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Elon Musk's Younger Brother Kimbal Founded A Company Called Square Roots
Elon Musk's Younger Brother Kimbal Founded A Company Called Square Roots
- Brooklyn-based Square Roots 'farmers' grow greens in shipping containers
- The greens can be sent to local establishments that lack access to fresh food
- Kimbal Musk is auctioning off his Tesla Model 3 to fund the project
- It is the sixth Tesla Model 3 created and is 'mostly handmade', Musk said
By Maggie O'Neill For Dailymail.com
5 April 2018
Elon Musk's younger brother Kimbal is trying to revolutionize food production, and is auctioning off his Tesla Model 3 to do so.
The 45-year-old chef is the founder of urban farming company Square Roots, based in Brooklyn, and is trying to get the project off the ground by letting go of the sixth Model 3 made by his brother's company.
Kimbal Musk went on Megyn Kelly TODAY to talk about how he came up with the idea of auctioning off the car in order to fund Square Roots and what he hopes his company will do for the future of urban food production.
Musk's firm uses 320-square-foot shipping containers to produce roughly the same amount of food as two acres of farmland annually but in a fraction of the space.
Square Roots grew out of Musk's search for food that tastes good.
The chef told Megyn Kelly that while working on developing one of his restaurants in Colorado, called The Kitchen, he realized his team was having trouble finding 'good food' to use at the establishment.
Musk said: 'We started about 15 years ago, [and] we really struggled to find food that tasted good.'
He explained his frustration over a system that has been designed to exclude local farmers.
'The industrial food system is literally designed for food to ship thousands of miles. It's not designed to taste good,' Musk said.
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Kimbal Musk got the idea for Square Roots while developing a restaurant in Colorado called The Kitchen. Musk, a chef, found that getting fresh food that tasted good was challenging for his staff members. Pictured is the inside of a Square Roots shipping container
He added that most foods used by restaurants are high in calories but do not have the benefit of high nutritional value, which renders them basically useless - and possibly harmful - to the body.
'It causes a lot of problems we have in food today,' Musk said.
This conundrum led to the development of shipping containers designed to grow food for local use.
Musk emphasized that he was only trying to engineer food that tasted good when the idea came to him. He said: 'If you can grow the food really close to home - to the restaurant - the food tastes so much better. It is absolutely delicious.'
Musk says that Square Roots can give local establishments access to fresh food that tastes good. Additionally, no pesticides are used during the production process, Musk said
HOW DOES KIMBAL MUSK'S URBAN FARMING TECHNOLOGY WORK?
Elon Musk's brother founded a company called Square Roots that he hopes will revolutionize urban farming.
Square Roots 'farmers' grow greens in shipping containers without using any pesticides.
The food can be sent to local establishments that otherwise might not have access to fresh, locally-grown greens.
Kimbal Musk explained on the TODAY Show that one 'farmer' at his company specified the conditions within a shipping container to try to replicate a certain crop of basil from 2009.
Pictured is a Square Roots shipping container around New York City. For now, Square Roots is producing mostly just greens
He explained: 'We have one farmer who - this is so cool - he took his container and he is able to control the weather.
'So he can decide what time the sun rises, what time the sun sets, everything.
'And in Italy in 2009 there was this vintage of basil - just the basil that we normally eat.
'But that particular year is quite a famous year for basil in Italy, and he went into the weather records and recreated the summer of Italy 2009 inside of his container: what time the sun came up, what time the sunset, what days did it rain, how much oxygen was in the air, what was the temperature, what was the humidity, everything.
'And now [he] sells the most premium basil in the whole city of New York because it just tastes so much better!'
And the food is safe, Musk reassured a hesitant Kelly, saying no pesticides are used during the production process.
'Am I eating computer-generated leaves?' Kelly asked skeptically.
But her guest told her that no artificial ingredients are used at Square Roots.
He took it a step beyond that, promising: 'It is the cleanest food you can possibly eat.'
But there is no doubt about the model's sustainability benefits. One of Square Roots's 320-square-feet shipping containers can produce the same amount of food as two acres of farmland annually.
Musk pitched the project as an answer to urban environments that do not have great access to fresh food.
And Square Roots 'farmers' can even produce foods that have specific tastes for certain restaurants. 'They can design it the way a chef might like it,' Musk said.
The company is, at the moment, producing mostly just greens.
Musk also mentioned on the TODAY Show segment that Square Roots is in the business of hosting farmers markets within New York City office spaces.
He then explained how he plans on expanding the company: by selling the sixth ever made Tesla Model 3.
Musk said: '[The early cars] are mostly handmade. Only very, very close friends of the company get access to the early cars.
'I have it, and when I got the Model 3, I just thought how much more special it would be for someone who's a big green supporter to have it.
'It's so special to have one of the first cars off the line.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5582987/Kimbal-Musk-unveils-urban-farming-plan-produces-2-ACRES-worth-food-shipping-container.html#ixzz5DQupY3hN
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Eco-Friendly East Austin Community Turns Homeowners Into Urban Farmers
Eco-Friendly East Austin Community Turns Homeowners Into Urban Farmers
By Promoted Series Correspondent
4.17.18
The revolutionary homes of Whisper Valley are ushering in a new era of eco-smart living, and the amazing features don't stop at the zero-energy capable homes themselves. Besides things like geothermal loop fields and solar PV panels for low-cost, energy-efficient utilities, the East Austin community has its own custom organic farming program called Whisper Lettuce.
Lettuce, an urban farmer, has teamed up with Whisper Valley to manage organic gardens that grow fresh, nutritious, food on-site and deliver it right to residents' doorsteps. Phase I is already producing fruits and vegetables, and additional gardens and orchards will be added in Phase 2, so every neighborhood will have its own gardens.
Here's a look at what else Whisper Lettuce offers:
Eat better, feel better
Convenience is key in today's hectic world, and Whisper Lettuce is helping by offering weekly produce box delivery and on-demand bulk produce delivery. Need a little more help? Sign up for the meal kit deliveries, which come with both omnivore and vegetarian recipes. And don't let those scraps go to waste — take advantage of the composting service, and learn more about the gardens as a whole during the classes and workshops.
Bring the farm home
Already have a green thumb (or want to cultivate one?) Grow your own mini-farm, right in your backyard. Size options range from 40-120 square feet, or have a custom garden designed to fit your preferences.
Subscription options abound
The pricing and service for backyard mini-farms depend on each homeowner's desired level of service and the size of their backyard garden, but there is a farm subscription to suit every resident's needs.
Hands-on farmers can opt for the Urban Farm kit, which includes all seeds, materials, and instructions needed to grow a successful garden without the ongoing help of the Lettuce team. Need a little help from time to time? Go ahead and ask the Lettuce team, which is always willing to offer supervision and guidance.
For those who just want to sit back and watch their garden grow, go with the Complete Care subscription. The Lettuce team will weed, service, and harvest each garden to ensure a bountiful harvest year after year. Produce grown in backyard mini-farms can be kept by the homeowner or returned to the network for "credits" that are good toward subscription prices.
Whisper Valley is a 2,062-acre mixed use development of more than 700 acres of parks, open space, amenities, and residences, with planned retail including farm-to-table restaurants, garden offices, and boutique shopping. It's all located off Texas SH-130 and FM 973, about eight miles east of downtown Austin.
Phase 1 took off in the early fall of 2017, and home sales have exploded (as in, two to three times the per builder sales rate in a normal Austin master-planned community). Developed by Taurus Investment Holdings, Whisper Valley was named the 2017 community of the year by Green Home Builder and was named Best New Community by the Home Builders Association of Greater Austin. It features an impressive Discovery and Community Center with interactive 3-D displays and a tech center to learn about the development.
For more information or to schedule a tour, visit Whisper Valley's website, call 512-710-3799, or email info@whispervalleyaustin.com.
Vertical Farming On The Rise
As Despommier states on his website, "it’s estimated that by around 2050, roughly 80 percent of the world’s population will reside in urban city centers, with the population of the world ballooning by an additional 3 billion people over that time."
Vertical Farming On The Rise
April 24, 2018 | Jonathan Garcia
Vertical farming is on the rise and so are microgreens. As Despommier states on his website, "it’s estimated that by around 2050, roughly 80 percent of the world’s population will reside in urban city centers, with the population of the world ballooning by an additional 3 billion people over that time." That's a massive amount of people in an urban setting. This has paved the way for vertical farming to spring more over the past few years because of the buzz around it and the innovation that goes along with this growing technique.
Vertical farms eliminate many of the impracticalities and inefficiencies in traditional farming. They are more widely applicable as a technology, too, and have the potential to change the production of food around the world.
Vertical farms reduce the land and water used to produce crops by adding another dimension to the layout of the farm. Water cascades from top to bottom, essentially recycling itself. Furthermore, vertical farms decrease the waste of resources and space because crops are grown in controlled conditions, eliminating the threat of weather patterns (such as droughts) and reducing the distance that produce is transported by growing it within urban regions.
With the implementation of vertical farms, the endless fields of farmland that many of us in the Midwest are familiar with would return to nature. Ideally, the pasture land would be eliminated too with a shift toward veganism, since factory farms and the excessive breeding of animals contribute to global warming.
Vertical farms can accommodate crops that are normally specific to a certain region of the world and can grow crops yearly, even when those crops would be out of season. Insects are not an issue, either, because the crops in vertical farms are in a controlled setting.
Although this all sounds great in theory, there are obstacles in urban farming due to its infancy. A lot of vertical farming is often used for microgreens or sprouts but, if it were to grow grain-based vegetables or fruits it would use a lot of electricity and land. Especially if you were wanting to produce on a mass scale. Biologist Stan Cox says, "that to be truly effective, vertical farms would require an incredible amount of floor space." He also goes on to point out floorspace requirement for growing just vegetables — happens to clock in at roughly 1.6 percent of cultivated land in the U.S. This doesn't sound like much but it has the relative floorspace of around 105,000 Empire State Buildings.
Urban farming is definitely the way of the future but it will have to overcome it's difficulties if it to replace rural farming. I'd say it's a challenge that us growers are willing to take.
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Malaysia Aims To Double Its Urban Farming Communities To 20,000 By 2020
Malaysia Aims To Double Its Urban Farming Communities To 20,000 By 2020
Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek mingles with a trader after launching the ‘Program Sentuhan Kasih Tani-Pertanian Bandar 2.0.’ in Kuala Lumpur. Bernama pic.
By SERI NOR NADIAH KORIS and HIDAYATUL AKMAL AHMAD - April 22, 2018
PUCHONG: The government aims to create 20,000 urban farming communities around the country by the year 2020.
Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said to date there are around 11,000 urban farming communities around the country.
“Urban farming is a government initiative programme to ensure a complete food supply chain and beef up food security in the country,” he said after launching the ‘Program Sentuhan Kasih Tani-Pertanian Bandar 2.0.’
He said the urban farming concept would give good impact to everyone as they get to have continuous supplies for their own basic needs such as chilies, lemon, lemongrass and others.
“From my point of view urban farming can help reduce the cost of living.
“This can happen when the urban communities start to take advantage of small vacant spaces around their homes,” he said at a press conference at Sekolah Menengah Puchong Perdana here today.
“It can be done when people take advantage of small plots of land at their homes.”
Also present at the event was the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) management agency chairman Datuk Dr Satim Diman.
Shabery also urged Mardi to make Puchong as a model for urban farming communities in the country.
Seperately, Ahmad Shabery also expressed his gratitude to be named as the candidate for the Kemaman Parliament seat for the 14th general election (GE-14)
“I believe that this is my responsibility to serve not only my community in Kemaman but also the fishermen and farmers around the country.
He said the decision made by the Umno Supreme Council was based on several considerations and evaluation by the people.
“I believe that the decision is made is due to certain considerations and the people should look at a broader context as this country needs a stable government from a strong party.
Taiwan Vertical Farm To Invest US$25 Million In Britain: UK Minister
Graham Stuart, minister for investment in the United Kingdom's Department for International Trade, on Tuesday announced a plan by a Taiwanese company to establish a vertical farming factory in the UK.
Taiwan Vertical Farm To Invest US$25 Million In Britain: UK Minister
2018/04/10
UK minister Graham Stuart (center)
Taipei, April 10 (CNA) Graham Stuart, minister for investment in the United Kingdom's Department for International Trade, on Tuesday announced a plan by a Taiwanese company to establish a vertical farming factory in the UK.
YesHealth Agri-Biotechnology Co., which operates a 14-storey vertical farm in Taoyuan City called YesHealth iFarm, will invest 18 million pounds sterling (US$25.47 million) over two years to establish a pilot factory at the National Agri-Food Innovation Campus (NAFIC) in York, "bringing the next generation of food production to UK shores," Stuart announced at a press conference held at the farm in Taoyuan.
Stuart, who is visiting Taiwan to boost trade links, said YesHealth will become the first such company to expand into the UK market.
Not only are vertical farms more efficient, they are free from pesticides, heavy metals and e.coli, he said. "Truly, it is a model for the future."
"Our cooperation on the green economy is a perfect example of how Taiwan and the UK can work together, sharing knowledge and expertise to build a brighter global future," Stuart said at the press conference, which was also attended by Taoyuan City Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦).
YesHealth boasts a production yield 100 times higher than traditional agriculture and expects its UK facility to produce 50-150 kilograms of vegetables per day.
In early 2019, it also plans to build a mass production facility in the UK capable of supporting daily production of 20 tonnes of vegetables within five years, according to the company.
YesHealth President Winston Tsai (蔡文清) said the company chose the UK to establish its first base in Europe because it has high spending power and British people consume a lot of salad.
He said the company has focused on agri-technology for the past nine years because climate change, industrial development and environmental destruction have reduced arable land and made it difficult to grow crops outdoors, and young people are reluctant to go into farming.
Tsai said the goal is to expand YesHealth farms from the UK to all Europe and the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Stuart also announced a plan by Taiwan frozen food producer and distributor Han Dian to invest 3.5 million pounds in the expansion of its UK manufacturing operations after an initial investment in London last year.
Taiwanese food is becoming increasingly popular in the UK and the expansion will allow Han Dian to meet increased demand and launch a chain of restaurants across the country, he added.
In addition, Stuart said the UK and Taiwan also signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Monday on marine engineering in the offshore wind energy sector.
"The MOU is designed to allow the Taiwanese renewable energy industry to tap into the wealth of industry knowledge and expertise on offer in the UK as Taiwan rapidly expands its green economy,"he said.
He also announced that MAN Diesel & Turbo UK, a supplier of large diesel engines, will open a new operations and maintenance center in southern Taiwan's Kaohsiung in May.
Bilateral trade between Taiwan and the UK is worth more than 5.4 billion pounds and the UK is Taiwan's third largest trading partner in Europe, said Stuart, who met with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Taiwan's economics and foreign affairs officials on Monday and noted that they had discussed future collaborative opportunities.
The UK and Taiwan could also cooperate in areas such as artificial intelligence, infrastructure and nuclear and renewable energy, Stuart said Tuesday.
The UK was the first country to develop civil nuclear power and has a lot of experience dealing with the end of life of nuclear plants, he said.
"So there is a huge opportunity for the UK to support Taiwan in dealing with its nuclear legacy and developing green renewables,"Stuart said.
(By Christie Chen)
Enditem/AW
Chanhassen, Minnesota Man Co-Founded One of The Largest Indoor Farms
Chanhassen, Minnesota Man Co-Founded One of The Largest Indoor Farms
- unsie zuege
-
- Apr 26, 2018
Recently, salad lovers couldn't help feeling queasy after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that consumers throw out all their romaine lettuce — whole heads, hearts of romaine and bags of chopped romaine and salad mixes — after people across 16 states were sickened by e.coli after eating lettuce grown in Yuma, Arizona.
The CDC also warned consumers to avoid romaine at restaurants unless the establishment can confirm that the lettuce is not from Yuma.
Food safety is one issue that's making Dave Augustine's company, Living Greens Farms, a star in the produce department of local supermarkets like Lunds & Byerly's.
If you haven't heard about it, you will after strolling through your local grocery store, co-op and big box grocer. Living Greens Farm is located in Faribault and considered one of the largest indoor farms in the world. Augustine is a longtime Chanhassen resident, entrepreneur, and engineer.
According to its website, "Living Greens Farm is a vertical, indoor grower of high-quality fresh lettuce, herbs, and microgreens ... Starting with natural seeds and providing plants high levels of oxygen, they absorb ... rich nutrients for exceptional flavor and texture ... the result is fresh, safe products with delightful flavor profiles."
Sounds delicious.
We gave Augustine a call to learn more about him and his company, where he serves as executive vice president.
Q: How did Fresh Greens start? How did you get this brainstorm?
A: My financial advisor Dana Anderson told me about an indoor garden he had in his garage where he was growing lettuce. I drove over to his house to take a look. We started talking and playing with available technology — I have an electrical engineering background and an MBA — and developed a unique way to grow leafy greens and lettuce. We started the company informally in 2010 and became a more formal company in 2012. We're looking to expand first in the U.S., but I was in China recently meeting with an investor.
Q: Describe the indoor farm facility in Faribault.
A: We grow the produce aeroponically — a method of growing plants by suspending their roots in the air — to grow lettuce, herbs, and microgreens. Rather than using soil, plants are sprayed with a nutrient-rich solution. This way, we use only 5 percent as much water and only 1/200th of land than outdoor farms. We have 15 employees. Our indoor operation is a very clean antiseptic area, entirely under one roof. We grow the lettuce vertically, without dirt, and water the roots. Our employees wear gloves, coats, and hairnets when they harvest the lettuce ... the lettuce is never touched. The varieties we grow include a full herb kit, micro greens, romaine, arugula, butter lettuce and oak leaf.
Q: Where can consumers find your lettuce?
A: We sell to Lunds & Byerlys, a handful of Cub Foods and Hy-Vee stores, Fresh Thyme and other major co-ops. It tastes so much fresher because it's grown locally.
- Unsie Zuege
Tags Dave Augustine Dana Anderson Aeroponically Grown Romaine Lettuce
Urban Growing Tips
Urban Growing Tips
April 27, 2018
Microgreens have become "the thing" to grow while urban growing. There's a ton of secrets popping up everywhere. It most likely explains the big leap in interest among new growers under age 34. According to the 2016 National Gardening Survey conducted by the Harris Poll, an estimated 6 million Americans started growing last year.
We could classify the people who are under 34 and growing urban areas as Millenials, but that's not the goal of this article. New growers are commencing to grow because they want to see where their food comes from.
We went and spoke to an urban farmer that works with us. Alex told us this, "there was nothing better than harvesting and using items that you produced yourself." We agree too!
Here are some tips that will make your life a lot easier.
While in the stage of germination, extreme heat or cold, often plays a factor in poor germination. It is easy to obtain good germination rates with temperatures ranging from 55 to 75 degrees F.
Due to variation from variety to variety, referring to your seed packet can be helpful, as this information is usually provided for you. If you are encountering any problems with the germination of your seeds, don't be discouraged. One advantage of growing a tray of microgreens, versus a field of lettuce, is your small investment of time, space, and energy. Simply start another tray, change any variables that you suspect are hindering the germination, growth and see what happens.
Furthermore, rot is an issue that tends to happen more often than you think. There are two main reasons why rot can become a problem, The first is that your greens have too much moisture with too little sunlight. In the heat of the summer, we usually water once early in the morning and then again in the evening. This works well when conditions are hot and sunny. However, if a cold front were to move in for a few days, bringing clouds and temperatures in the 60s, watering this same way would quickly result in patches of rot setting into your trays.
With cooler, less sunny conditions, watering once in the morning would suffice. Problems with both over and under watering are your best access to learning what each crop prefers. You have to take time to notice the conditions your greens thrive in and play with the variables, Another possible reason for rot in your trays is quality of water that you are using tap water usually contains chlorine, which microgreens hate. This is easily remedied with most drinking water filters. The pH of your water being excessively high or low is another factor to be aware of.
Nutrients that would normally be accessible to your greens get locked up and become unavailable. There is a bit of a range of pH preference in the common microgreens varieties, but most like a pH of around 6.5. Testing is easy once you acquire the proper equipment. The pH monitors range from liquid solutions to portable digital units. Keeping your pH in check can solve many problems. Not only will you notice stronger growth and increased yields, but most importantly, you will have healthier microgreens that are less susceptible to rot and disease.
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"Vertical farming on the rise"
Tags: microgreens vertical farming growing microgreens urban farming
This Former Steel Mill Will Soon Be A Tech-Filled Greenhouse
- 05.07.18
This Former Steel Mill Will Soon Be A Tech-Filled Greenhouse
The next Gotham Greens location will convert old industry in Baltimore into a hydroponic farm, to provide local produce (and jobs).
1/8 [Photo: Gotham Greens]
For decades, a sprawling steel mill in Baltimore, Maryland was a key site for American industry, making steel for World War II battleships and the Golden Gate Bridge. By the year 2000, however, the industry was failing, and site owner Bethlehem Steel declared bankruptcy. Now, one corner of vacant land at the former mill will become an indoor farm growing pesticide-free lettuce in a sensor-filled greenhouse.
“I think what we’re doing is sort of representing 21st-century manufacturing,” says Viraj Puri, co-founder, and CEO of Gotham Greens, the Brooklyn-based urban agriculture company building the new greenhouse. “This, at one point, was the largest steel-producing facility in the world. It employed tens of thousands of people. Those jobs disappeared when the global steel industry changed . . . we’re coming in and helping to revitalize [the economy] and produce jobs that represent this innovative, technologically advanced way to produce food.”
In New York City, the company pioneered using large rooftop greenhouses to grow greens with no soil, no pesticides, and far less space and water than traditional farming in fields. Most lettuce, grown in areas with limited water like Arizona and California, is shipped thousands of miles to consumers on the East Coast. Gotham Greens, like other startups in the urban farming space, wanted to offer consumers fresher produce that used fewer resources.
After opening its first Brooklyn greenhouse in 2011, the company built another on top of a local Whole Foods. A third greenhouse, in Chicago, sits on top of a sustainably designed factory on a former brownfield. A second Chicago location, next to the first, will be complete by the end of this year.
Gotham Greens Chicago [Photo: Julie McMahon/Gotham Greens]
In Baltimore, as in the other cities, the company will provide both low-skill farming and packing jobs and high-skill jobs in horticulture and engineering. The site, now run by a company Tradepoint Atlantic, will now include a mix of occupants rather than a single industry (Tradepoint Atlantic is the fifth owner since the steel mill closed in 2000; the first four tried to revive steel manufacturing there and failed.) UnderArmour and FedEx will use the site for distribution, and others are using it for vehicle importing. But Gotham Greens represents a different type of industry.
It won’t be the first indoor farm at a former steel industry site. In Newark, New Jersey, the vertical farming company AeroFarms grows baby greens where a former steel factory once operated. Because the farms use hydroponic systems–growing without soil, indoors–it’s possible to grow anywhere, including on the ruins of heavy industry.
The new greenhouse in Baltimore will create 60 jobs. That’s far fewer than the 30,000 jobs the former steel plant provided at its height in the middle of the 20th century (though steel mills now use only a tiny fraction of the labor they once did). Puri says that the operation in Baltimore could triple over time.
The company also plans to continue expanding to other cities, albeit slowly. “We are producing a lot of lettuce,” says Puri. “We’re doing about 20 million heads a year. So we’re definitely large-scale at this point. But in order to maintain product quality, consistency, and food safety, which is incredibly important, we didn’t want to rush into opening more facilities than we thought we could effectively, efficiently manage. It’s a measured, step by step approach. We’re assessing sites in other cities as well. Our vision is certainly to have a network of urban greenhouse farms in cities throughout the country.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adele Peters is a staff writer at Fast Company who focuses on solutions to some of the world's largest problems, from climate change to homelessness. Previously, she worked with GOOD, BioLite, and the Sustainable Products and Solutions program at UC Berkeley.
Urban Farm Tax Credit Plan Gets Illinois House Approval
Urban Farm Tax Credit Plan Gets Illinois House Approval
By SAM DUNKLAU • APR 30, 2018
City Farm vegetable garden and the Chicago skyline
PIUSH DAHAL VIA FLICKR / HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY-SA/2.0/
The Illinois House has voted to allow tax breaks for those who take vacant land and use it for urban farming. The aim is to give an economic boost to the state’s low-income areas.
The idea comes from state Representative Sonya Harper, a Democrat from Chicago. She explained during the debate that the people she represents on the south and west sides of the city live in food deserts. That means they don’t have easy access to fresh food.
But what those neighborhoods do have is vacant land.
“Now what people are doing is they’re putting that land back to productive use, and actually reviving the local economy and bringing jobs to an area that is depressed and does not have them," she said.
Harper’s bill would allow city governments across the state to offer special incentives like tax abatements and lower utility rates. But there would be limits on the dollar amount of those incentives. Some Republicans say less tax money coming on those properties could result in higher taxes for everyone else.
The Chicago Democrat says the aim is to give people in low income communities a reason to grow their own food and create jobs.
“One of the biggest reasons why we use urban agriculture is to put our vacant land back to productive use, especially in communities that are food insecure or food deserts," she explained. "In those same communities we have tracts and tracts, and even acres, of vacant land that’s just sitting there.”
The bill now moves to the Illinois Senate.
Homes Or Gardens? Developers And Urban Farmers Grapple Over Vacant Land
Signs hung up in front of a vacant lot in Weeksville, Brooklyn, in 2014 by members of 596 Acres, an organization that maps vacant lots in New York City and advocates for community stewardship of that land. Murray Spenser Cox
Vacant lots dot lower-income neighborhoods across the country. In many cities, urban growers have planted in those lots, repurposing abandoned city land into gardens with farmers markets and healthy food.
But cities often still register such plots as “vacant,” which allows them to be snatched up by housing developers. In communities where both housing and fresh food are needed, the fight over valuable vacant land is prompting policy reform — and tense collaboration — between developers and gardeners.
“People who live near [vacant lots]should have a say in how they’re developed, and most of the time people want to grow gardens, parks and farms,” says Mara Kravitz, director of 596 Acres, an organization that maps vacant lots in New York City and advocates for community stewardship of that land.
On average, 15 percent of land in most U.S. cities is vacant, according to a study by the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy. In New York City alone, there are more than 15,000 parcels of vacant land. In Brownsville, Brooklyn, one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods, roughly 12 acres of public land are classified as “vacant,” though some of that land has been converted into thriving gardens and farms.
In fact, Brownsville has more than a dozen gardens and farms, the most of any Brooklyn neighborhood. They are an important source of fresh produce for community members. Just 40 percent of Brownsville residents live within walking distance of a supermarket.
But this network of gardens is threatened by housing developers, in part due to a need for affordable housing in the community. A recently completed development plan for Brownsville would add 2,500 affordable units to the neighborhood, built atop dozens of vacant lots, according to the city’s designation. But some of that development would displace gardens — and not all the housing being developed in Brownsville is necessarily affordable.
Take Marcus Garvey Village, a 625-unit, mixed-use housing complex, co-developed by L+M Developers. The developers also bought a few vacant lots in the vicinity several years ago, one of which is currently a 20,000-square-foot farm owned by Project Eats, a nonprofit farming coalition. L+M actually funded the farm, which hosts twice-weekly farmers markets and has its own café.
But now the farm has an expiration date. The developers are expanding Marcus Garvey Village, and by 2019, the crops will be replaced with mixed-use housing, which may cause a rift in the farm-developer relationship and deprive residents of a source of fresh produce.
“Our mission is to bring good, organic food to food desert areas,” says Josh Weisstuch, assistant project manager at L+M, when asked about why the developers agreed to build the temporary farm in the first place. But he adds that “the threat [to gardens]is the constant drive for profit in housing, generally.”
This tension between urban growing and urban growth in Brooklyn exists in other cities, too. Take Chicago, where low-resource communities are sometimes forced to choose between housing and fresh produce. Three years ago, Kofi Ademola and his neighbors in Woodlawn, on Chicago’s south side, turned the vacant lot on their road into a community garden. A developer was “sitting on the land,” as he describes it, but gave them permission to grow. They grew a peach tree, then an apple tree, and then added garden boxes.
But then one day the developers announced they were going to start building, Ademola says, and soon all that remained of the 15-year-old garden was the stump of the former apple true and the uprooted peach tree.
New York City is attempting to rectify the tug of war between affordable housing and healthy food sources. In December, council members passed the city’s first urban agriculture bill, designed to ensure that farmers and gardeners in the community have a say in how community land is used. Before the bill, civil disobedience was the only way local gardeners could make their voices heard. In December 2016, for instance, the Isabahlia Ladies of Elegance Foundation, an urban gardening organization in Brownsville, protested against a developer who sought to buy their garden — a community anchor since the 1990s — for just $4 because the Department of City Planning listed the lot as vacant. The gardeners won the fight, with some support from the city council.
Karen Washington, an urban agriculture activist in the Bronx, is optimistic about the city’s plan. As the former president of the New York City Community Garden Coalition, she spent nearly two decades turning empty lots into community gardens in her borough, with support from local politicians and neighbors.
Washington has witnessed a successful partnership between an urban garden and a developer in her Bronx community. The Kelly Street Garden, in Longwood, is part of the Kelly Street affordable housing development. Both are products of Workforce Housing Group, whose founder, John Crotty, helped add 81 affordable units and also turned a vacant lot into a community garden for the residents.
This story comes to us from the Food & Environment Reporting Network, an independent, nonprofit investigative news organization. Lea Ceasrine is a student at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, studying health and science reporting. She has covered urban farming in Brownsville for BKYLNER.
Toward Sustainable Relations Between Agriculture And The City
Toward Sustainable Relations Between Agriculture And The City
Linked by Michael Levenston
Presents multilevel approaches of sustainable relations between agriculture and the city
Written by scientists in agronomy, geography and urban planning
Includes methodological frameworks and case studies in Europe and the Mediterranean
Editors: Soulard, Christophe-Toussaint, Perrin, Coline, Valette, Elodie (Eds.)
Springer 2018
This book gives an overview of frameworks, methods, and case studies useful for the analysis of the relations between agriculture and the city, in Europe and the Mediterranean. Its originality lies in the analysis of urban food systems sustainability from an actors’ perspective. All the chapters consider the key role of actors in the definition of innovations and pathways, which enhance sustainability, seen as an ongoing process. Part 1 presents systemic approaches of agricultural-urban interactions at the city-region scale in France, Egypt, Italy and Morocco.
Part 2 deals with methods and tools for urban planning and local development, utilized to design and assess sustainable food systems. The Part 3 inventories the recent changes in urban agriculture and the new forms of governance which are emerging in European cities (Athens, Berlin, Lisbon, Montpellier, Paris and Zurich). These results are useful for students, academics and activists involved in local policies and projects.
Link here.
AgriTech Startup Pindfresh Is On A Mission To Bring Urban Farming Revolution In India
AgriTech Startup Pindfresh Is On A Mission To Bring Urban Farming Revolution In India
The Startup Is Developing An App That Will Notify Customers When To Take Care Of The Plants Diana ChingakhamApril 10, 2018 11 min read
INC42 STAFF
Food today is laden with chemical fertilizers that cause some major health risks such as cancer. Fertilisers such as ammonium nitrate, cadmium, potassium chloride, organophosphate (OP), pyrethroids, etc. are used to protect vegetables against pest and premature decay. Despite the apparent impact on health, the irony is that India is now the second largest manufacturer of pesticides in Asia after China and ranks twelfth globally.
“It was the importance of clean and healthy food dawned upon us. Bringing farming to the urban Indian homes, and making people aware of what they eat is the mission behind setting up Pindfresh,” says Somveer Anand, founder of agritech startup Pindfresh.
For Somveer and his wife Sohila Anand, the idea to launch Pindfresh was very much based on a personal experience that he had after one of his close relative fell ill due to the consumption of chemical-loaded food.
During their India visit the husband-wife duo had an hands-on experience on the extreme dearth of hygienic, nutritious food in India and this is where, they also felt, there was a dire need to provide people with the ability to grow vegetables locally. That’s precisely where the Pindfresh’s journey began 2016 when they were also joined in by Jaspal Singh Anand.
The agritech startup Pindfresh is turning small plots or spaces between buildings or in buildings into usable farm space. From rooftop gardens to floors specifically designed to incorporate farming, to other spaces within high-rises filled with racks of perfectly lined leaf vegetables, it is striving to bring about a farming revolution in urban India.
Apart from selling in-house home systems (hydroponic and others) and fresh produce (lettuce, rocket, basil, and mushrooms), it also runs programmes to train people (in schools and societies).
By using hydroponics, cocopeat gardening, and other soilless techniques, Pindfresh is attempting to educate urban dwellers to use a technology which takes less space, demands lesser water and is completely free from pathogens and biological contaminants.
Organic Farming: Ushering In Organic Food Revolution
The concept of urban farming is a trend that is catching up fast globally. For instance, Tokyo-based Kono Designs started an urban farm by the name of Pasona in a nine-story building in 2010, and this gave the employees a chance to grow and harvest their own food at work. Apart from Pasona, major companies in Japan like Mitsubishi are also leading the way to set up urban farms at their offices. Japan has become a front-runner in urban farming, which is, in turn, helping the country cut food import costs.
India too needs to plant the idea of urban farming. Why? Here is the reason.
The urban population in India, which stands at 377 Mn, is expected to reach 600 Mn by 2031, according to a new UN-backed report. The increasing nutritional requirements of this fast-growing urban population will pose a huge challenge in the coming years.
Due to the ever-increasing urban population and decreasing rural population that used to tend to frame as a traditional occupation, India imported $906.3 Mn (INR 5,897 Cr) worth of fruit and vegetables in 2016-17, while the figure in 2014-15 was $832 Mn (INR 5,414 Cr).
As a result, Indian consumers are becoming victims of processed food as there is a wide gap in the supply and demand chain.
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To address this problem, there is a subtle movement that is taking place in India over urban farming, spearheaded by millennials. Of these, integrating farming ideas into the urban space is also Pindfresh.
As far as India is concerned, a survey on the Status of Organic Farming in India was conducted by scientists from different universities including the Indian Institute of Soil Science to ascertain the real benefits and feasibility of organic farming in terms of the production potential, economics and soil health, in comparison to the conventional farms in India. The study revealed that organic farming, in spite of the reduction in crop productivity by 9.2%, resulted in an increase of 22% in the farmers’ net profit compared to conventional farming.
This trend got further escalated with the coming of urban farming and today, agritech startups are not only helping farmers to assess the soil and weather conditions or crop production but are also coming up with unique ideas to optimize the limited space in urban India to grow vegetation in offices and other commercial complexes.
And the best part is that the idea of organic farming is not limited to just offices; balconies, roofs, terraces, drawing rooms and kitchens in urban homes but could be seen as a future of vegetation in urban India and Pindfresh is determined to make it a reality with its advanced organic farming techniques.
Pindfresh And Their Concrete Vegetable Farms
Pindfresh’s journey began with an initial capital of $7.68K (INR 5 Lakh). When the agritech startup was taking shape, the trio did a lot of research to learn about hydroponics and then tailor make it to suit the Indian conditions (or rather, that of any developing nation).
“For example, we try and promote hydroponics where the space requirements are important. For places we have no space constraint, we try and promote coco peat gardening in grow bags and feed them using hydroponic nutrients. Not being wedded to a particular technology allows us the freedom to experiment and recommend the most appropriate ways of growing our food,” says Somveer.
But this agritech technology or perhaps the trend is soon catching up across India today.
According to a research pursued by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, the area under hydroponics began to expand significantly in Europe and Asia during the 1950s and 1960s, and large hydroponic systems were developed in the deserts of California, Arizona, Abu Dhabi and Iran (1970).
The research elaborates that hydroponics did not reach India until 1946. By 2008, localized experiments were adopted to grow exotic crops like strawberry, green garlic, and tomatoes.
Today, ‘Landmark Agrotech’ project is the second biggest hydroponics project in Gujarat and is currently under implementation. Likewise, for Pindfresh, all the growing is done at their prototype growing facility in Nayagaon, Punjab.
Startup Pindfresh Making Systems To Flourish ‘Mini Pinds’
The startup is attempting to make cities holistic in their requirements of food and vegetation. To that end, it is working towards creating systems by which people will actually eat the local and fresh produce – just as if the food is coming directly from the Pind.
Essentially, they offer three services: creating and selling systems for home and commercial use; producing food using Pindfresh systems and selling it and holding workshops.
The startup is grossing over a monetization strategy that involves making the vegetable saplings available for procurement by offices and houses. They have two types of customers: one who buys the plants to grow the vegetables themselves and those who only buy the vegetables. Pindfresh is also selling to wholesale markets.
“Traditionally, cities have sourced all their food and supplies from the surrounding villages. The reason why we call ourselves Pindfresh is because we want to move the production of food from the villages to the cities. We want to create mini pinds (villages) in the center of the towns and in every household!” Somveer enumerates.
The startup is planning to develop an app which can advise customers on the right way and time to water the plants, add nutrients, check the pH of the water, etc.
The Road To Augur In An Organic Revolution Via Agritech
In the two years of growing leafy vegetables and building the organic ‘farm to fork’ concept for the urban landscape, agritech startup Pindfresh has seen quite a number of challenges.
“The major challenge we had initially was a complete lack of an agri startup ecosystem in Chandigarh (which was surprising, considering its the gateway to Punjab, the ‘Bread Basket of India’. The other problems that we faced included sourcing specialized materials and equipment (that we needed to make our hydroponic equipment with) and customer education but made us realize that a HUGE opportunity existed here,” highlights Somveer.
Despite the challenges, the agritech startup has been well on the path of exploring the opportunity as their traction shows.
- It has a top line of about $6.14K (INR 4 Lakh) a month (growing at 20% M-o-M).
- Sold more than a 1,000 units over the last 12 months
- Chandigarh and Delhi are its two major traction areas
As urban farming is fairly a new idea in India, Pindfresh is shaping itself to become a robust sustainable agritech startup to lead the industry amidst many people who deal with home-grown balcony systems and hydroponics. Organisations like City Farming, Earthoholics, Fresh & Local, Urban Leaves, etc. are its likely competitors.
According to Somveer, “This industry has a lot of scope of becoming a rage. The main reason behind it is that it is aimed at our well-being, and health, which are the burning topics of discourse these days.”
He adds, “It is well suited to the modern day lifestyle, where we are living in smaller spaces, with even lesser time to devote. Hydroponic and soilless systems are easier to maintain, requiring on an average of 30 mins a week – produce wonderful and nutritional food and flowers, are modular and DIY in nature and most importantly will not break the bank once you start!”
The agritech startup is aiming to introduce consistent innovations to grow and aid to the development of urban farms in India.
On the latest innovation the company is working on, Somveer mentions, “We’re always thinking about how we can use hydroponics to solve other real-world problems. So, we ‘invented’ the Niño. The Niño is a unique vertical system (the first of its kind in India) and apart from being easy on the pocket, is very low on maintenance as well! This system can hold up to 36 air cleaning plants, looks beautiful in being placed in a corner and it not only removes formaldehyde, acetone, NOx’s and COx’s, etc. from the room, it also releases fresh oxygen for us to breathe and work in a healthy environment.”
As for the way ahead, Somveer avers that they are currently toying with the idea of raising a little bit of money for the R&D and for inventory, but prefers an investor who understands the space. The startup says it will need about $307,600 (INR 2 Cr) to roll out its rooftop system for growing plants (and that doubles as a nursery for their farmers).
The founders plan to use the funds for the development of sensors and IoT systems that can predict how much food will be required at what time, what the growing conditions are going to be in the future and how much of the produce must be consumed to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
The Green Of The Future
In countries like Israel and the US, hydroponic produce is already part of the market, which is yet to happen in India. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon is perhaps one of the earliest examples of hydroponics.
Urban farming, especially in the case of India, can play a significant role in urban environmental management as it can combat urban heat island effects and enhance the quality of air, besides offering organic, fertiliser-free produce. The Food and Agricultural Organization has long since recognised urban agriculture as a key element in food security strategies.
However, a formal recognition of urban agriculture and its integration into the urban planning process are necessary for it to be successful. In India, urban agriculture is being carried out in many cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai under the leadership of the government, private agencies or even individuals. Considering the wave of organic revolution that it can ignite, startups like Pindfresh may go a long way in equipping India to meet its future food demands.
Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.
Urban Agriculture 2018 - 1st International Conference On Urban Agriculture And City Sustainability
Urban Agriculture 2018
1st International Conference On Urban Agriculture And City Sustainability
9 - 11 October, 2018
New Forest, UK
View Call For Papers Introduction and Topics Benefits of AttendingAbstract Submission Registration Publication of Papers Location Travel Venue and Accommodation Additional Information Delegate Comments
Introduction
The aim of the Conference is to review and discuss ways in which urban agriculture can contribute to achieving sustainable cities.
As urban populations continue to increase it is essential to consider ways of reducing their impact in terms of use of natural resources, waste production, and climate change.
The increasing number of people in cities requires new strategies to supply the necessary food with limited provision of land and decreasing resources. This will become more challenging unless innovative solutions for growing and distributing food in urban environments are considered.
The scale of modern food production has created and exacerbated many vulnerabilities and the feeding of cities is now infinitely more complex. As such the food system cannot be considered secure, ethical or sustainable.
In the last few years, there has been a rapid expansion in initiatives and projects exploring innovative methods and processes for sustainable food production. The majority of these projects are focused on providing alternative models that shift the power back from the global food system to communities and farmers improving social cohesion, health, and wellbeing. It is therefore not surprising that more people are looking towards urban farming initiatives as a potential solution.
These initiatives have demonstrated that urban agriculture has the potential to transform our living environment towards ecologically sustainable and healthy cities. Urban agriculture can also contribute to energy, natural resources, land and water savings, ecological diversity and urban management cost reductions.
The impact urban agriculture can have on the shape and form of our cities has never been fully addressed. How cities embed these new approaches and initiatives, as part of new urban developments and a city regeneration strategy is critical.
The Urban Agriculture conference will address these challenges and search for new solutions.
Conference Topics
The following list covers some of the topics to be presented at Urban Agriculture. Papers on other subjects related to the objectives of the conference are also welcome.
Development and Planning
- Urban metabolism
- History of urban agriculture
- Integrated urbanism
- Sustainable land use
- Urban and peri-urban enterprises
- Green infrastructures and sustainable urbanism
- Continuous productive urban landscaping
- City food chains
- Food sovereignty
- Urban distribution and processing systems
- Market gardens
- Sustainable urban drainage
- Water resources and irrigation systems
- Sustainable food systems
- Organic farming
- Food security
Urban Farms
- Patchwork farms
- Pop-up farms
- Roof top farms
- Green roofs
- Vertical greening and farms
- Hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics
- Hydrogardens
- Composting in cities
- Allotment systems
- Permaculture and agricultural forestry
- Urban animal farms and bee-keeping
- Greenhouses
- Food networks
Socio-Economic Aspects
- Community supported agriculture
- Community cohesion and job creation
- Community gardens
- Communities as co-producers
- School and young urban farmers
- Education and training
Innovation and Benefits
- Closed loops systems
- Transport and distribution
- Waste food recovery and recycling
- Renewable energy resources
- Healthy cities
- Care farming
- Ecological water systems
- Biofuel production in cities
- Quality of streets and urban environment
- Reduction of Urban Heat Island
- Farm to fork
- Eco-cities and eco-villaging
- Show cities
- Air pollution reductions
- Organic farming
Vertical Hydroponic Farm Takes Root At Worcester’s Webster Square
Vertical Hydroponic Farm Takes Root At Worcester’s Webster Square
By Cyrus Moulton | Telegram & Gazette Staff
Posted Apr 21, 2018
WORCESTER - With a Burger King next door and surrounded by the asphalt of Webster Square, it doesn’t look like the most bucolic setting. But within the brick building at 1158 Main St., a 3,500-square-foot farm is producing 300 to 500 pounds of food a week for local restaurants as well as providing work opportunities for adults with intellectual disabilities.
“We grow food, create jobs, impact our community, impact the environment and improve the resiliency of Worcester,” said Howard Lucas, director of workforce development and strategic marketing at My Choice Greens.
“And it tastes really freaking great,” interjected John Piselli, director of employment training.
My Choice Greens, a social initiative of the nonprofit My Choice Programs (formerly known as Independent Living for Adults with Special Needs), is a commercial, indoor, vertical hydroponic farm. The farm, which cost about $600,000 to construct, produces greens, herbs such as rosemary, sage and basil, and specialty lettuces such as mini romaines, arugula, and kale. It is believed to be the only farm of its kind in Worcester and uses special, full-spectrum LED lights imported to the United States for the first time for this project, Mr. Piselli said. It planted its first seeds in January and has a seed-to-harvest time of about eight weeks.
The farm looks a little like a futuristic living library, with 8-foot-high “stacks” containing 4,000 plants replacing stacks of books. Swiss chard clings to the towers of growing medium, a soil and coca fiber mix, like a line of spiders climbing up a column. Delicate pink flowers reach out from a wall of herbs cascading down to the floor. The room smells of water and fertilizer, as a complex drip irrigation system provides the plants with the nutrients necessary to thrive. All is bathed in a pink light for 16 to 18 hours a day.
The lighting and 325-gallon, closed-loop drip irrigation system allows workers to control all the variables in the growing process. There are no pesticides used, and the produce, although not organic certified, is described as “beyond organic” by its caretakers - born of organic seeds and nurtured with organic fertilizers and growing media.
Project participants view the room as representing the future of farming.
“There will always be a need for dirt farmers,” said Alain Beret, CEO of My Choice Programs. “But I believe hydroponic farms throughout each US city will be the norm in the next century.”
Mr. Beret, Mr. Piselli, and Mr. Lucas touted the benefits of a network of local urban hydroponic farms. The farms can connect directly with urban consumers, eliminating middlemen that jack up the price of food. The food is fresher, as it doesn’t have to be shipped as far. Indeed, most of the My Choice Greens buyers are within an hour’s drive, said production manager Kay Kohls. Fresh produce is available year-round no matter the climate, and hydroponic farms can grow produce in one third less time and using 80 to 90 percent less water than traditional farming, Mr. Lucas said. The farm is so controlled that it can “grow on demand,” working with local restaurants to meet their needs for seasonal menus.
“What we grow is what our customers want,” said Mr. Kohls.
And such farms could provide food for a lot of customers.
“The story really is, Can Worcester feed itself?” Mr. Lucas said. “Our answer is yes.”
But the farm produces more than just greens. It also produces jobs.
“I’m learning a lot of hydroponics skills and what it takes to operate them and what I would need to grow them,” said team member Zack Bucinskas, 20. “I like the constant learning experience.”
And since the field of hydroponic vertical farming is relatively new (although hydroponic farming goes back centuries) there’s hope that the individuals at My Choice Greens can be the leaders of the burgeoning industry.
“The ultimate goal is not to just provide jobs but create entrepreneurs who can own the business and spin them off to create independent businesses,” said Mr. Beret.
Already, some members of “the team” are thinking about a farming future.
Tobias Aharonian, 27, who said he had never had any farming experience before, sees farming in his future.
“I can see me working in a facility like this in the long run — either owning one or training people,” Mr. Aharonian said.
But perhaps most importantly to the farmers — and their clients — the produce is good.
Mr. Piselli proudly noted that his Swiss chard passed “the snap test,” in that it audibly snapped when you broke the stem, as well as the taste test.
“It’s not as tart or bitter,” Mr. Piselli said, comparing it with mixed greens readily available at grocery stores.
It’s a taste that area chefs have noticed.
“We tried their product and it’s really good,” said Aurelio Metohu, owner of Caffe Espresso Trattoria on Chandler Street and the new Casta Diva in Northboro, who uses the greens in salads.
The social mission is on the minds of restaurateurs as well.
“I’m doing two great things,” said Mike Wenc, executive chef at Simjang on Shrewsbury Street, which features a lemon balm ice cream sourced from My Choice Greens. “I’m getting great product and also helping out disadvantaged people.”
These MBAs Just Launched A Game-Changing Urban Farming Startup In Hong Kong
AgriTech: These MBAs Just Launched A Game-Changing Urban Farming Startup In Hong Kong
A team of MBA grads from the University of Hong Kong are making farming accessible in the heart of the city
- Written by Marco De Novellis
- 24 Apr 2018
- MBA Entrepreneurs
The Farmacy HK team were formed out of the University of Hong Kong’s Business Lab
A team of five recent MBA graduates from the University of Hong Kong(HKU) have just launched Farmacy HK, a smart city, urban farming concept based on cutting-edge hydroponic technology.
The first concept city farm opened in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay in February this year. Over 100 species of organic food products—rare herbs and edible flowers—are grown in a controlled environment without soil, using mineral nutrient solutions dissolved in water instead.
Farmacy HK—fully operational since early April—is already selling its produce to two restaurants in Hong Kong and is exploring B2C opportunities with retailers online. The team expect to sell out the entire farm’s produce in just six months’ time.
Woody Chen, an HKU MBA alumnus, worked for his family’s construction business in his native Taiwan prior to his MBA. His interest in urban agriculture piqued after reading an article about a former Sony Corporation semiconductor factory in Japan that had been transformed into the world’s largest hydroponic farm.
Living in Hong Kong during his MBA, Woody found that he couldn’t buy the high quality, fresh vegetables he was used to in the local supermarkets. Taiwan is well-known for its agriculture but in Hong Kong there’s no land for farming; most food is imported.
Woody decided to put his nascent startup idea into action. He enrolled in the HKU MBA’s famed Business Lab, an elective course which takes students through every step of the startup process, from idea conception to launch.
“I wanted to put what I’d learned during the MBA into practice,” Woody explains, “to use the Business Lab to come up with an idea that fits Hong Kong, is good for society, and harnesses technology as well.”
At the start of the Business Lab, Woody got up on stage and pitched his idea to his MBA classmates. So, the Farmacy HK team was born.
Woody was joined by Sanford Liu, the engineer; Nicholas Cheng, the finance guy; Raymond Mak, who’s background in consulting and public policy help the team deal with local government; and Lucia Sohn, the marketing and design expert. “Lucia makes the whole idea look sexy!” Woody smiles.
Led by Business Lab coordinator and facilitator Pedro Eloy, the Farmacy HK team learned how to create a business plan, marketing plan, finance plan, map out product development, work with ongoing iteration models, and transform an idea into a viable business.
Throughout the Business Lab, successful entrepreneurs, investors, and business people with sector-specific experience offered feedback—an acid test—on the students’ startup projects.
“The Business Lab ran to a very tight schedule,” Woody continues. “Every week, you had a deliverable to submit. But there’s no formula of how to design your business. You get guidance and there’s a blank canvas—at the end of the day it’s up to you.
“Pedro brought in a lot of professionals from different backgrounds like finance and marketing, so you learn a lot from that cross-industry knowledge.”
Sanford, an alumnus from HKU’s engineering school, agrees: “We’re still leveraging a lot of the network from the Business Lab now,” he says. “The whole Business Lab experience is a preparation for real-life. You talk a lot about practical things—recruiting, managing stakeholders, managing peoples’ expectations—things that aren’t taught in a normal business school.”
The team are doing a lot of work around public perception and education, selling hydroponic farm experiences and culinary workshops. Sanford says they’ve had plenty of interest, not just from consumers, but government entities, schools, hotels, and local industry in Hong Kong.
Next, the team want to transform their first farm into a fully-automated Internet of Things (IoT) system and gather data on plant growing techniques, stored on a blockchain. They want to expand into Macau, Shanghai, and Shenzhen too.
“We’ve been evolving ever since we completed the Business Lab and turned into a startup,” says Raymond, who worked in consulting for PwC for six years prior to his MBA.
“Farmacy HK can do a lot of things. The first stage is growing rare edible flowers to really justify our qualities. But the two major problems we want to address long-term are carbon footprint and food safety, using our high quality growing techniques.
“We’re going to develop the IoT and agricultural technology—agtech—to penetrate communities and homes, and make farming accessible in the heart of the city.”
Would the team be where they are today without the University of Hong Kong? Raymond doesn’t think so. “I didn’t even think about starting my own business when I applied for the MBA,” he says.
“For a startup, more than ideas, you need people who have the skills you don’t have and the strengths that can supplement your weaknesses—that’s what an MBA gives you.”
Woody agrees: “The HKU MBA program put together a lot of smart and talented people that speak a common language,” he says. “Not everybody is Mark Zuckerberg—you can’t just design something from your garage and be successful. You have to rely on and work with others.”
Can We Make Green Roofs More Biodiverse?
A study of decades-old German green roofs found that they don’t support a wide range of animal and plant life. But researchers and designers are trying to change that.
A man puts a pallet of live plants on the roof of the Illinois Department of Agriculture building in Springfield, Ill. Seth Perlman/AP
Can We Make Green Roofs More Biodiverse?
A study of decades-old German green roofs found that they don’t support a wide range of animal and plant life. But researchers and designers are trying to change that.
Every time Kelly Ksiazek-Mikenas scrambled onto a new green roof, it was hard to tell exactly where she was. The city below was definitely Berlin or Neubrandenburg, but the expanse of scraggly greens ahead of her looked a lot like the green roofs in Chicago, her home.
The only difference was that the German green roofs were much older than anything found in the United States: three to nine times older. Which is why the Northwestern University Ph.D. student in plant biology spent her summer there a few years ago.
The ability of plants to absorb and evaporate stormwater, reduce a building’s energy use, and clean up some air pollution makes green roofs effective as a sustainable-building technique. They also just look nice. Germany began tinkering with green-roof technology back in the late 1800s when owners of some buildings tried fireproofing with gravel, sand, and sod.
In 1975, German construction businesses got together to document the nitty-gritty construction standards. Their 2002 manual detailed everything from the ideal roof slope to the best soil depth and waterproof barriers. By the time Americans started experimenting with green roofs, their German counterparts were already professionals.
America’s green roofs were modeled after Germany’s. In both countries, the standard design is a thin layer of lightweight, low-moisture, and low-nutrient dirt blanketed by sedum, a hardy genus of succulent. Landscapers can easily install a roof of this type and check in on it once or twice a year.
A farmer stands in front of his sedums in Montana's Bitterroot Valley. The plants spring from a geo-textile mat (foreground) topped by thin layers of soil. The mats will eventually be transported and installed on rooftops. (Laura Zuckerman/Reuters)
“We ended up just copying what the Germans did,” said Ksiazek-Mikenas. By “we,” she meant the organization that defines American construction standards, which used the German protocol as a template in the early 2000s, as the green-building movement was taking off in the U.S.
The German model was dependable and low-maintenance. Why start from scratch, Americans figured, when someone else had done the stressful experimentation and developed the final product? Besides, even in cities that offered substantial financial incentives for green roofs, you got nothing extra for keeping them lush. Developers could follow the German method, stick hardy plants in a roof, and walk away, rewarded for their environmentally friendly choice.
Ksiazek-Mikenas wanted to know if green roofs ever come to host a wide range of species. American roofs were too young for her to tell. “As an ecologist, I realized a decade is such a tiny period of time as far as a succession of a plant community goes,” she said.
So she examined the diversity of 16 German installations that were between one and 93 years old. She collaborated with Manfred Köhler, a long-time researcher in the German green roof scene, who had monitored about a third of the plots at least once a year for between 12 and 27 years. The pair also closely studied 13 other roofs of different ages for one season. That way, they could measure how individual green roofs evolve, and approximate how one might look after nearly a century.
The results, published earlier this year in Urban Naturalist, make a case for breaking with tradition and investing more resources in green roofs.
As it turns out, the German plots stayed the same. Time didn’t translate into a broader spectrum of plant and animal species, just more plants overall. Rooftops receive more sunlight and wind, so as a precaution against weeds, green roofs are commonly given soil that holds little moisture and few nutrients. Species (like chives) that proliferated the most, the researchers found, could withstand the setting’s harsh conditions. “The survivors have traits that allow adaptation,” Ksiazek-Mikenas said.
Chuck Friedrich, a horticulturist and landscape architect, learned a similar lesson. As a member of the subcommittee drafting green roof recommendations in the U.S., Friedrich saw the German style adopted around the country, and tried it himself. After a decade of battling one test installation, he gave up maintaining the right balance of plants.
The hardiest plants, Friedrich realized, dominate green roofs. In subtropical North Carolina, where he lives, sedums dry up in the sun unless watered frequently. To Friedrich, a truly hand-off roof in the South must incorporate a range of native plants. If you’re dead set on the German approach, “it is maintenance, maintenance, maintenance,” he said, “and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
Lauren Woodward Stanley, a Texas-based architect who has advised the City of Austin on green roofs, tests different species as alternatives to sedums. Not all make it—the blue grama grass died out, while red yucca thrives—but that’s part of working with plants. “If you really drill down [into] defining ‘exactly what you can expect,’ as if it’s a known quantity and not a living system, you’re discounting what it is,” she said.
A landscaper mows the grass during its annual grooming on the roof of the Vancouver Convention Centre. The six-acre green roof has a range of indigenous plants, as well as beehives. (Andy Clark/Reuters)
There is rising interest in native green roofs, and Ksiazek-Mikenas is focused on finding native species that can tough it out on Midwestern rooftops. Going with native plants means choosing unpredictability because little of this work has been done before—especially in Chicago, where the usual sedums do just fine. But it may be more ecologically rewarding than plopping down proven species.
For green-roof projects where experimentation isn’t possible, Ksiazek-Mikenas has advice on how to modify the German style for greater biodiversity. Start by planting the widest range of suitable plants possible, not just one or two kinds of sedum. Spend a little bit of time culling a species that’s taken up more than its fair share of the roof. Put up some bee nesting boxes or leave some decaying wood behind to encourage insects into a new home.
Individual green roofs are often small, but these slight changes can provide havens for species whose ground-level territories are fragmented or disappearing. “Even minimal is better than nothing,” she said.
About the Author
Leslie Nemo is a writer based in New York City. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Scientific American, and elsewhere.
Urban Agriculture Program Helps UW-Madison Students Take Farming To The City
Urban Agriculture Program Helps UW-Madison Students Take Farming To The City
By Allison Garfield | April 12, 2018
Urban agriculture is a very specific term defining a very broad field: agriculture, from gardening to raising livestock, in a city or suburb surrounding an urban space. It is a practice that has spread over time — but it all started in Madison.
In the late 1900s, the city’s planning department was reoriented toward food production, according to Lindsey Day Farnsworth, a postdoctoral researcher of urban agriculture at UW-Madison’s Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems. This shifted how people thought about the role of community gardens and urban farming.
Experts note the distinction between urban farming — which is typically associated with metropolitan food production that is intended to generate a profit — from community or school gardens, which are urban agriculture in the sense that food is being grown in the city. However, the purpose of the latter is not to make money.
Both of these practices are increasing in Madison. Today, more people than ever are growing food in cities, according to the Smithsonian. Cities are where most people live now and Madison is not excluded from this.
“Madison is distinct from a lot of places that we’ve seen an emphasis on urban agriculture in the last decade or two,” Farnsworth said. “There’s a long-standing history of interest in community food projects and food production in general, which is unique.”
UW-Madison recognized the growing participation in urban agriculture, and, as a result, created curriculum explicitly for the field. The course is being developed by various professors but is spearheaded by The Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, a program on campus dedicated to cohesive agriculture.
The CIAS research center within the university’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences was built in 1989 to create sustainable agricultural research programs that respond to farmer and citizen needs, according to the center’s website. It added that, consequently, human relationships are at the core of the facility.
F.H. King Students for Sustainable Agriculture is a student organization within CIAS that owns a student farm in Eagle Heights and a rooftop garden at the Pyle Center. Rena Yehuda Newman, the outreach director for the organization, said students should care about urban agriculture and agriculture as a whole because UW-Madison is a land-grant institution, meaning the university received permission from the state to establish the school on federally controlled land.
“One of the founding principles of UW is to create new agricultural knowledge and help distribute that out to the rest of the state, which is really a fantastic and forward-thinking philosophy about agriculture,” Yehuda Newman said. “It’s part of what it means to be a Badger.”
CIAS’s goal is to learn how particular integrated farming systems can contribute to environmental, economic, social and intergenerational sustainability. Today, that means urban agriculture, according to Yehuda Newman.
“Urban agriculture is one way of addressing equity and distribution problems,” said Newman. “If it’s too difficult to access fresh produce that’s being imported into the city, allowing people the sovereignty to grow their own food in their own environment is a really strong way to allow that autonomy and agency.”
Steve Ventura, the chair of the Agroecology Program at UW-Madison and an environmental studies professor, leads curriculum development, along with several other professors from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, CIAS and various community partners. They received a grant from the USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant Program to create a school for urban agriculture. The school will have three different modes of delivery: a farm and industry short course, a food systems certificate for undergraduates and hands-on experience with Community Groundworks and The Center for Resilient Cities.
Ventura hopes the school for urban agriculture will be a self-sustaining program before the grant runs out in three years. Though the curriculum is not definite yet, students have expressed interest in the program, he said.
Michelle Miller, associate director of programs for CIAS, said it is immensely important to consider how cities interact with the suburban areas surrounding them when examining urban agriculture. It is important to recognize risks shared between the people who eat the food and the people who grow the food, Miller said, because disparities can arise, like agricultural workers who aren’t paid and don’t have healthcare.
“[This] is a kind of urban agriculture — it doesn’t necessarily mean you are growing something in an urban space but you are conscious of the fact that you are embedded in a rural area and that you have a responsibility to the farmers near your city,” Miller said.
Farnsworth also acknowledged the necessity for urban agriculture curriculum in Madison specifically.
“Madison is distinct from a lot of places that we’ve seen an emphasis on urban agriculture in the last decade or two,” she said. “There’s a long-standing history of interest in community food projects and food production in general, which is unique.”
Madison is relatively small — most directions you go, you hit farmland quickly, Farnsworth said. As a result, Madison has had a robust farmer’s market for over three decades, creating a positive food culture within the city.
A lot of cities that aren’t supportive of urban agriculture believe the best use of land is economic development, Farnsworth said. Because urban farming isn’t extremely lucrative, other city governments need alternative benefits — cost savings at the household level due to backyard gardens and farm-to-school projects encouraging kids to try new foods — to justify using urban land for food production.
Another reason Madison is distinct from other cities is the strong relationship between homegrown foods and citizens that is forged from Madison’s history of farming, according to Olivia Parry, the senior planner at the Dane County Planning & Development Department.
Today, people are more interested in health and what goes into their food than ever before, said Parry, who studied local foods in graduate school.
“Kids [understand] that buying local is helpful to their family’s livelihood and their communities,” Parry said. “There’s this kind of this food patriotism, I think, with buying local.”
Farnsworth spoke along similar lines, saying, “Once that connection [to food] is established, we start make those connections between food and place and nutrition and what we’re putting into our bodies in a lot of other contexts. That starts to become quite transformative, both at the personal level and in terms of the food system.”
The planning department’s proactive measures in the ’90s are echoed today. The Madison Food Policy Council recently developed a working group devoted to urban agriculture. Farnsworth thinks this is part of the reason urban farming in particular has increased in profile recently.
Members of the councils are working with a group of UW-Madison interns to develop a food waste and recovery guide for organizations, businesses and individuals who may have surplus edible products and are looking for an outlet so that it does not go to waste, according to George Reistad, the food policy coordinator for the Mayor’s Office.
Reistad said food has the power to shape the landscape of a neighborhood and a city, as seen in Madison’s Wil-Mar neighborhood, which is comprised of a multitude of restaurants that grow their own produce, the Willy Street Co-Op and locally owned coffee shops and bakeries. However, he said there is an imbalance of these assets between different communities.
“I think there are always disparities between people and need and resources to alleviate that need, food being no exception,” Reistad wrote. “I’ll say this – there are a lot of passionate people who are very giving of their time and money to provide additional services and resources in relation to food and other social determinants of health.”
Singapore Stakes Claim On First Organic Standard For Produce Grown by Urban And Indoor Farming
Singapore Stakes Claim On First Organic Standard For Produce Grown by Urban And Indoor Farming
12-Apr-2018 By Lester Wan
Singapore has launched its first organic standard, and officials believe it to possibly be the world’s first organic standard for produce grown in urban and indoor conditions.
Vertical Farms: The Next Green Revolution
Vertical Farms: The Next Green Revolution
April 20, 2018
- The Lawrentian | Nero Gallagher
Last week, I wrote about farmers markets and their potential to reduce the distance we ship our food, which effectively eliminates a lot of wasted fuel and energy. They are a great way for the local community to gather and feel a collective culture, as well. This week, however, I would like to talk about a new farming technology on the horizon: vertical farms. Vertical farms eliminate many of the impracticalities and inefficiencies in traditional farming. They are more widely applicable as a technology, too, and have the potential to change the production of food around the world.
Vertical farms reduce the land and water used to produce crops by adding another dimension to the layout of the farm. Water cascades from top to bottom, essentially recycling itself. Furthermore, vertical farms decrease the waste of resources and space because crops are grown in controlled conditions, eliminating the threat of weather patterns (such as droughts) and reducing the distance that produce is transported by growing it within urban regions.
With the implementation of vertical farms, the endless fields of farmland that many of us in the Midwest are familiar with would return to nature. Ideally, the pasture land would be eliminated too with a shift toward veganism, since factory farms and the excessive breeding of animals contribute to global warming.
Red meat is not very healthy, anyway. Vertical farms account for fowl and pigs, though, for you omnivores. Vertical farms can accommodate crops that are normally specific to a certain region of the world and can grow crops yearly, even when those crops would be out of season. Insects are not an issue, either, because the crops in vertical farms in a controlled environment, eliminating the need for pesticides.
One current issue with vertical farms is the lack of widespread application. As far as I know, there are no vertical farms near Appleton. However, the company Plenty is working on building a business model that would apply vertical farms within every city of one million or more people around the world. Many upstarts have failed because of high costs, but Plenty is utilizing new technology to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
Most companies use tall shelves littered with plants in their systems, but Plenty uses 20-foot vertical towers, in addition to computer learning. They utilize infrared camera systems to monitor moisture, plant growth, and temperature, data which allows them to fine-tune the farms. Water and nutrients are dispersed from above, eliminating the need for pipes. Water is recycled, too. According to Plenty, they can get as much as 350 times the produce of a given acre of land, using one percent as much water. There are various articles about Plenty online published by companies like Vox and Bloomberg, that I would recommend for further reading.
In addition to Plenty, there are groups like FarmedHere (based in the Chicago area) and CityFARM (an MIT research project) that are also attempting to push the boundaries of vertical farming. The former is working on widening distribution to different retailers such as Target, Jewel, and Whole Foods to establish consumer appeal and familiarity. According to an article by the Huffington Post, FarmedHere also recognizes the challenge of convincing consumers of the benefits of vertical farms and encourages visits by Chicago Public School students and their parents.
CityFARM is attempting to develop an open-source platform for vertical farming like Linux to facilitate cooperation and innovation throughout the industry. Vertical farming as a technology is still in the early stages so many companies are developing new technology and strategies independently. CityFARM hopes to eliminate this issue.
With the increasing use of technology, efficiency and innovation comes a decrease in human labor and therefore jobs. Obviously, this presents a problem. Human labor is costly, and so it is in companies like Plenty’s interests to reduce it as much as possible. With the viability of vertical farms, then, it seems that many farmers would become unemployed.
In our capitalist system, this is problematic because losing one’s job means one less source of income and equity. It seems that, as vertical farms gain prominence, this will be an issue that must enter the conversation as well. Regardless, vertical farms are a fantastic way of reducing waste and damage to the environment. They allow us to grow our food more locally create a controlled environment for produce.
Nero Gallagher
All Aboard The Urban Farm
The floors are lined with pot plants, tomato vines, and coriander leaves. Hanging baskets swing from the handrails and the driver’s seat is blanketed in a green layer of mint, basil, and thyme. Upstairs, the deck is filled with a fine, ultrasonic mist.
All Aboard The Urban Farm
The Farmbus is no regular red double-decker: inside it’s a top-spec sustainable strawberry factory. Katie Strick hops on
April 19, 2018
Matt Writtle
The floors are lined with pot plants, tomato vines, and coriander leaves. Hanging baskets swing from the handrails and the driver’s seat is blanketed in a green layer of mint, basil, and thyme. Upstairs, the deck is filled with a fine, ultrasonic mist.
This is no ordinary double-decker, though. This is the Farmbus, a new sustainable urban farm for the capital housed inside a converted red London bus. It opened last week at Mercato Metropolitano in Elephant and Castle, and it’ll be open throughout the summer as a pick-your-own farm and plant shop. The first batch of strawberries is expected in the next fortnight.
The Farmbus offers a unique way to grow sustainable produce in the capital and was created in response to Londoners’ pressing environmental and social concerns, says co-founder Sam Cox. Previously an architect, he teamed up with plant scientist Hugo Horlick to create Rootlabs, a company looking at innovative growing systems in urban environments. This is its first project.
The bus may have a retro feel but the concept is hi-tech. The strawberry farm on the top deck uses a technology called aeroponics, a food-growing method that doesn’t require soil. Instead, plants are close-suspended in the air and their roots are exposed to a fine, nutritious mist.
Inside the Farmbus (Matt Writtle)
Not only does this allow Cox and Horlick to grow strawberries much more densely than they could with traditional methods but it’s also low-impact. The whole system runs on just 45 litres of water — 95 per cent of the water used is recirculated back into the system — and low-powered LED lighting keeps resources at a minimum, Cox explains.
“In the UK we import a huge amount of soft fruit and strawberries each year and we’re looking at how we can produce these in a very sustainable way.” Farmbus’s climate-controlled growing house is proof to the public that you can grow “substantial amounts of sustainable produce within a very small footprint,” continues Horlick. They hope to install solar panels on the roof in the coming months to help reduce that footprint further.
Strawberries are not the only fruits of Rootlabs’ endeavors: the Farmbus will also produce herbs for people living nearby and for the restaurants at Mercato Metropolitano, and they’ve recently built a hydroponic hop growing system in partnership with German Kraft, the market’s on-site sustainable brewery. It’s made using recycling beer barrels and the hops will be used to produce beer.
Community is at the project’s core: throughout the summer, Cox and Horlick will deliver a programme of workshops for the public on hydroponic food growing, indoor gardening advice and houseplants. There will also be free workshops for local schools and a monthly plant consultancy where Londoners can come in for advice on growing at home and find out what they might be doing wrong.
Cox hopes the “striking” structure of a red double-decker bus will draw people in. “There’s this fantastic landscape of urban growing in London, so we really wanted to create something engaging for the public.” The classic design also seemed a fitting structure in which to house such an iconic British fruit.
The Farmbus will be parked in Elephant and Castle until the end of summer, after which Cox plans to move it to another London site or even get it moving with a biodiesel engine. “We’re really interested in how we can improve environments through the use of planting, whether that’s for environmental benefits or general health and well-being of our cities and its populations. It’s about resource efficiency and how we can reduce the amount of materials and inputs we have to have.”
All aboard the sustainable food revolution.
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