important work of natural habitat conservation and enhancement,” Mr Lee said.
At the event, 26 developments were also recognized for their efforts in greening landscapes, 14 of which received the Skyrise Greenery Awards.
Launched in 2008, the biannual awards aim to recognize excellence in landscape architecture in Singapore.
Source: CNA/cy
Why Did IKEA Invest in AeroFarms and What is Next For This New Agrifood Tech Investor?
In October, New Jersey indoor farming group AeroFarms announced that is had closed its Series D round on $40 million with a new, eye-catching investor in Swedish furniture giant IKEA Group.
Why Did IKEA Invest in AeroFarms and What is Next For This New Agrifood Tech Investor?
DECEMBER 4, 2017 | EMMA COSGROVE
In October, New Jersey indoor farming group AeroFarms announced that is had closed its Series D round on $40 million with a new, eye-catching investor in Swedish furniture giant IKEA Group.
The investment is part and parcel of an initiative at IKEA, also famous for bringing Swedish food to a global audience, to reimagine its food program with sustainability as the driving force, helmed by managing director of IKEA Food Services Michael la Cour.
IKEA’s iconic meatballs and packaged food products are headed for a shake-up, says la Cour, so we caught up with him to find out what’s in store and how startups might play a role. So far, this year, IKEA has participated in the AeroFarms Series D (through its entity IKEA Group) and the company has also invited Israeli fruit fly farm and insect protein startup Flying SpArk to join IKEA’s first boot camp and startup accelerator in September. IKEA is also a shareholder in Swedish plant-based meat and dairy alternative food manufacturer BoFood (through IKEA Greentech).
You said at the Sustainology Summit that we can expect radical change to the IKEA food program, which sounds to me like nothing is off the table. Is that right?
That’s absolutely right. At IKEA, we’re interested in everything our customers are interested in. And if you look at the food business, I think it’s undergoing a radical change, isn’t it? I think you see a lot of interesting movement in the food business from a retail perspective — new ideas that are popping up, cross-collaborations from celebrity chefs to the more mass-based food industry. I think it would be absolutely foolish to exclude anything at this point.
That’s the way we’ve approached the furniture side as well, and how we work with innovation. It’s by always trying to think with ambition, and being at the forefront of things, and collaboration is the absolute key in this, and that’s what we’re going to apply to the food business, as well.
With that in mind, how are you prioritizing the changes you plan to make? Are you using sustainability and environmental issues as your priorities, or are you using your own food sales as your guide?
Health and sustainability throughout the value chain is what guides us. It should be evident in the range we offer. It should be evident in how we develop things, and it should be evident in how we ultimately source things, as well. Now, this is, of course, a journey. We’re in the early stages of it, but it’s those things that sort of become our priority in everything that we do.
Michael la Cour
I think the IKEA Group investment in AeroFarms, is one such example on how to, in early stages, invest in vertical farming that would significantly change the environmental impact, let’s say, of how we would get fresh produce to a store in the future. I think even Flying SpArk, as well, is such one example.
It may be early days for mass consumption of fruit flies as a protein, but it’s in these early days that I believe companies like ourselves with 660 million customers every year through our food program need to step in.
Is investing in early-stage companies the way you plan on interacting with startups that in the future?
Yeah, absolutely, and I think we’ll find out. The startup IKEA Greentech invested in recently, BoFood in Sweden, is the first pilot. I think as we learn, we will start to understand at what stage of a startup is most suitable for working with us and how to define, in the early stages, the scalability opportunities. But again, when it comes to sustainability and health, we firmly believe that startups and mid-sized companies are the way forward for us.
We’ve also, for the first time, tried to sort of act like an incubator and see where that leads, so it’s a test and trial, if you will, for us as well, on how to incorporate that into a bigger machine more seamlessly, without having to go in and acquire and so on, but utilizing the resources we have, the investment capabilities and funding. That’s what we bring to it and they bring the innovation, the spirit, and the great ideas.
How deep do you expect or plan these relationships to go? Do you intend to, or can you imagine eventually being a customer or an acquirer?
Yes. I think actually we can operate on that whole scale, but I would always aim for a healthy split on that. I think there is a business opportunity in being a company that can facilitate startups, the corporation will launch products in the store directly. That scalability within a short timeline is our number one priority. At the same time, I also believe very much in pairing up with startups, tech companies, and on backward in our supply chain, which we are currently restructuring.
There are a lot of companies out there who make consumer hydroponic grow units that are the size of a wine fridge. And there are also companies out there making restaurant and retail installations using that technology. Why did you choose to go for a seller of food, and not a seller of growing systems?
Well, I think it’s more a matter of just what came first, really. IKEA actually launched a home cultivation product that enables you to do this in your own home.
Now, when it comes to the installation in the stores, we do have actual discussions on whether we can do it. The thing is that with the enormous flow of customers that we have in an average store, we have to find the practical way of doing this.
We would not do it only for show, but try to find a structure where it would actually work.
What is IKEA doing on the problem of food waste?
When it comes to food waste, we identified some years back that with 660 billion customers, of course, we can make a major impact. When you think about the business in general, there are a lot of things we can do, not just from a food perspective, but we sell food containers, we actually sell appliances.
I think the overall UN goal is 50% reduction of food waste by 2030, and we’ve tried to be more ambitious and reduce all our waste in our restaurants and bistros by 50% by 2020, knowing that some of the restaurants operate in more immature markets concerning food waste handling.
To help us with that, we have engaged with Winnow and LeanPath. Basically, it’s software that helps us to identify what we’re throwing away. It describes what we’re throwing away, it helps the awareness of our workers tremendously, and it’s also already in some of the stores, brought us down to very close to our goal.
Was food waste what brought you around to being interested in Flying SpArk?
Put it like this: food waste of course is an essential area to address, not only because it’s actually an unnecessary waste of 30% of all calories produced, but there is a need to feed a lot more people in the future, and that also means that you need to actually look for alternative proteins to what you have today. When we add the process of applications, I think it was some 1,000 companies, not food companies only by any means, but it was about 1,000 companies that applied to IKEA to be part of the bboot campinitiative. This was the one that stood out from an alternative protein perspective.
The startup Flying SpArk applied, and they caught our eyes with the product proposal. It wasn’t the first thing that came to my mind when we talk alternative proteins. I’ve seen, like most people, the different grasshoppers and what you see out there, but this was a new take.
Is your interest in alternative proteins driving you toward a more plant-based menu? Are meatballs in danger?
I think what we see is that the direction of health and sustainability to me does not mean that we diverge completely from meat. For me, it means we start moving towards a much wider and much more exciting offering of plant-based products.
So what are the areas that you’re most interested in for the next like year? What are you looking at right now?
Yeah. I cannot really reveal what we’re looking at right now, but I can tell you in general terms what we’re interested in. I think meat alternatives is a major area that we are very, very interested in. There are of course already a few bigger players in the market.
I think there is both space and need for more than that. I do believe that the area of meat replacements, meat substitutes, is the area that we need to develop. Meat consumption has such a major footprint when it comes to CO2 gas emissions. We need to find alternatives that are still delicious, appealing, and that we can get in at price points that customers will by nature choose because they’re just as good if not better. So I see a huge need there to get players in and get supply up. The demand is there I believe, but the supply is what we need to get up very, very quickly. That is for me the absolute major movement that I would like to move and engage with in the short-term.
Akron-Based Vigeo Gardens Nets Produce Deal With Quicken Loans Arena
Vincent Peterson, Mark Preston and Jacob Craine started Akron-based Vigeo Gardens as a small hydroponic garden in Craine's basement in 2014. It has quickly grown into a 6,100-square-foot, high-efficiency vertical farm with 2017 sales set to exceed $750,000.
Akron-Based Vigeo Gardens Nets Produce Deal With Quicken Loans Arena
December 3, 2017
Genovese basil grows beneath LED lights at Vigeo Gardens in downtown Akron. The indoor farm provides hydroponic lettuce, hydroponic basil and microgreens to more than 40 restaurants in the Cleveland and Columbus markets, along with major food distributors, grocery stores such as Heinen's and Giant Eagle, and most recently, Quicken Loans Arena. (Vigeo Gardens)
By Megan Becka, special to cleveland.com
AKRON, Ohio - Vincent Peterson, Mark Preston, and Jacob Craine started Akron-based Vigeo Gardens as a small hydroponic garden in Craine's basement in 2014. It has quickly grown into a 6,100-square-foot, high-efficiency vertical farm with 2017 sales set to exceed $750,000.
Vigeo Gardens currently occupies the third floor of the former B.F. Goodrich Company tire factory in downtown Akron, and provides hydroponic lettuce, hydroponic basil and microgreens to more than 40 restaurants in the Cleveland and Columbus markets, along with major food distributors, grocery stores such as Heinen's and Giant Eagle, and most recently, Quicken Loans Arena.
"To be able to supply the home of the Cavs is a dream come true and will hopefully open up a lot of doors for us," Craine said.
The deal took about three months to secure, and the first shipment of lettuce, basil and microgreens will arrive at the arena on Monday, according to Vigeo Gardens Director of Sales John Hairston.
Vigeo founders Peterson, Preston, and Craine, along with five full-time employees, grow more than eight varieties of lettuce and 20 types of microgreens at their indoor farm, as well as basil and wheat grass. According to Craine, indoor farming offers several benefits, including being able to grow and harvest produce year-round, without the use of pesticides or chemicals.
Vigeo Gardens' lettuce and basil are harvested the same day they ship and sold live, which means the produce can last for up to two weeks in the fridge or longer.
"It's as fresh as you can possibly get," he said.
The farm is also on a mission to refine and grow its operation, using the least resources possible.
"We've spent the last two years designing, developing and tweaking the systems to perfect vertical hydroponic farms," Craine said. "Everything in our space is designed, engineered and built by us."
Innovations include designing a vertical racking system to house the plants and a custom nutrient solution. The trio also worked with a Chinese manufacturer to create custom LED lights.
The farm is working to be waste-free by 2018 through composting and waste-water recycling initiatives and is working with FirstEnergy to become the first zero-carbon footprint farm in Ohio.
"Our goal is to expand throughout the Rust Belt, because there is a need for fresh produce all the time, especially during winter months. We'd like to continue our work repurposing old factories, like we have here in Akron, into high-efficiency vertical farms to supply communities with fresh produce," Craine said.
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Largest Rooftop Solar Project In Nation To Begin Soon At Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village
The 3.8-megawatt solar energy system will span across the property’s 22 acres of rooftops. Once completed, the rooftop solar project at Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village will triple Manhattan’s current solar generation capacity.
Largest Rooftop Solar Project In Nation To Begin Soon At Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village
NOVEMBER 9, 2017 | BY JOHN JORDAN
The 3.8-megawatt solar energy system will span across the property’s 22 acres of rooftops. Once completed, the rooftop solar project at Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village will triple Manhattan’s current solar generation capacity.
A rendering of the rooftop solar project at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village. Photo courtesy of Stuy Town Property Services.
NEW YORK CITY—Work will begin this winter on what has been described as the largest private multifamily rooftop solar project in the United States at the Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village here.
Owner Blackstone and Ivanhoe Cambridge announced the launch of the project that will be run by StuyTown Property Services, the property management company of the more than 11,200-unit Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complex. A representative of the ownership tells Globest.com that the rooftop solar project’s cost will be approximately $10 million.
The 3.8-megawatt solar energy system will span across the property’s 22 acres of rooftops. Once completed, the rooftop solar project at Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village will triple Manhattan’s current solar generation capacity. New York City-based renewable energy developer Onyx Renewable Partners is the project developer for the installation. The project is expected to be completed in 2019. Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village is the largest private rental apartment complex in the U.S., with more than 11,200 multifamily units and houses more than 27,000 residents in 56 buildings across 80 acres in Manhattan’s East Village.
“We are incredibly proud of the long-term partnership we are building with the StuyTown community,” says Nadeem Meghji, head of real estate Americas at Blackstone. “In 2015 we made a commitment to preserve StuyTown’s unique heritage and be responsible stewards of its future. This innovative solar project is one of many initiatives we designed and implemented to make the community more sustainable and environmentally friendly.”
The installation will consist of 9,671 high-efficiency solar panels and will generate enough energy to power more than 1,000 New York City apartments annually. The project is expected to offset approximately 63,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, which is comparable to removing 12,000 cars from the road for a year, Stuyvesant Town officials state.
“Working to make communities more sustainable underpins many of our business decisions. We are especially proud of this initiative and congratulate our partners Blackstone and the team at SPS. Stuyvesant Town Peter Cooper Village is a very special place and continues to be a leader in New York City,” says Daniel Fournier, chairman, and CEO, Ivanhoé Cambridge.
Previous energy-saving initiatives have earned Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village an ENERGY STAR certification three years in a row for its energy management technologies. Other sustainable initiatives at the property have included the installation of LED lighting, high-efficiency hot water heat exchangers, elevator shaft louvers to minimize heat loss and domestic water flow control valves, as well as incorporating the use of a centralized building management system to control steam heating distribution and manage all of its sustainable initiatives.
The development’s compost waste pickup is averaging a little over 10,000 pounds of organic material collected weekly, which represents 17% of all residential compost waste collected in Manhattan. Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village has also reduced on-site greenhouse gas emissions by 10% since 2007, which will be increased once the solar rooftop project is complete.
John Jordan
John Jordan is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years experience in newspaper and web publishing. He is a contributing writer for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. johnjord@aol.com
Johannesburg's New "Agripreneurs" Dig For Green Gold On Skyscraper Rooftops
DECEMBER 1, 2017
Johannesburg's New "Agripreneurs" Dig For Green Gold On Skyscraper Rooftops
OHANNESBURG, Dec 1 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The soaring “Chamber of Mines” building in central Johannesburg, a hub for South Africa’s mining industry, is a symbol of a bygone era when pioneers began flocking here in the late 19th century to dig for gold.
Nhlanhla Mpati is a small-scale entrepreneurial farmer who started a roof-top farm on top of the Chamber of Mines building in the Joburg CBD.
Today, it is also the site of a new venture aiming to entice the city’s unemployed youth into green entrepreneurship.
The action this time is happening not underground but sprouting from the rooftops of the inner city’s iconic skyscrapers.
The initiative to create urban gardening businesses on vacant roofs was launched more than a year and a half ago by the public-private Johannesburg Inner City Partnership.
Farming is hardly the first thing that comes to mind as a source of job creation and entrepreneurship, said Brendon Martens of Wouldn’t It Be Cool (WIBC), an innovation incubator leading the effort.
“Agriculture is generally seen as a low-tech, bottom of the pyramid-type activity when it’s at the small scale. It’s what a single mom does just to make ends meet,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
But Martens and his team are striving to turn the concept on its head by bringing market needs together with cutting-edge farming methods and hands-on business training.
HI-TECH VEGGIES
The initiative uses hydroponics technology, which allows basil, lettuces, spring onions and other crops to be grown in special water solutions without requiring soil or large open spaces.
Here plants grow faster and use up to 80 percent less water than in traditional farming. The technique also eliminates problems like soil erosion.
Another advantage is that crops are grown locally, cutting down on transportation time and costs, and delivering the freshest-possible products to the consumer.
That is a big shift given as much as 80 percent of what is on offer at the Johannesburg fresh produce market, Africa’s largest, is imported from outside Gauteng province, said Martens.
“We pull that value into the communities in the inner city that really need it,” he said.
The farm atop the Chamber of Mines, where neat rows of plants bloom under plastic high above the traffic buzzing below, began operating in September.
Clinton Hill School Gets Millions In Greenhouse Funding
Urban Assembly Unison is one of seven schools slated to share $7 million from Adams' Growing Brooklyn's Future initiative, which will fund building rooftop gardens and greenhouses, the borough president announced Tuesday.
Clinton Hill School Gets Millions In Greenhouse Funding
The Urban Assembly Unison School is one of seven schools slated to receive greenhouse funding from Eric Adams' $7 million initiative.
By Kathleen Culliton, Patch Staff | Nov 29, 2017
CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN — A Clinton Hill school can begin building its greenhouse after Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams announced the expansion of his green school initiati
Urban Assembly Unison is one of seven schools slated to share $7 million from Adams' Growing Brooklyn's Future initiative, which will fund building rooftop gardens and greenhouses, the borough president announced Tuesday.
"This is about keeping Brooklyn's kids at the forefront of innovation and growing their futures," said Borough President Adams.
"Young people across the borough will now have the opportunity to learn about growing fruits, vegetables, herbs, and plants that will empower them to make healthy choices."
Urban Assembly — a profession-focused public school with an urban farming program — received $2 million from Growing Brooklyn's Future and an additional $1.05 million from City Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo's office.
The school plans to begin construction on its courtyard greenhouse — which is expected to produce about 25 thousand pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables per year — early in 2018 with an anticipated completion date set for 2020, school officials said.
The money will be divided between seven schools in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bergen Beach, Brownsville, Clinton Hill, Gravesend and Sheepshead Bay, according to the Brooklyn borough president.
Adams first launched Growing Brooklyn's Future in 2015 when he channeled more than $2 million to create hydroponic classrooms to 12 Brooklyn schools in Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, Bushwick, Canarsie, Cypress Hills and East New York.
Long Beach, California: Urban-Agriculture Program Accepting Applications From Local Residents
Long Beach, California: Urban-Agriculture Program Accepting Applications From Local Residents
City of Long Beach / December 1, 2017
Long Beach residents can now submit their applications for the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone (UAIZ) Program, which would allow vacant-lot owners in the city to be eligible for a property-tax reduction by committing their lot to urban agriculture for five years.
Urban-agriculture projects include many types of farming activities, including community and educational gardens, as well as commercial farms with farm stands, which provide economic and educational opportunities to the community, according to the City of Long Beach.
“As a leading city for sustainability, this program is a testament to Long Beach’s commitment to expanding access to green space,” Mayor Robert Garcia said. “This program will activate vacant lots and provide new sources of healthy produce to the community.”
To qualify for the program, vacant lots must:
Be between 0.10 to three acres in size.
Have no habitable structures; all on-site structures must be accessory to agricultural use.
Not have any part of the lot listed on the Department of Toxic Substance Control’s EnviroStor Database.
Be within Long Beach City limits and comply with City zoning codes.
“I encourage all vacant lot owners to take advantage of this rare opportunity,” Vice Mayor Rex Richardson said. “This UAIZ program creates a win-win situation, fostering economic growth in Long Beach while paving way for more locally grown produce.”
On May 10, 2016, the Long Beach City Council requested City staff to explore the feasibility of implementing the UAIZ Program, an item sponsored by Richardson, 1st District Councilmember Lena Gonzalez, 7th District Councilmember Roberto Uranga and former vice mayor Suja Lowenthal.
“This initiative supports sustainability within our community by helping to increase access to healthy foods for residents and reducing emissions from food transportation,” Gonzalez said.
“I am in full support of the UAIZ ordinance, because I want to see a cleaner, healthier Long Beach and this program helps prevent vacant lots becoming eyesores due to issues like illegal dumping,” Uranga said.
The city council passed the UAIZ ordinance last month, creating the program and updating the City zoning code to adopt urban-agriculture uses.
“The program is now open, and we are looking forward to possibly getting our first contract through this year,” said Larry Rich, the City’s sustainability coordinator. “These vacant lots have the potential to provide great community benefits, and we hope to help realize them through urban agriculture.”
Local farmers and gardeners interested in the program can visit longbeach.gov/sustainability/programs/uaiz-program/ or contact the City’s Office of Sustainability at sustainability@longbeach.gov or (562) 570-6396.