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Urban Bee Colony Arrives Atop Restaurant In Downtown Appleton, WI
While Appleton has allowed beekeeping inside the city limits since 2015, it took additional permitting to allow bees in the business district. Appleton’s first downtown apiary is on the roof of the CopperLeaf Hotel, which is attached to the restaurant.
Urban Bee Colony Arrives Atop Restaurant In Downtown Appleton, WI
Maureen Wallenfang, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
June 4, 2018
APPLETON - Rye Restaurant's rooftop beehives buzz with activity today, but it took some persistence to get everything humming along smoothly.
It started out as head chef Nick Morse's simple idea: Put a few honeybee hives on the roof and harvest honey for Rye, the chic restaurant at 308 W. College Ave.
He decided to add in some raised garden beds to provide both the bees and the restaurant with fresh herbs, lavender, tomatoes, lettuces, vegetables and edible flowers.
While Appleton has allowed beekeeping inside the city limits since 2015, it took additional permitting to allow bees in the business district.
Appleton’s first downtown apiary is on the roof of the CopperLeaf Hotel, which is attached to the restaurant.
By the time permits were prepared, hives ready, bees ordered by the pound from California and everything was a go, Wisconsin weather was far from bee-friendly.
The bees arrived in the middle of the April storm that dumped two feet of snow on Appleton.
“We had to shovel our way to the hives,” said Morse. “Some of the bees hit the snow and we instantly lost them. We had a good amount of loss. Then one of the queens died, or flew the coop.”
Morse and his chief beekeeping assistant, Sami Hansen, were not daunted.
They ordered a new queen, who arrived in her own caged box.
The two hives in their roof-top apiary are now both buzzing with bees building honeycomb and queens laying eggs.
“By late summer we’ll be able to harvest the honey,” said Hansen.
The bees are already collecting pollen from sources like flowering trees, and can travel up to a mile, they said.
"What does Appleton taste like? We'll find out when they create their honey," said Morse, who is dreaming up recipes for desserts and meat glazes using honey and honeycomb.
Alicia Griebenow is a beekeeper who mentored Morse and Hansen, and works seasonally at Honey Bee Ware, a Greenville store and beekeeping resource.
She said she isn’t aware of any other Fox Cities businesses doing beekeeping outside of commercial honey producers.
“They’re pioneers,” Griebenow said. “The farm-to-table movement is part of it. They’re growing it and they know where it came from. They’ve done their research and want to do it correctly.”
Rye Restaurant has the only permit for a beehive in the central business district in Appleton, said Tim Mirkes, environmental health supervisor for the city's health department. He said that besides Rye, there are three residential beehive permits in the city, an institutional permit for Lawrence University and an urban farm permit for Riverview Gardens.
Morse built a protective shelter for the rooftop hives. He built six raised garden beds using donated materials, and a water collection system.
The rooftop project is something different and fun, and has become a collective hobby for restaurant employees, he said.
“Everyone has gotten involved in it, from the front of the house to the kitchen. It’s become everyone’s project,” he said.
He figures it might eventually break even after the investment of about $1,800 in honeybees, protective jackets and netted hats, equipment and garden materials.
“The goal isn’t to make money. It’s to set us apart and give us a fun activity. It’s to keep things interesting,” Morse said.
Ultimately, Morse and Hansen hope to keep learning and to sustain their colonies.
Nationally, U.S. beekeepers lost 40 percent of their colonies during the year ending March 31, according to a survey released May 23 by Auburn University and University of Maryland researchers. Losses are said to be from parasitic varroa mites, pesticides and environmental factors tied to climate change, like abnormal temperatures, storms and hurricanes.
Here, Hansen said the local losses are double that, about 80 percent, based on statistics from Honey Be Ware.
Managing pests and harsh winters are a part of the challenge.
She said they’ll buy organic treatments and insulate the hives over the next winter to keep as many bees as possible.
Brooklyn Urban Farming Program Cultivates Opportunity In The Projects
Brooklyn Urban Farming Program Cultivates Opportunity In The Projects
Linked by Michael Levenston
Paul Philpott preps kale to be packaged and distributed. Photo: Kellyann Petry For The Wall Street Journal.
After graduating from an Urban Farm Corps program, Paul Philpott is running his own hydroponic farm business out of a shipping container in a Brooklyn parking lot
By Anne Kadet
Wall Street Journal
June 12, 2018
At age 24, Paul Philpott wasn’t exactly riding high. He’d just quit a job at Walmart and moved back in with his parents in the projects. So while he had no clue what to expect, he was happy to check out a job-training program suggested by his mother.
“You’re going to farm in the hood?” he recalls thinking after meeting a recruiter. “I don’t think that’s going to work!”
Eighteen months after graduating from the program, Mr. Philpott is running his own hydroponic farm business out of a shipping container in a Brooklyn parking lot.
“Farming in the city is nothing I’d ever thought I’d say I’d do,” he says.
The 40-foot container, with its metal walls and pink LEDs, looks more like a lab than a farm. There’s no dirt. A programmed system dispenses a nutrient cocktail, controls water flow and monitors the temperature. Rows of kale, chard and romaine grow on sliding columns suspended from the ceiling.
Mr. Philpott is not a big greens guy. Lettuce, he says, is best served atop a burger: “If I’m really bored, I’ll eat a salad.”
But the profits on these nutrient-dense greens are lucrative. While growing costs are astronomical—$10 to $15 a pound—high-end restaurant customers pay double, says Mr. Philpott.
“It’s very crazy,” he says. “But we have very premium ingredients, and grow it and deliver it to you directly.”
Customer Patrick Connolly, chef-owner of Rider, a bistro in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, says he’s not a big fan of hydroponic crops, but Mr. Philpott’s greens are exceptional. “The kale has spice to it,” he says.
Mr. Philpott says that despite growing up in the projects, he enjoyed a sheltered childhood. “My mom was extremely protective,” he says.
But then he attended high school far from home and fell in with the wrong crowd. “I can’t lie,” he says. “I did a lot of dumb things.”
There was a lot of drinking and fighting. “I hung around people who went stealing and robbing places,” he says.
He didn’t graduate from school until he was 20, and things went downhill from there. “I’d be on the streets getting drunk all day with my friends,” he says. “Especially if I lost my job. The week after, my check would go to bottles and bottles.”
Green City Force, a nonprofit which recruits young adults from the city’s 15 highest-crime public-housing developments, offered Mr. Philpott a spot in its 10-month Urban Farm Corps program.
Earning a $1,200 monthly stipend, Mr. Philpott learned the basics of farming and tending a produce stand, distributing free vegetables at a housing project in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
Early on, he aimed for a spot on the infrastructure team and initiated projects like repairing a dilapidated greenhouse. “I stepped up and showed I know what I’m doing,” he says.
He soon joined the team building new farms at housing projects in Harlem and Canarsie, Brooklyn.
By the time he finished in early 2017, he had landed a coveted spot in the entrepreneurship program at Square Roots, the urban farm incubator currently hosting his business.
Not all his peers fared so well. Among the 24 trainees in his cohort, only 16 graduated. This year, 28 of 40 made it to the finish line, the nonprofit says.
But these graduates have enjoyed a 95% job-placement rate, in occupations ranging from landscaping to working as a chef’s assistant.
It’s a fine accomplishment considering the 75% unemployment rate among young adults in city public housing.
Mr. Philpott says the experience gave him a new identity as a community leader. When he’s not tending crops these days, he’s giving tours, supervising apprentices and volunteering at a community garden in the Bronx.
When younger guys on the block ask if he’s dealing, he tells them the cash in his wallet is from his business. “I pull out my Instagram and show them the farm,” he says.
Brandee McHale, president of Citi Foundation, which focuses on economic opportunity, says the foundation donated $1 million to Green City Force because it’s not just another job-training program—participants contribute to their community and become role models. “It has a multiplier effect,” she says.
Mr. Philpott’s stint with Square Roots will end in October. What’s next? “I have no idea,” he says.
But it’s a happy dilemma, he adds, induced by the skills he’s learned and contacts he’s made: “The weird thing is, now I have so many opportunities, I don’t know which I want to do.”
New York: From A Convention Center’s Roof, ‘Walk-Off Vegetables’
From A Convention Center’s Roof, ‘Walk-Off Vegetables’
Alan Steel, the president and chief executive at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, and Gwen Schantz, the chief operating officer of Brooklyn Grange. Mr. Steel is planning to build a farm atop an addition to the convention center.CreditEmma Howells/The New York Times
By James Barron
- June 24, 2018
Alan Steel dreams of “walk-off vegetables” the way the beleaguered subspecies known as Mets fans dreams of walk-off homers. At this moment in another season of disappointment, Mr. Steel’s dream seems more likely, although patience is required, just as it is required with the Mets. The first crop won’t be planted until 2021.
Mr. Steel is planning a farm in the sky, on the roof of the extension being built at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the Far West Side of Manhattan, where he is not only the principal proselytizer for urban agriculture but also the president and chief executive.
“It gives us a story,” he said, and not just a story that could lead to bookings downstairs, because these days, as he quickly pointed out, “a lot of conventions are about sustainability.”
The story of rooftop farms is one that says something meaningful can be done with the last batch of unused real estate in an increasingly crowded city. Something useful.
That could have important consequences for the cityscape, but seeing “farm” and “city” in the same sentence derailed thoughts of how local locally grown produce could be — in other words, how short the trip from farm to table could be, how much fresher the produce would be when it reached the kitchen, how much less energy would be consumed than when fruits and vegetables are trucked long distances and what other benefits there might be. What came to mind was, admittedly, totally silly: “Green Acres,” the 1960s sitcom that opened with Eddie Albert singing about “land spreadin’ out so far and wide.”
By Manhattan standards, the new farm will do just that. It will run along West 40th Street, at the northern end of the convention center complex, between 11th Avenue and 12th Avenue.
But green acres, plural, it will not be. At 43,000 square feet, the Javits Center farm will not quite cover a single acre, only nine-tenths of one — 0.9871441689623508, with all the decimal places possible in an online conversion program. It will be a tiny fraction of the size of the average farm in the United States, which in 2017 was 444 acres.
It will have something rural farms do not: stunning views that might have pleased the character played by Mr. Albert’s co-star, Eva Gabor. “I just adore a penthouse view,” she sang. “Dah-ling, I love you, but give me Park Avenue.” The rooftop farm will not be far from Park Avenue, with its prewar buildings, all brick, and old-fashioned masonry. What she would see closest to the farm, however, are the tall, shiny and mostly linear towers that have remade the industrial barrens of the Far West Side.
The rooftop will be the largest farm in Manhattan, but that is not saying much — Manhattan has not been farm country for generations. And, as far as rankings go, the rooftop farm at the Brooklyn Navy Yard will still be larger at 65,000 square feet. The one at the Javits Center will be about the same size as a rooftop farm in Long Island City, Queens (the borough that had the city’s last family-run farm, in Fresh Meadows, until it was sold to a real-estate developer in 2004).
The rooftop farm will have something rural farms do not: stunning views.CreditEmma Howells/The New York Times
But the Javits Center farm will have the city’s only rooftop orchard, with apples, pears, peaches and maybe cherries, some grown in a 3,200-square-foot greenhouse. And then there will be the vegetables — cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, carrots, arugula and mesclun greens.
The farmers will not wear suits and ties, and they will not have to worry about exploding tractors, as Mr. Albert did on “Green Acres.” “Mostly, we’re all people who ditched office jobs, so we hung up the suits and ties,” said Gwen Schantz, the chief operating officer of Brooklyn Grange, the ambitious company that will do the harvesting — this will not be a you-pick-it operation, though Brooklyn Grange hopes for teachable moments when school groups visit. “It’s easy as New Yorkers not to think about where our food was before it appeared on the supermarket shelf,” Ms. Schantz said.
The crop will be bound for a close-by destination — extremely close by. Specifically, downstairs at the Javits Center. And that will drive the growing plans. Mr. Steel said the chef would forecast the menu and Brooklyn Grange would grow to order. “Any produce that we grow would be used locally, in the building, or nearby,” he said.
Anastasia Cole Plakias, a founding partner and the vice president of Brooklyn Grange, said that was an ideal scenario. “It epitomizes the efficiencies in urban agriculture,” she said. Brooklyn Grange, which already grows over 50,000 pounds of produce a year on roofs around the city, has been selling produce to restaurants consumed within five miles of the other rooftop farms. The food from the Javits Center — which already harvests honey from beehives on the roof of its original section — could be consumed within 200 feet of where it was grown.
Mr. Steel said that when it came to planning the Javits Center expansion, a $1.2 billion item in the Cuomo administration’s $100 billion statewide infrastructure plan, he wanted the roof to be “something more productive, instead of just a place where people could stroll.”
“It’s relatively easy if you’re building a new building, to build it strong enough to hold the weight.”
And so the Javits Center extension is being built to hold at least a million pounds of soil, in a bed 18 inches deep — deeper than those at the Navy Yard or the Queens building. The soil, specially mixed for rooftop farming, will retain more water than ordinary soil. There will also be a water recycling system that will recirculate the runoff.
“It will go into a ginormous cistern” in the basement before being pumped back up, Ms. Schantz said.
Mr. Steel, who has run the Javits Center since 2014, has learned about rooftop agriculture off the job. He said his weekend house has a flat roof.
“He has his own rooftop vegetables,” Ms. Schantz said, “so he’s a bit of a sucker.”
Nourishing Cities With Nature
As rates of urbanization increase globally, city planners are working to reverse decades of reckless growth by returning nature to the built environment. Fortunately, technology and bold thinking can help strike a long-elusive balance.
Nourishing Cities With Nature
Jun 11, 2018, CARLO RATTI
As rates of urbanization increase globally, city planners are working to reverse decades of reckless growth by returning nature to the built environment. Fortunately, technology and bold thinking can help strike a long-elusive balance.
BOSTON – Ever since the ancient Greek poet Theocritus wrote his pastoral idylls romanticizing rural life, people have been pondering how to build cities that are in concert with their natural surroundings. But with rates of urbanization growing exponentially around the world, the need for greener cities has never been more urgent. Fortunately, innovation and technology can help strike this long-elusive balance.
Bridging the urban-rural divide has long been a focus of city planners. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European cities experienced unprecedented growth as huge numbers of people moved from the countryside to newly booming metropolises. As these cities grew, they become overcrowded and polluted, which inspired a new generation of thinkers to search for solutions.
One of these visionaries was Britain’s Ebenezer Howard, who in 1898 coined the term “garden city” – which he defined as residential communities built around a mix of open spaces, parks, factories, and farms. Soon, London was surrounded by leafy suburbs designed to keep high-quality housing and abundant green space in equilibrium. Howard’s mantra was to bring the city to nature.
A few decades later, on the other side of the Atlantic, Frank Lloyd Wright conjured up Broadacre City, an imagined suburban development balancing the built environment with the wild. And back in Europe, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, an architect, and designer known as Le Corbusier, was sketching visions of utopian cities that seamlessly enveloped the natural world.
And yet, while each one of these ideas was revolutionary for its time, they failed because they relied heavily on the automobile and promoted urban sprawl. In fact, most early urbanization in the West was characterized by development patterns that crashed against nature, connected not by green spaces and parks, but rather by endless ribbons of impervious pavement. As planners recognized the shortcomings of twentieth-century remedies, they sought to reverse the equation: how can nature be returned to the city?
New York City’s High Line, an aerial greenway built from a converted rail bed that opened in June 2009, was one of the first projects to capture this new ambition in urban planning. From London’s (now defunct) Garden Bridge to Seoul’s Skygarden, projects are being designed to better incorporate nature into the urban fabric.
Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay is among the more ambitious efforts. At the park’s Supertree Grove, photovoltaic cells harvest energy from the sun, and rainwater is stored in the steel trees’ “canopy” to feed vertical towers of foliage. Dehumidified air is even collected to help cool adjacent buildings.
Meanwhile, in Germany, a startup called Green City Solutions is building mobile moss-covered walls to clean polluted air and help lower urban temperatures. The company’s CityTree concept – essentially a natural filtration system – is being tested from Mexico City to Milan.
We are even witnessing a boom in urban agriculture, as advances in hydroponic and aeroponic farming techniques make it easier to grow vegetables in confined spaces. While cities will never replace rural areas as the world’s main source of nutrition, a higher percentage of food can be cultivated in urban areas. New ventures like Freight Farms in Boston and InFarm in Berlin are already harnessing these technologies to bring urban farming to more people.
As innovative solutions like these take root, urban planners are turning their attention to even bolder endeavors. One concept that my colleagues and I have explored is custom-designed urban ecosystems and climates. In Milan, we recently unveiled our Living Nature exhibit, a 500-square-meter (5,381-square-foot) pavilion that can recreate four seasons simultaneously under the same roof. The goal of the project was to spark conversation about sustainable design and to illustrate the surprising ways that nature will be integrated into the cities and homes of the future.
More than a century ago, the French geographer Élisée Reclus astutely predicted that people would always need “the dual possibility of gaining access to the delights of the city …and, at the same time, the freedom that is nourished by nature.” Reclus’s ideal was visionary, if premature. But today, thanks to new technologies and bold thinking, the urban-rural divide in city planning is slowly closing.
CARLO RATTI
Writing for PS since 2014
Carlo Ratti is Director of the Senseable City Lab at MIT and founder of the design firm Carlo Ratti Associati. He co-chairs the World Economic Form Global Future Council on Cities.
Driverless Cars And Climate Change Prompt Push For Urban Farming
Driverless Cars And Climate Change Prompt Push For Urban Farming
Modular Farms. Image: Chris Jack
Cameron Jewell | 4 June 2018
Five kilograms of mushrooms, 100 heads of lettuce and 25 trays of micro-greens. These are the spoils so far from Mirvac’s urban farm pilot set up in the basement of its 200 George Street HQ in Sydney.
The pilot program, Cultivate, has been operating for about six weeks, and has seen 200 staff sign up to get involved in fresh food production.
The farm includes veggie patches and hydroponic vertical farms, as well as mushrooms grown in coffee grounds diverted from landfill. Special grow lamps are used to stimulate plant growth in the basement environment.
The pilot could be a sign of the future for commercial office basements, as technology such as autonomous vehicles promises to make traditional car parks all but redundant.
Mirvac’s cultivate pilot
Real estate services firm JLL last year predicted that adaptive reuse of basement car parking could see urban farms sprout up all over cities.
“An urban farm could be created in a building’s redundant car park and the produce used to service local kitchens and cafes within that proximity,” JLL head of property and asset management – Australia Richard Fennell said.
“Urban farming is yet to be embraced by mainstream property companies, no doubt due to the traditional concepts of value and property best use, but we believe this could change.”
The report said developers needed to be designing new buildings with adaptive reuse in mind.
Mirvac’s Cultivate pilot
Mirvac group general manager of innovation Teresa Giuffrida said the company was thinking seriously about future transport’s effects on the built environment.
“We are starting to make step changes towards a time when we need to think differently about using assets like car parks,” she said.
“We will be looking at the long-term advantages of this, while assessing the health and wellbeing benefits of nurturing urban farming skills within the busy office environment,” she said.
Mirvachead of office and industrial Campbell Hanan said the trial was already seeing changes in staff behaviour, with some even coinducting meetings in the basement.
“People are telling us that it gives them a peaceful break in the middle of the working day, as well as a way of learning more about growing food.”
New technology opening the door to wider take-up
The technology has been provided by start-up Farmwall. Its chief executive Geert Hendrix said having urban farms eliminated transport and packing waste while reconnecting people to the process of growing.
“We have started supplying some produce to nearby cafés, including Avenue On George cafe, and it can basically get from farm to plate in about seven minutes.”
Co-founder Serena Lee said at the end of the experiment there would be data generated on interest, effects on mental health and wellbeing, and whether it could be a replicable business model.
Farmwall has also set up its vertical farming systems in Melbourne restaurants and cafes, allowing chefs to grow and harvest their own greens. It uses an aquaponics system where water used for the plants is fed through a fish tank, and the filtered fish waste recycled back to feeding the plants.
Another business launched this year is Modular Farms Australia, which uses converted shipping containers for its modular farming systems, which it says can be deployed in any environment regardless of climate. Energy and water supply are the only necessities.
The Brisbane-headquartered company says its technology can see a 5-10 time higher output than traditional farming, an 80 percent increase in yield compared with standard shipping container farming, and can grow 50,000 heads of lettuce a year with as little as 40 litres of water.
The systems could have particular applications in “remote and island communities, grocery stores, food services, agribusinesses and educational facilities wanting access to sustainable healthy produce”, the company says.
“The main goal is to reduce food waste, increase food security and eliminate supply chain logistics to cut food miles.”
A Modular Farms module. Image: Modular Farms Australia
Modular Farms Australia director James Pateras said being brought up on a farm and witnessing the impact of drought was key to creating the product.
“As a third generation farmer, I felt that doing what we have done for the past 100 years will not suffice for the next 100 years,” he said.
As climate change impacts become more pronounced, such solutions could become more widespread as cities move to increase resilience and self-sufficiency.
Tags: Cultivate, mirvac, urban farming
Rethinking Rooftops
Rethinking Rooftops
Departments - Urban Agriculture
Urban agriculture has been gradually moving to rooftops, a previously underutilized space with a lot of growing potential.
May 29, 2018
Yoshiki Harada, Tom Whitlow, and Neil S. Mattson
The Brooklyn Grange Navy Yard Farm, NYC - Photo courtesy of Neil Mattson
Rooftop farming is intensive agriculture using engineered soil and irrigation on building roofs. Commercial rooftop farming is an emerging practice at the intersection of agriculture and urban planning, where economic and environmental returns are equally important. Rooftop farms can take many forms, including gardens, high tunnels or climate-controlled greenhouses. Rooftop farming enables the production of hyper-local food and its associated social and educational benefits in urban areas where land is unavailable or prohibitively expensive for farming.
The basics of rooftop farms
Municipal zoning laws and building height restrictions are barriers to rooftop farms, but some cities are beginning to revise their codes to accommodate urban agriculture and rooftop farms. In New York City, for example, it became easier for property owners to obtain the city’s approvals for constructing rooftop farms in 2012 when a citywide planning initiative known as “Zone Green” removed the zoning impediments for incorporating ornamental and agricultural uses on rooftops.
In this new context, the Brooklyn Grange, a 1.5-acre commercial rooftop farm, was constructed atop an 11-story building of the former Brooklyn Navy Yard. For this construction, $592,730 was funded by the Community-Based Green Infrastructure Program of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection based on the expectation that the farm could reduce drainage volume and nutrient load to the East River while producing fresh vegetables for local consumption. While commercial rooftop farming is still in its early stages, New York City alone has 0.9 billion square feet (about 21,000 acres) of flat roof surface, 14 percent of which is considered suitable for large-scale (>10,000 ft2) commercial farms (Ackerman et al. 2013; Acks 2006).
Rooftop farms can increase revenue through diverse social and cultural programs, not just vegetable production. For example, the Brooklyn Grange became a popular destination for environmental and agricultural tourism and is used for exercise classes, weddings, photo shoots, music events and organic food tasting. Also, the Grange offers farming internships as well as environmental education programs that have engaged approximately 40,000 K-1 students. These programs emphasize the participation of immigrants, refugees and other under-represented groups, which are subsidized by the municipal programs for green-job training and diversity.
Growing media in rooftop farms
Potting soil used at the Brooklyn Grange (Ithaca Blend, GreenTree Garden Supply, Ithaca, N.Y.)
Photo courtesy of Yoshiki Harada, PhD
The load-bearing capacity of the building is among the constraints specific to the design of rooftop farms. In comparison to using field soil, it is relatively easy to specify engineered soil within the weight limitation. These engineered soils can be categorized into the following two types: expanded shale, clay and slate (ESCS); or potting soil (PS). ESCS are common base materials for green roof soil products, which meets the industrial standards for rooftop landscape construction, including ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) standards (Ampim et al. 2010). ESCS soils can be useful for rooftop farming if they have sufficient water-holding capacity and nutrients (Whittinghill et al. 2013).
The second type is potting soil, i.e. container media. If peat, coconut coir and other organic materials are used as base material, potting soils can be lighter and have greater water holding capacity than ESCS soils (Harada et al. 2017). Whether ESCS or potting soils are used, the precise management of organic amendments becomes challenging because organic matter lost to decomposition must be replenished. Also, lightweight materials must be self-knitting (ex. peat, coconut coir) because lightweight granules (ex. vermiculite, perlite) can easily be lost by wind erosion.
ESCS-base soil used at the Brooklyn Grange (Rooflite Intensive Ag, Skyland USA LLC, Landenberg, Penn.)
Photo courtesy of Yoshiki Harada, PhD
Production in rooftop farms
Precise management of irrigation and fertilizer inputs can reduce the drainage loss of water and nutrients, which enhances both environmental and economic returns of rooftop farming. Unlike in-ground agriculture, for example, rooftops do not have immediate access to water in the ground level. Thus far, irrigation has used municipal water, which is both expensive and competes directly with human consumption.
The economics of rooftop farms
The economic viability of urban agriculture relies on the sales of quick-turn/high-yielding leafy greens and fruit-bearing vegetables with high market value. These crops also have high demands of water and nutrients, which can make rooftop farming prone to drainage loss of water and nutrients. While the yield of rooftop farms can exceed in-ground agriculture, efficiency of water and nutrients use can be lower. Optimizing these inputs is an exciting area for research at the junction of science and practice (Harada et al. 2017; Sanyé-Mengual et al. 2015). The development of soil mixes with enhanced water-holding capacity combined with drainage recycling systems are central to this effort.
Sky Vegetables in Bronx, N.Y.
Photo courtesy of Neil Mattson, Cornell University
Rooftop greenhouse considerations
The use of climate-controlled greenhouses allows for more intensive year-round vegetable production on rooftops. Design of such facilities involves a complex process of navigating zoning laws, load-bearing capacity of buildings and rooftop access. Rooftop greenhouse design also takes into account the potential for beneficial heat from the underlying building as well as greater wind speed than similarly sited ground-based greenhouses. Because of the challenges in site selection and design, some rooftop greenhouses have found it easier to incorporate rooftop farms into new construction projects rather than retrofit existing buildings. Once constructed, operating a rooftop greenhouse is remarkably similar to traditional greenhouses other than getting loads up and down through the building.
Because greenhouses allow for control of temperature, light and relative humidity, rooftop greenhouse operations usually focus on producing one particular class of vegetables to optimize production efficiency and output. Two examples of rooftop greenhouses include Sky Vegetables based in the Bronx and Gotham Greens with four locations including Queens, two in Brooklyn, and Chicago. Both Sky Vegetables and Gotham Greens focus on leafy greens and herbs using NFT (nutrient film technique). In a rooftop setting, NFT is favored over deep water culture (DWC, raft/pond hydroponics) because DWC uses a large volume/weight of water. Both operations sell to local restaurants and supermarkets.
While rooftop agriculture has its challenges, we may be seeing a lot more of it as the human population becomes increasingly urban. By 2050, 70 percent of the global population is projected to live in urban areas.
Acknowledgments Financial support was received from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Multistate Research Project NE-1335: Resource Management in Commercial Greenhouse Production. Yoshiki Harada (yh535@cornell.edu) is a recent Ph.D. graduate, Tom Whitlow (thw2@cornell.edu) is an associate professor, and Neil Mattson (nsm47@cornell.edu) is an associate professor and extension specialist within the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University.
References Ackerman K, Dahlgren E, Xu X (2013) Sustainable Urban Agriculture: Confirming Viable Scenarios for Production, Final Report No.13-07 vol NYSERDA No. 13-07 [Online] (Accessed on April 01, 2016).
Acks K (2006) A framework for the cost-benefit analysis of green roofs: initial estimates Green Roofs in the Metropolitan Region: Research Report Columbia University Center for Climate Systems Research
Ampim PA, Sloan JJ, Cabrera RI, Harp DA, Jaber FH (2010) Green roof growing substrates: types, ingredients, composition and properties Journal of Environmental Horticulture 28:244 Harada Y, Whitlow TH, Bassuk NL, Russell-Anelli J (2017) Biogeochemistry of Rooftop Farm Soils. In: Lal R, Stewart BA (eds) Urban Soils. Advances in Soil Science Series. Taylor & Francis Group, Portland, United States, Sanyé-Mengual E, Orsini F, Oliver-Solà J, Rieradevall J, Montero JI, Gianquinto G (2015) Techniques and crops for efficient rooftop gardens in Bologna, Italy Agronomy for Sustainable Development 35:1477-1488 doi:10.1007/s13593-015-0331-0 Whittinghill LJ, Rowe DB, Cregg BM (2013) Evaluation of vegetable production on extensive green roofs Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems 37:465-484
Kids Grow Salad Greens On An Urban Concrete Schoolyard
Kids Grow Salad Greens On An Urban Concrete Schoolyard
Hydroponic hothouse program introduces disadvantaged girls to organic, sustainable veggies and herbs for eating and selling.
By Abigail Klein Leichman JUNE 19, 2018
Fresh greens are grown hydroponically at a Jerusalem girls’ school. Photo courtesy of StartUpRoots
Photos of smiling kids planting, picking and eating vegetables line the hallways of a school for girls in an impoverished Jerusalem neighborhood. The pictures were taken in the hydroponic hothouse the girls have tended for the past three years on their concrete playground.
Many of their families can’t afford veggies or haven’t been taught about their essential nutritional value, leaving children undernourished and unaware of the miraculous journey from seed to salad, says Shulamit, the teacher in charge of the project.
The nonprofit StartUpRoots provides the funds, equipment, and expertise for the hothouse, which nurtures some 1,400 greens and herbs each month. The students eat them, cook with them and even make creams and soaps from them.
“I think this is a project that belongs in every school. I love it so much,” Shulamit tells ISRAEL21c.
A student tends the leafy greens growing in the hydroponic hothouse. Photo courtesy of StartUpRoots
Lawyer, entrepreneur and former teacher Robin Katz founded StartUpRoots after investigating how Israeli produce could be grown locally without pesticides and while educating and empowering students in “poverty pockets” — including the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) population characterized by large families and small incomes.
“The kids are at a disadvantage academically when they don’t have proper nutrition. And a lot of health problems occur when you don’t know what foods to choose or just choose what is cheap,” says Katz, who moved to Ra’anana from Chicago in 2007.
She didn’t want children only to eat more veggies but to take a hand in growing them organically and sustainably. Katz found the model she was seeking when she visited a hydroponic farm in northern Israel
“They had the cleanest, best-tasting vegetables I’ve ever had, and I’ve traveled extensively,” she tells ISRAEL21c.
Katz found the opportunity to put her idea into action when she was asked to help raise money for a school lunch program at the girls’ school in the Bukharim neighborhood of Jerusalem. She proposed building a small hydroponic facility in a corner of the schoolyard for the girls to grow their own vegetables.
“I was worried about taking space from the playground but the principal said, ‘No, take the back 100 meters.’ That was enough to grow 1,400 plants a month, and we’re working on ways to increase the yield exponentially,” says Katz.
Hothouse on a concrete schoolyard. Photo courtesy of StartUpRoots
The kids grow by growing
Supported by private donors, StartUpRoots provides the equipment, the services of professional agronomists and nutritionists, and a chef who comes after the first harvest to cook with the kids.
Katz and a team of expert volunteers developed a holistic curriculum for teachers like Shulamit to get ideas for lesson plans covering topics from healthy eating to the environmental impact of food production.
“I sat down with Israeli educators to talk about the objectives and goals of the program and they said, ‘Relax, Robin, the kids will grow by growing. They’ll see the direct relationship between their effort and the outcome.’ The life lessons they learn include personal responsibility and understanding that progress is gradual.”
StartUpRoots installed another hydroponic garden at a girls’ school in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Neve Ya’akov. “They didn’t have room outside, so we built an indoor farm with LED lighting, which we are currently expanding in a former library, utilizing a state-of-the-art vertical design,” says Katz.
A StartUpRoots staffer shows schoolgirls in Neve Ya’akov how to start a hydroponic garden. Photo: courtesy
The program requires that students spend at least 20 minutes every day tending the system and the plants, starting with dropping single seeds in a growing medium and making sure that the plants in the closed water system have the right levels of acidity, nutrients, and oxygen.
“The hydroponic method uses 90 percent less water than in-ground farming because nothing is getting absorbed in the soil and the water is recycled,” Katz explains. “The roots get nutrition directly from water and therefore grow faster. There are also few insects because it’s the dirt that attracts pests.”
“It’s a lot fresher and healthier,” adds Ronny Avidan, an Israeli agronomist who joined StartUpRoots in 2015 after completing agricultural projects in Africa. “I want to help promote the ideology of urban organic, pest-free agriculture and sustainability,” he tells ISRAEL21c.
Leafy veggies growing in a schoolyard hothouse in Jerusalem. Photo courtesy of StartUpRoots
Creating a sense of value
The hothouse has become part of Shulamit’s science curriculum for grades 1-7. The girls record their activities and observations after performing their assigned tasks.
The leafy greens grow so abundantly that the school began selling them for a token amount to the girls’ families. “When you charge a bit of money, you create a sense of value,” Shulamit explains.
She says the excitement created by the project has led directly to higher enrollment as children share their enthusiasm with parents and friends.
The girls also planted a conventional garden in another corner of the schoolyard along with a compost pile. Among the produce growing, there are sunflowers, the seeds of which are a favorite Israeli snack.
“When they buy sunflower seeds in a package in the store, they think they appeared from nowhere. Now they understand that these are natural seeds that God created,” says Shulamit.
Katz says some of the aspects of StartUpRoots are found in American programs like Virginia-based Edible Education.
“But we go beyond those programs. In Israel, we don’t have water and land to waste, and we have increasing populations. And yet if we can come out of those challenges shining it should inspire others to do the same.”
The program is not meant only for disadvantaged children. Katz is working with her hometown and partners Matan and Leket (Israel’s national food bank) to transform an unused area into a hydroponic community garden that she hopes will blossom into a farmers market.
Katz is in discussions with additional schools to join StartUpRoots. The no-carbon-footprint hothouses could be put on school rooftops or basements.
“To change dietary habits you first have to change consumer demand and the best way to do that is to start with children,” she says.
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Badia Farms Signs With Classic Fine Foods, Becoming Their First Local Partner In The UAE
Badia Farms Signs With Classic Fine Foods, Becoming Their First Local Partner In The UAE
-Badia Farms partners with Classic Fine Foods to deliver local, fresh and chemical-free leafy greens from farm to fork within hours-
DUBAI: 17 May 2018:
The GCC’s first commercial vertical indoor farm, Badia Farms, is now the first local brand to have their products be distributed by Classic Fine Foods. This partnership will extend the farm’s reach to the premium restaurants and HoReCa trade across the UAE, as Classic Fine Foods caters only to the country’s top food destinations.
Badia Farms - which was officially inaugurated March 1st, 2018 by His Excellency Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment - grows an extensive range of post-organic micro-greens and baby leaf herb varieties in a controlled indoor environment, using hydroponic technology. As the farm’s distributor, Classic Fine Foods will be the logistical partner, delivering its products to chefs across the UAE.
Omar Al Jundi, founder and Chief Executive Officer at Badia Farms said: “Classic Fine Foods is a company that shares our values for quality food, grown using the most sustainable and eco-friendly practices. We have received incredible feedback from chefs so far, who are extremely passionate about our products and our methods – that can’t be matched with imported produce.
“We have started a new wave of farming technology in the region, with a vision to shape the future of how we grow our food. We are delighted that through this partnership we are able to deliver our leafy greens to more chefs’ tables across the UAE.”
Classic Fine Foods represents premium products from across the globe, with over 25 years experience in the industry. As the market leading importer and distributor of fine foods, the company serves five-star hotels and high-end restaurants across the Middle East, Asia, and Europe. Classic Fine Foods will be distributing Badia Farms’ greens in Dubai’s top restaurants and hotels, including Ruya, Jumeriah Beach Hotel, Renaissance Hotel and The Address Boulevard, among many others.
Commenting on the partnership, Thomas Leroy, Regional Director for the Middle Eastat Classic Fine Foods said: “We are always on the lookout for the finest and freshest food suppliers. It is extremely rare in our region to have a farm on our doorstep that can grow quality, fresh produce in a sustainable way. Working with Badia Farms we can substantially cut down the travel time of fresh produce while extending our offering to the region’s top restaurants with Badia Farm’s unique varieties.”
The farm produces an extensive range of micro-greens and baby leaf herb varieties which adds complex flavors to salads, main dishes, sandwiches, and soups. The micro-greens, including arugula, kale, radish, red cabbage, basils, coriander, and mustard, are packed with antioxidants and rich in nutrients.
About Classic Fine Foods:
Classic Fine Foods partners with the world's unique food producers to offer products that are of the highest quality and integrity enabling the creation of menus and recipes that will excite the most demanding of tastes.
Located in 15 countries and established in the United Arab Emirates since 2005, Classic Fine Foods specialize in sourcing, importation, storage, marketing and distribution of fine food products. The range includes premium and niche dairy, meat, pastry, gastronomies, seafood, high-quality perishables, condiments, pasta, dry products, beverage and Chefs’ accessories.
For more information on Classic Fine Foods, please visit: www.classicfinefoods.com
About Badia Farms:
Badia Farms is the GCC’s first commercial vertical indoor farm, using innovative commercial hydroponic technology to grow leafy greens. Based in Al Quoz Dubai, the farm’s ground-breaking methods sustainably grow crops without sunlight, soil or pesticides. The company’s vision is to revolutionize the agricultural industry in the Middle East to provide a solution for the region’s food security.
For more information on Badia Farms, please visit: www.badiafarms.com
Ripple Farms Inc. Wins Ontario’s Social Enterprise of The Year Award Presented By Startup Canada
Ripple Farms Inc. Wins Ontario’s Social Enterprise of The Year Award Presented By Startup Canada
Sault St. Marie, Ontario – June 20, 2018 –
"It is an excellent milestone in a long journey ahead, as we continue the pursuit of answering the question – ‘How Many Can We Feed?’”
Ripple Farms Inc. received the Startup Canada Social Enterprise of the Year Award in Sault St. Marie presented by the Centre For Social Innovation. As a proud sponsor of the fifth annual Startup Canada Awards, we are thrilled to recognize and celebrate outstanding achievement in Canada’s entrepreneurship and innovation community across Canada.
“Congratulations to the 2018 winners of the Startup Canada Awards,” said Victoria Lennox, Co-Founder & CEO of Startup Canada . “These winners represent the very essence of entrepreneurship. We are proud to celebrate their success with Canadians and our partners around the world.”
Steven Bourne, Co-Founder & CEO of Ripple Farms Inc., was very grateful after receiving the award, stating: “We would like to thank everyone who has supported Ripple Farms over the past two years, whether it was, engaging in our educational workshops, collaborating on agri-innovations, or - of course - eating our local greens and seafood! This award stands as a great validation of the hard work the Ripple team, mentors, partners, and supporters have invested in our enterprise thus far. It is an excellent milestone in a long journey ahead, as we continue the pursuit of answering the question – ‘How many can we feed?’”
Regional winners will now be evaluated by the National Adjudication Committee; comprised of some of Canada’s leading entrepreneurship and industry experts. The national winners will be announced and celebrated at the Startup Canada Awards Grand Finale in Ottawa on October 18, 2018 following Startup Canada Day on the Hill.
For more information, and to schedule media interviews, please contact:
Maddie Stiles Media Relations,
Startup Canada 613-295-4590 maddie.stiles@startupcan.ca
About the Startup Canada Awards The Startup Canada Awards can be likened to the Oscars for the Canadian entrepreneurship community. The awards celebrate and recognize individuals, communities, and institutions that demonstrate innovation, excellence, outstanding achievement, and impact in advancing entrepreneurship in Canada:
● Celebrate those working to advance entrepreneurship in Canada;
● Increase awareness of the importance of strengthening Canada’s entrepreneurship ecosystem and culture; and,
● Incentivize efforts and elevate the ambitions of the Canadian entrepreneurial and innovation community.
For more information, visit www.startupaward.ca.
About Ripple Farms Inc. Ripple Farms’ purpose is to reconnect urban populations with food by engaging people through hands-on workshops and educational material. Their aim is to tackle food insecurity one meal at a time. With a focus on traceability, Ripple Farms’ wants to make sure that consumers know what they are buying and eating.
Ripple Farms’ is a company that is always innovating in both their technological and biological operations with the intentions of becoming more efficient/productive, all while pushing the boundaries of biomimicry. By partnering with institutions and like-minded organizations, Ripple Farms looks to influence the industry in a positive way.
For more information, visit http://ripplefarms.ca/ .
About Startup Canada Startup Canada is the national rallying community and voice for Canada’s 2.3 million entrepreneurs. Since launching in 2012, Startup Canada has grown to represent more than 200,000 entrepreneurs and 50 grassroots communities from coast to coast to coast.
Through digital programs and flagship events, Startup Canada is the network promoting, inspiring, educating, connecting and giving a voice to Canada’s entrepreneurs; supporting them to start, operate and scale businesses that build a better Canada for the world today and for future generations.
For more information, visit www.startupcan.ca.
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How To Become An Urban Farmer
Monica Rose / Photo by Elizabeth Lavin
How To Become An Urban Farmer
Plus, find out which Dallas neighborhoods will let you keep chickens.
BY D HOME PUBLISHED IN D HOME 100 IDEAS FOR LIVING A BEAUTIFUL LIFE IN DALLAS 2018
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JILL BROUSSARD AND ELIZABETH LAVIN
Monica Rose tends to her thoughtfully planted culinary gardens as a painter would contemplate every stroke—she nourishes, pinches, gathers produce, replants. At 28, she is quietly pioneering a farm-to-table movement from the backyards of many Dallas homeowners. In 2014, she launched Edible Landscapes Dallasafter repeated requests to cultivate personal, “menu-specific” gardens. She now has the incredible challenge of designing, installing, and maintaining nearly 100 bespoke gardens for homeowners in Highland Park, Addison, Plano, Arlington, and Dallas and also offers landscape, floral, and interior plant design services.
Chickens101
Dannye Butler’s Dallas backyard is home to an impressive coop with eight chickens. For others interested in keeping an at-home coop, she recommends feeding them chicken scratch and feed, as well as oyster shells, grits, fresh fruit, and fresh vegetables. (Watermelon, blueberries, corn on the cob, wheatgrass, and sprouts are just a few favorites.) But what type should you keep? Fellow enthusiast Marin Fiske recommends chickens that can handle the heat, like Red Stars, Easter Eggers, and Leghorns. In the summer, give them “chicken-aid” (an electrolyte mix similar to Gatorade). In the winter, warm oatmeal will do. Don’t forget the dust baths.
Bees101
Local beekeeper Miriana Andreeva researched through blogs, Facebook pages, and local educational classes before getting bees. She keeps stevia, salvia, peonies, roses, herbs, and holly in her backyard for them to feed on. “There’s a plethora of options for them to forage freely,” she says. If you plan to follow suit, open the hive every eight weeks to check on the bees, but monitor weather conditions, humidity, blooming plants, and “traffic patterns” daily. But the biggest part of beekeeping is education. Join a group and take classes at the Trinity Valley Beekeepers Association or the Texas Honeybee Guild. “BeeGirl” Christi Baughman teaches classes in Seagoville, as does Round Rock Honey in Rowlett.
Decoding: Can you keep chickens in your neighborhood?
Highland Park
If you live in HP, best to keep your creatures elsewhere—no bees or chickens allowed.
Dallas
Within Dallas city limits, you can keep pigs, chickens, turkeys, cows, sheep, goats, and horses at your residence. See city code for exact regulations on amount of space required.
University Park
Like its neighbor, bees and chickens aren’t allowed within UP city limits.
Urban Agriculture Could Transform Baltimore’s Blighted Neighborhoods
Urban Agriculture Could Transform Baltimore’s Blighted Neighborhoods
Linked by Michael Levenston
City-Hydro, an urban farm that grows microgreens for local restaurants, is piloting an onsite growing program for restaurants. (Kenneth K. Lam)
Today, there are more than 100 community and school gardens in Baltimore, as well as more than 20 urban farms and several organizations working to support urban producers.
By Brent Flickinger
Baltimore Sun
May 30, 2018
Excerpt:
Successful examples abound. The Black Church Food Security Network supports growing food on church-owned properties. Another local example is the highly successful “hoop house” greenhouse project at Civic Works in Clifton Park, now operating for eight years. Such hoop houses are popular all over the world; in England, 90 percent of strawberries are grown in these, and use of toxic pesticides and herbicides is avoided. Further, the recent outbreak of E. Coli in lettuce grown in Arizona ought to provide further motivation to get fresh, clean, local food.
Neighborhood-based agriculture builds community spirit and self-confidence as people work together in positive relationships to do the work of farming. In addition, worker co-ops and entrepreneurship lead to more money circulating in the neighborhoods and, for some, healthier eating and less dependence on a job elsewhere.
UA Magazine no. 34 – Measuring Impact
UA Magazine no. 34 – Measuring Impact
Linked by Michael Levenston
Assessment of the urban or city region food system is an important basis for improved and evidence-based policy-making and planning for more sustainable and resilient food systems.
RUAF
May 2018
In the past year, we have seen the development of various assessment and indicator frameworks to help cities to map the current status and performance of their city region food system. With this magazine, we like to explore how such assessment frameworks have concretely supported planning and policy, and have enabled cities to measure and monitor changes in relation to food strategies and action plans.
Opinion UA Magazine
Editorial UA Magazine
Assessing City Region Food Systems
City Region Food System Assessment and Planning
The NADHALI Approach for Assessing and Planning City-driven Food Systems: When rapidity meets complex realities
Involving Citizen Experts in Sustainability Assessment of the City Region Food System
Improving Urban Nutrition in Africa and Asia Through Policy Change
Assessing Food System Resilience
Building Resilient Food Systems for Urban Food Security. Examples from Baltimore City, Maryland
Assessing the Capacity and Resilience of Melbourne’s Foodbowl: The Foodprint Melbourne project
Assessing the Impact of Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events on the Food System in the City of Toronto
The Inclusion of Food in Quito’s Resilience Strategy
Vulnerability and Resilience of the Colombo Urban Food System to Extreme Weather
Resilience of Urban Food Supply in West Africa
Food System Data and Indicators
A City Region Food System Indicator Framework – A new resource for cities
New York City Food Indicators: Sharing lessons for the next decade
Good Scholarship on Urban Agriculture and Food Systems
Measuring Progress in Sustainable Food Cities: A Toolbox for Action
How Ede Municipality Developed a Tool to Monitor Improvement of the Local Food System
Communicating Goals and Impacts of Urban Food Sharing
Measuring Urban Agriculture for Sound Policy in a North American City
Resources UA Magazine 34
Backpage
Read the complete magazine here.
Shepherding Vegetables From Roof to Restaurant
Shepherding Vegetables From Roof to Restaurant
Liz Dowd, 33, of Brooklyn, is a farm manager for Brooklyn Grange.CreditRick Loomis for The New York Times
By Perry Garfinkel
- June 1, 2018
Liz Dowd, 33, a rooftop farmer, is a manager for Brooklyn Grange Farm in New York.
What’s your farm like, and where is it?
We grow produce on the roofs of two buildings in New York City, one atop Building 3 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the other in Long Island City in Queens.
My workspace on top of the Standard Motor Products Building on Northern Boulevard in Long Island City has a 360-degree bird’s-eye view of all five city boroughs. You can’t say that about the farms where I grew up outside Burlington, Vermont.
Tilling the soil at the Grange’s site in Long Island City, Queens. The rooftop farm’s plant beds are just 10 to 12 inches deep. Credit Rick Loomis for The New York Times
What’s different about farming on city roofs?
We use a lightweight soil specifically made for rooftop farming — ours is called Rooflite — which retains water and drains well. We have more than a million pounds of the soil lifted to the top of our roofs.
Our beds are only 10 to 12 inches deep, which means we plant more intensely, getting more plants in one bed. With shallower soil, it also means we need to use different tools and get more creative with things like trellising tomatoes.
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How did you learn this farming technique?
I kept a strawberry patch with my mom as a kid at home in rural Essex, Vermont. I moved to New York City in 2003 to study photography but then became homesick for dirt.
Living in Brooklyn, I turned a large backyard into a garden. Then I took intensive classes for seven months in urban farming at the Youth Farm in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and eventually became a manager there. In 2016 I saw an opening at Brooklyn Grange and jumped at the chance.
How many types of vegetables and fruits do you grow?
On a total of 2.5 acres between our two farms, we have about 50 different crops — tomatoes, peppers, arugula, mustards, green beans, eggplant, cucumber, strawberry, plus several kinds of herbs. We grow about 50,000 pounds of organically cultivated produce each year.
The Queen's farm is on the roof of the Standard Motor Products building, which was built in 1919.Credit Rick Loomis for The New York Times
Aside from selling to restaurants, members of Community Supported Agriculture groups and directly to the public via weekly farm stands, what else does the Brooklyn Grange do?
We do guided tours and host workshops. We have youth programming in collaboration with an organization called City Growers. With the Queens-based Refugee and Immigrant Fund’s Urban Farm Recovery Project, we’ve trained refugees from Africa, Asia, and Central America, who get work experience and build their résumés, as well as engage in therapeutic horticultural activities.
We host a multi-course vegetarian feast called Veggiepalooza, an annual tomato dinner and what we call Butcher Paper Dinners in Long Island City. We also host beekeeping training programs. We even have yoga classes on the roof amid the garden beds.
Do you have direct contact with chefs?
I do. It’s very rewarding to find out what they want. For instance, we can grow tiny purple edible flowers to top their dishes if that’s what they want.
I have a very close relationship with Balthazar, on Manhattan’s lower West Side, where I have worked as a waitress for more than 10 years and still serve on Saturday nights. What a pleasure to see the fruits of my daytime labor cooked so well, and watch happy well-fed faces. Sometimes I get to be the delivery person at both ends of that produce’s journey — farmer to table.
Correction: June 1, 2018
An earlier version of this article misstated the title used by certain groups that buy produce from Brooklyn Grange Farm. They are Community Supported Agriculture groups, not Community Service Associations.
A version of this article appears in print on June 2, 2018, on Page BU2 of the New York edition with the headline: Garden Beds With a Skyline View. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
NYCHA Residents Cultivate Urban Farms
NYCHA Residents Cultivate Urban Farms
By: ANTWAN LEWIS
- MAY 23 2018
NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Farms in New York City are pretty common. But when the farm is in the middle of an NYCHA housing complex, now that is uncommon. The urban farm at the Howard Houses in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn is one of six citywide that are part of an NYCHA program called Building Healthy Communities.
Its primary goal is to help underserved communities get better access to healthy organic foods and learn more about the impact it has on healthier eating habits. Manning the farms are NYCHA residents who are trained by agriculture experts.
"We have actual farmers in-house that are training them, but we have our local organizations that are managing our farms with to train them in the field," program director Jennifer Tirado said.
"I never knew that people that grew up in this type of environment would ever think about growing in our area and the way we live," trainee Shanique Green. "It's different"
Whether it is beets or collards or parsley, the housing residents determine what crops are planted in their complex. And once the fruits and vegetables are grown, the tenants can come and get some just like any farmers market. It costs them just scraps—literally.
"So imagine a banana peel, an orange peel," Tirado said. "They provide us with organic food scraps, and it doesn't have to be organic, just scraps period, and we give them produce."
NYCHA's urban farms operate for 10 months beginning each May. And at the end of that cycle, the other trainees transition from core members into the workforce, as the program helps them find jobs in a horticulture-related field where they proudly show off their green thumbs.
"So it's nice to learn about carrots and how they're a root crop so you can't take them out, once you take them out the ground that's it, you cannot grow them anymore," trainee Lisa Kelly said. "You have to wait until they're in season again. So that's something that I like, yes."
Vertical Garden Towers Can Grow Plants Three Times Faster Than Normal
Vertical Garden Towers Can Grow Plants Three Times Faster Than Normal
How a business in the Bronx is trying to take urban gardening mainstream.
on June 1, 2018
In a humid greenhouse on a rooftop in the Bronx, Electra Jarvis is showing off her oasis cubes. Tucked away from direct sunlight, a cabinet full of small, spongey squares are arranged neatly, each one the home to a sprouting seedling. In a few months, the seedlings will become lettuce, bok choy, and mustard greens. For now, they are tiny stems, fed by an automated system of nutrient-rich water and regulated light.
“I don’t know if you’ve heard of biomimicry, but you want to replicate what nature is doing,” says Jarvis as she inspects the seedlings.
Biomimicry — and the astounding technology that facilitates it — is how Jarvis’ business, Green Food Solutions, intends to break open New York City’s urban gardening, in the process disrupting an agricultural system that she’s convinced is wasteful and bad for the planet.
Founded in 2017 while Jarvis was completing an entrepreneurship program at Kimbal Musk’s urban farming initiative Square Roots, the company has grown from a shipping container grow-op on Square Roots’ Brooklyn compound to the skyline greenhouse we’re standing in now.
While Jarvis tends to the oasis cubes and several rows of leafy greens, her company is actually growing a whole other product, one which does not require having a green thumb and could become a future fixture in homes across the planet.
Electra Jarvis of Green Food Solutions.
We’ve All Heard of Farm to Table, but What About Brownstone to Table?
In another corner of the greenhouse, Jarvis shows me a white contraption that looks entirely sci-fi. It’s called a tower garden; and it seems like it would be more at home on a spaceship than in a living room, although that’s exactly where it’s supposed to go. Sitting behind several rows of greenhouse-grown herbs and vegetables, the vertical gardens are the focal point of Green Foods’ business.
Each glowing tower can grow up to 28 different plants — outfitting the families that purchase it with salad supplies for weeks at a time. The towers also grow things fast because they mix nutrients and “right amount of spectrum” in LED lights, Jarvis says.
“It’s really tech innovative to the point where we can grow a plant three times faster than you would outdoors.”
Jarvis’ business partner Mary Wetherhill, who’s also with us on this greenhouse tour, makes the case for a future where tower gardens are as common as the kitchen sink. “That’s our dream for every single building in New York,” she says. “Whether it’s affordable housing, like you see around us, to luxury buildings.”
Tower gardens as common as a kitchen sink?
“That’s our dream for every single building in New York.”
The Hydroponic Solution
Hydroponics — growing plants by placing the roots directly in liquid nutrients instead of soil — is nothing new. The technology has been used by basement enthusiasts interested in growing tomatoes — or other plants — for half a century. What has changed over the last 50 years is the world of food production, making the hydroponic approach look increasingly tasty. “The way in which we’re feeding the world just isn’t working anymore,” says Wetherill.
The agricultural sector consumes about 70 percent of the planet’s accessible freshwater, according to the WWF. In the U.S. alone, agriculture accounts for 80 percent of the nation’s water use. Between the effects of climate change and the average American’s 80-100 gallon thirst for water, it’s a resource that becoming more precious with time. The UN predicts that as early as 2025, 1,800 million people will live in regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be reaching “stress” water conditions (between 132,000 and 264,000 gallons per year, per person).
The way we farm will have to change significantly. “As the largest water user globally and a major source of water pollution, agriculture will play a key role in tackling the looming water crisis,” says a 2016 report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.
Tower gardens use 90 percent less water and 90 percent less land space than industrial crops, Jarvis and Wetherill tell me. The towers are technically aeroponic; plants hang vertically without soil, while a nutrient-rich water solution added at the base sends water to the top via a pump system. Water is subsequently recycled over and over, and plants manage to grow three to four times faster than traditional crops because of extra oxygen.
Jarvis puts her mission this way:
“It’s not going to completely replace traditional agriculture. It’s just going to be a really awesome supplement that’s really tech innovative.”
Wetherill has her own tower at home. It grows swiss chard, bok chop, arugula, lettuce, and basil. She says that with water flow and light completely automated, the tower gardens are essentially idiot proof. “The most laborious aspect of it is remembering to fill your reservoir. So that’s it. And it’s every two weeks,” she says.
The City That Always Eats
In a city like New York, there are spatial advantages to vertical gardens, too. The larger the city, the smaller the affordable space. A vertical farm poses an urban gardening solution to anyone lacking a backyard or a roof.
If you’ve got a roof, that works too. Green Foods Solutions has landed a contract with a new residential building in Brooklyn to host 79 towers on its roof. Jarvis and Wetherhill will be on hand to oversee the install and then assist with growing. “Almost like landscaping for your farm,” Jarvis says.
In New York, space is at a premium.
As I leave, Jarvis hands me a bag of produce to take home. Grown from her oasis cubes in the greenhouse, it’s the same kind of mixed greens that the tower gardens can grow, using similar tech. “This mix is a few weeks old,” she says, inspecting it.
I mention that from my perspective, the green leaves in the clear, ziplock bag look practically new. Jarvis explains that since it’s grown right here, the shelf life is substantially longer than the grocery store variety.
What’s more, the taste is actually more potent. “The thing is, on one level it’s logical,” she says. “You freshly harvest something, it’s going to taste fresher, right? Flavor is something that actually gets depleted in the transportation of food as well.”
“When you get to the physiological level of what is flavor, where does it come from inside of the plant? You just have more of it when you have it fresher,” she says.
It’s a pretty simple recipe.
A tower garden system from Green Foods Solutions costs about $543 a year to run.
Farming In The City: DC’s Urban Agriculture Movement
Photo: Amber Breitenberg
Farming In The City: DC’s Urban Agriculture Movement
June 2, 2018/in Featured, Lifestyle /by Amanda Weisbrod
Amidst the District’s hustle and bustle, green paradises breathe fresh air and deliciously colorful life into the otherwise grey and concrete landscape. For some, passion for urban farming comes from a deep love of an old hobby. For others, the desire to provide jobs and fresh produce to their community is the true driving force. Either way, DC’s urban farming scene is growing – its tendrils reaching into notable bars and restaurants all over the city.
Urban farming, otherwise known as urban agriculture, is exactly what it sounds like: the process of growing food in a city or heavily populated area. Despite difficulties such as finding enough space and the right equipment to grow and harvest plants, several urban farming organizations in DC have found unexpected spots to thrive in the city.
While on a run one day in 2014, former Peace Corps volunteer Mary Ackley was contemplating the best locations to host her new project, Little Wild Things Farm. She drew inspiration from bin-farming techniques, which use small plots of land as efficiently as possible. But after searching high and low in the heart of the District, she couldn’t find adequate green space anywhere. That’s when she jogged past the Carmelite Friars Monastery in Northeast DC and realized that institutions often had large plots of land, so she sent them an email.
“At first, they were hesitant but we worked out an agreement, and years later, we still have a wonderful partnership with them,” Ackley says. “We maintain the land, they get produce from us every week, and we donate to a local homeless shelter on their behalf. Everybody wins.”
Later, Ackley found another home for Little Wild Things in the basement of The Pub & The People, an award-winning neighborhood bar. Because The Pub already had plans to build a second bar in their basement in the future, they thought it would be great to have a farm downstairs in the meantime. Little did they know that this unexpected partnership would immensely help both businesses.
When she was getting started, Ackley grew traditional vegetables but decided to switch to edible flowers and microgreens because they mature faster, allowing her to experiment more with varieties and growing techniques. Microgreens are sprouts of vegetables, herbs and leafy greens that pack an even bigger punch of nutrients and vitamins compared to their full-grown selves.
Many gourmet dishes are incomplete without fresh microgreens, so some of the best chefs in the city flock to Little Wild Things to get their fix. To Nick Bernel, one of The Pub’s four co-owners, this was one of the coolest parts of having a “zen garden” in their basement.
“[Little Wild Things] sells to the best restaurants in the whole city, so there were constantly chefs and sous chefs in our bar,” says Bernel, who adds this was great exposure for their business, which opened in 2015.
Eric Milton, sous chef at popular Mediterranean eatery Zaytinya, is one of many high-profile customers who goes to Little Wild Things for all of their microgreen needs.
“They are passionate about their product and that translates into their excellent farmer-to-chef relationship,” says Milton, who has been working with Little Wild Things for a year and a half. “They have a great micro fennel that goes well with white fish dishes, and their micro parsley and celery give fresh vegetable dishes a nice pop. The quality of their product is superb, their product is consistent and they are just super easy to work with.”
While The Pub grew in popularity, Little Wild Things grew in size as its proximity to its clients led to higher demand. In October 2017, Little Wild Things grew too large for the space and Ackley decided her time at The Pub was over.
“It was a bittersweet move because we loved The Pub and our partnership, but we just needed more space,” Ackley says. “It was a great way for us to learn about urban farming and how to be space intensive because we really perfected how to be efficient with our time.”
Little Wild Things is moving to a custom-built space in Ivy City this fall, where it will have all the space it needs to grow over 40 varieties of microgreens and over 20 kinds of edible flowers.
“We are really excited to have more events and pop-ups, and give tours of our new space,” Ackley says. “It’s great to be able to set our roots down in a neighborhood and build our community even further.”
Ackley’s right-hand woman, “work wife” and director of operations Chelsea Barker says that she finds urban farming to be a fulfilling and challenging line of work and hopes others will follow suit.
“The challenge that we are most interested in solving is the idea that farming is an exciting and desirable profession for people who like problem-solving, hard work, relationship building and working with your hands,” says Barker, who joined Ackley in 2016. “It really can be a win-win when urban farming is a texture of urban life.”
A similar philosophy and approach to urban farming is found at Cultivate the City, another for-profit commercial farm working to promote urban agriculture by creating more jobs and keeping profit within the neighborhood. Cultivate the City founder and CEO Niraj Ray found his love of gardening while living in Florida, then brought his hobby back to DC at his job with the EPA where he created a rooftop garden. He eventually decided to quit his day job to pursue his true passion, and so far, it’s been working out great.
In 2016, Cultivate the City installed an expansive rooftop garden at Nationals Park, where they grow produce and leafy greens for food services and dining in the Delta Club. Along with produce the chefs specifically ask for like squash, tomatoes and herbs, Ray likes to mix it up and surprise them with unique produce every season.
Cultivate the City also has a rooftop garden location on H Street where they grow a variety of unique crops indigenous to other regions for both restaurants and members of the public. For Pansaari, an Indian restaurant in Dupont Circle, Ray grows curry leaf and bitter melon. For his CSA (community-supported agriculture program), he sends a variety of fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs every week for 30 weeks to subscribers. And for fun, Ray likes to push the limit of what he can grow in the northeastern United States. This season, he’s excited to announce a healthy crop of passion fruit, which is native to southern Brazil.
“I try to grow unique things that you can’t buy at the grocery store, so we’re able to provide a commodity through what we’re growing,” he says. “It’s unique produce that you can’t find anywhere else, and it has a good story behind it.”
Along with tending to their own rooftop gardens, Cultivate the City offers plant management and garden build contracts for restaurants. At Calabash Tea & Tonic in Shaw, Cultivate the City maintains a garden full of basil, lemongrass, lavender, rosemary and a variety of mints used in tea blends.
When Calabash opens its new storefront in Brookland this summer, it will have an exterior designed by Cultivate the City, featuring 20 planters built by students at IDEA Public Charter School, where Ray teaches a senior seminar and manages a garden club. He notes that one of Cultivate the City’s greatest missions is to work with students and other nonprofit organizations to foster a passion for urban agriculture in the next generation of farmers.
“We’re trying to promote urban agriculture and create more jobs and sustainability around it,” he says. “It’s great to teach people how to grow their own food, but we’re focusing on how they can create careers out of that by maintaining all of the green spaces that we’re creating.”
At Community Connections DC, the capital’s largest not-for-profit mental health agency, Cultivate the City provides horticulture therapy training to help youths with traumatic histories gain necessary career skills like team building and punctuality. Many of these students graduate from the program and find their first jobs with Cultivate the City at the urban farms located in the backyards of their group homes. Nearby restaurants buy produce from these group home farms, closing the loop and keeping money within the neighborhood.
“Not only is urban farming creating positive psychological and societal benefit and quantifiable economic return, but it’s had such unquantifiable environmental benefits as well,” he says. “You’re helping create wildlife quarters for the bees and monarch butterflies, you’re helping to promote more wildlife, and you’re mitigating storm water onsite.”
At Rooftop Roots, a nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the way people engage with their urban surroundings, environmental awareness and sustainability is a top priority. Founder Thomas Schneider says that based on its three-pillar model of sustainability including economical, societal and environmental considerations, Rooftop Roots works to create jobs, build sustainable gardens and increase the availability to fresh produce to those who might not have access.
“We try to create these spaces as an experience where people feel like they’re not only having a great garden, but they’re also giving back to the community,” Schneider says. “People are certainly taking a greater interest in their health and nutrition. I think growing food is a really powerful experience in terms of how people understand the connection between the life that they’re living and how small actions can play a big part in helping not only the environment but also the society that we live in.”
As organizations like Little Wild Things Farm, Cultivate the City and Rooftop Roots work to spread awareness on how people can use their urban and suburban landscapes to help the environment and their local communities, the urban agriculture movement is becoming more than just a trend – it’s transforming into a sustainable lifestyle.
Find microgreens from Little Wild Things Farm at the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market once a month, and sign up for any of these organization’s CSA programs at their websites below.
Cultivate the City: www.cultivatethecity.com
Little Wild Things: www.littlewildthingsfarm.com
Rooftop Roots: www.rooftoproots.org
Amanda is currently a senior at Ohio University, and will graduate with a bachelor's degree in journalism, news and information in December 2018. She has written for multiple professional publications including Cincinnati Magazine, CityBeat and Athens Messenger. Amanda loves to play the saxophone, watch cult classic movies, and hang out with her handsome cat, Darko.
Categories: Featured, Lifestyle
Tags: DC, Eco-Friendly, Featured, Green, Lifestyle, Urban Farming
Kennett Officials Look At Possibility Of Expanding Role Of Indoor Farming
Kennett Officials Look At Possibility Of Expanding Role Of Indoor Farming
MATT FREEMAN - DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA - Eric W. Stein, president of the Media-based Barisoft Consulting Group, tells the Kennett Township Board of Supervisors about his study on the feasibility of establishing a center to promote indoor agriculture in the area.
By Matt Freeman, Digital First Media
POSTED: 06/07/18
Kennett Township >> The Southern Chester County region has officially been found to be an ideal location for a center of excellence for indoor agriculture.
“Indoor agriculture,” also known as an indoor farming and vertical agriculture, is simply the large-scale growing of food plants indoors.
This is a burgeoning trend around the world, but it’s a long-familiar thing to area residents. Every time you drive past a mushroom house, you’re seeing a place where indoor farming happens.
Michael Guttman, director of Kennett Township’s the office of sustainable development, noticed this and wondered if the infrastructure and knowledge the mushroom industry had to offer could be used to make the region a center of indoor farming for a wider variety of crops.
Part of the ongoing effort to explore that idea was the presentation at Wednesday night’s meeting of the Kennett Township Board of Supervisors of a study done by Eric W. Stein, president of the Media-based Barisoft Consulting Group, that looked into the feasibility of establishing a center of excellence (COE) in the area.
As Stein explained them, centers of excellence exist in many industries and play many roles. They provide typically provide leadership and advocacy for the industry, identify best practices, offer services, do applied research, workforce training, and keep track of information in the field.
The township voted a year ago to contribute $13,383 to the cost of the feasibility study, and New Garden Township and the borough of Kennett Square contributed to it as well, in the end paying a total of about $18,000.
Stein said the study involved interviewing stakeholders, reviewing more than 60 survey responses, collecting data at indoor agriculture conference and meetings, and analyzing a wide range of other reports and studies.
According to Stein, broad trends in agriculture favor the development of indoor farming. Trends in population, water use, availability of usable land, costs to grow food and climate change all will contribute to price rises and scarcity, he said.
Traditional or “open-field” farming is reaching its production limits, according to Stein, and has drawbacks such as a release of pesticides and other pollutants into the environment.
Indoor farms have taken advantage of advances in lighting technology, environmental controls, robotics and other factors. The food grown can be pesticide-free, organic, free of the disruptions of climate change, droughts, and other problems with outdoor farming. The farms can be located closer to population centers, reducing transportation costs, and premium quality can raise profits to where indoor farmed produce can compete with traditional organics.
Stein said the study showed Kennett Township was “one of the best places to to put the center of excellence.” There’s a 100-year-old industry here based on it, local and state governments are supportive, numerous colleges and universities offer expertise.
Once established, Stein said, a COE could serve as an international hub for indoor agricultural training, research and development, investment, and advocacy. It could also serve as a knowledge base for the industry along with colleges and universities in the area.
A COE could promote economic development generally in the region, and in particular, could help mushroom growers diversify into other areas.
Stein said if local officials wanted to organize a COE for indoor farming in the region, the next steps would be to develop a communications plan about it, work on the design and implementation, attract supporters, and begin developing related businesses.
Is the Future of Farming Vertical?
Is the Future of Farming Vertical?
April 3, 2018
Jason ClayExecutive Director, the Markets Institute at the World Wildlife Fund
Vertical growing towers at AeroFarms in Newark, N.J., June 2017. AeroFarms uses LED lighting and aeroponics to produce 1,000 tons of fresh produce every year for the New York metropolitan area. Source: ©AeroFarms
A century ago, fresh produce had no choice but to be local and seasonal, but technology changed all of that. Innovations in refrigeration and transportation allowed food production to concentrate in regions that could produce a wider variety of crops all year round. Today, the U.S. has a third as many farms and three times as many people as it did a century ago.
Our food is coming from fewer places but feeding more people, most of whom live in cities. Three states—California, Arizona, and Florida—produce more than three-quarters of the nation’s vegetables, measured by value. California alone produces 400 different commodities, including one-third of all U.S. fresh fruits and vegetables and two-thirds of all the nuts.
The Pressure of Climate Change
Once again, America is having to rethink where and how it produces its food. In the 21st century, the U.S. food system is likely to change even more than it did in the past century. Because of climate change, major production areas such as California will experience extremes in temperature and precipitation, generally growing hotter and drier—and all at a pace that appears to be happening sooner than predicted.
The U.S. food system needs to diversify production. But instead of expanding into grasslands or areas already used for other crops, we should think about growing food at scale in big cities. Would our food system benefit from “vertical farms”? And if so, can we seize an opportunity to use existing, stranded assets?
Are Vertical Farms the Answer?
Vertical farms are usually indoor operations with stacked or wall-like planters that leverage networked technology to monitor and nourish plants precisely, often without the use of soil.
AeroFarms is one notable vertical farm, headquartered in a former steel mill in Newark, New Jersey. Though its flagship farm was only seeded in September 2016, it reports yielding up to 1,000 tons of greens per acre in a year. Plenty Inc. has vertical farms just outside of San Francisco and Seattle and uses 20-foot-high walls, from which the company reports significantly higher yields and less water use than conventional agriculture. With the costs of production coming down, it claims to offer “Whole Foods quality at Walmart prices.”
Taking Advantage of Stranded Assets
At least 100 vertical food production startups are located in U.S. cities, but few take advantage of stranded assets, such as old thermal power plants.
Thermal power plants have qualities that make them inherently amenable to vertical farming. They consume about 45 to 50 percent of all the water used to cool plants during power generation. Disposing of the hot water is both a nuisance and a cost. Heat, water, energy and captured slipstream emissions are all byproducts of energy generation and could be available for producing food.
By creating vertical, urban food production, we can give consumers what they want: local food that’s produced transparently and sustainably.
Reusing this heat, water and energy can create new income streams for power plants and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Thermal power plants are often located near hubs of the U.S. Postal Service. Could the post office begin to distribute fresh produce locally?
There are social advantages, too. In most urban areas, thermal power plants are surrounded by low-value brownfields that have little or no productive use. Many have had to be been taken over by cities for back taxes, and they are usually in “food deserts”—poor neighborhoods with little to no access to grocery stores with fresh produce. These areas could benefit from vertical farms and fresh produce.
Cutting Down on Waste
While there’s a perception that local food has a smaller carbon footprint because it travels shorter distances from farm to table, research shows that transportation comprises a small portion of food’s greenhouse gas emissions. That said, moving food production closer to consumers would still deliver environmental benefits by reducing waste.
About a third of the food that’s produced around the world is wasted. Estimates are slightly higher in the U.S., where as much as half of the fruits and vegetables grown in the U.S. are not eaten.
They are lost or wasted in the field, in transit, in supermarkets, in food service, and in the home—a waste not only of food but also of the land, water, energy, greenhouse gases, fertilizer, soil and other resources associated with producing it. If produce could be grown closer to where it’s consumed, it could shorten the time between harvest and sale by two or three weeks, extend the life in the home, and reduce waste significantly.
Narrowing the Gap between Farm and Table …
Finally, vertical farming can create business opportunities. The centralization and specialization of food production has put considerable distance between consumers and their food, both figuratively and literally. By creating vertical, urban food production, we can narrow that gap and give more consumers what they want: local food that’s produced more transparently and sustainably, that is, with less waste and fewer impacts.
… But More Research Is Needed
How much energy is needed to grow food without the sun or soil? How much will it cost? How much better is vertical farming in terms of net greenhouse gas emissions for food consumed? If urban, vertical farming takes the risks—precipitation, severe storms, heat and cold—out of farming, will large companies dominate the food system even more than they do today? Can communities be engaged to ensure a more equitable and inclusive food system? And, all these questions aside, what are the most likely unintended consequences? The sooner we answer these questions, the sooner we can act.
Many parties have vested interests in the answers: Power companies can benefit from added value; retailers can benefit from shorter supply chains and reduced waste; government agencies can improve local food systems; communities can eliminate their food deserts; tech companies can drive research and development; and academics and research institutions can build capacity about new ways to grow our food.
Preserving Biodiversity
The biggest threat to protecting biodiversity and critical ecosystem functions is where and how we produce food. As long as we depend on soil to produce food, we will require more and more land and greater surpluses to feed everyone. Producing food in cities could be part of the solution by producing more with less which would relieve pressure on the natural resource base.
Climate Change Vertical Farming
Jason Clay
Executive Director, the Markets Institute at the World Wildlife Fund@JasonWClay
Jason Clay is executive director of the Markets Institute at WWF. He is a member of DuPont’s Advisory Committee on Agricultural Innovation & Productivity and is also a member of the Chicago Council’s Global Agricultural Development Initiative’s Advisory Group. His bi-monthly column, The Future of Food, explores current issues and future trends affecting global food systems. Mr. Clay has run a family farm, taught at Harvard and Yale, worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and spent more than 25 years working with human rights and environmental organizations before joining WWF in 1993 as a Senior Fellow.
CO2 Tips In Growing Microgreens
CO2 Tips In Growing Microgreens
June 15, 2018
Vertical Farming and Microgreens are becoming popular, especially in urban areas. What we want to focus on today is having the right CO2 for your microgreens to yield the best product.
CO2 sensors are an essential equipment for tracking and controlling conditions in vertical farming. Sensors may be used to automate control systems. Therefore, continually monitoring and maintaining CO2 levels, offering ideal plant growth conditions without the need for human involvement. Let's face it, we need to sleep some of the times.
The most common solutions for monitoring indoor CO2 levels are non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) CO2 sensors. In an NDIR CO2 sensor, infrared light is conveyed through a tube of air to an infrared detector. The detector recognizes the light that was not absorbed by the CO2 present in the tube, and the concentration of atmospheric CO2 is measured.
The NDIR CO2 sensors are mainly popular as they deliver accurate CO2 measurements which are comparatively inexpensive, easy to operate, and easy for non-experts to set up.
The new GasBoxNG from Edinburgh Sensors is a ready-to-use NDIR CO2 sensor that is perfect for vertical farming applications. It employs a pseudo dual beam NDIR measurement system to provide better stability and reduced long-term drift, with least optical complexity. Therefore, the GasBoxNG provides fast and reliable CO2 measurements. The useful CO2 data provided by the GasBoxNG can be transferred to atmospheric control systems using an optional RS232 communication interface.
We hope this provided some information to help you on your road to success.
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Tags: microgreens CO2 growing microgreens microgreens grower
Urban Agriculture Startup Gotham Greens Closes $29 Million Round of Funding
Urban Agriculture Startup Gotham Greens Closes $29 Million Round of Funding
Big Data and the Future of Food
SENSEI’s Daniel Gruneberg explains the future of agriculture.
THIS CEO SAYS THAT DATA AND A.I. ARE AT THE CENTER OF THE MODERN BUSINESS
By BETH KOWITT
June 20, 2018
Gotham Greens Is Growing.
The Brooklyn-based urban agriculture startup has closed a $29 million Series C financing round, bringing its total equity funding to $45 million.
The round was comprised of existing backers, including the Silverman Group. “Our same investors have invested in every round,” Gotham Greens co-founder and CEO Viraj Puri told Fortune. “They’re sticking with the company. They like the profitability and the returns.”
In addition, the round included what the company called a “significant” new investment from Creadev, a global investment company funded by the Mulliez family—one of the wealthiest families in France.
The Brooklyn-based startup, which grows produce hydroponically in climate-controlled greenhouses, will use the funds to build out new greenhouse facilities, invest in R&D, and expand distribution and its team.
Gotham currently operates four greenhouses that make up 170,000 square feet of space in New York and Chicago. It said it has another 500,000 square feet under development across five U.S. states, including new facilities in Chicago and Baltimore that it announced earlier this year.
“Overall our strategy is to build greenhouses across the U.S,” Puri says. “The goal is to be a national company within a couple of years and have a whole network across the country.”
The company, which sells into retailers like Whole Foods under its own brand, selects greenhouse locations close to market. For example, its Chicago facility serves the upper Midwest. Gotham reuses and rebuilds post-industrial sites; take the case of Baltimore, where its greenhouse will be located in the old Bethlehem Steel plant. “We want to be near the market,” Puri says, “and have a mission of being urban farmers.”
Gotham is one of several indoor farming startups that is trying to remake the face of agriculture by improving yields and reducing the use of resources needed in food production. The majority of Gotham’s competitors are vertical farms that use artificial lights in warehouses, but Gotham’s greenhouses use natural sunlight. “The technology is robust,” Puri quips. “The sun has been here for a long time.”
Gotham says it yields up to 30 times more crops per acre than conventional agriculture. Advocates of vertical farms, which stress their use of artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning, say they can get up to 100 times more. The costs, however, are higher.
Puri says that there is already a lot of sophisticated data used in its greenhouses, but it’s not something its industry markets or showcases. “We don’t position ourselves as a big data company,” he says. “We’re saying, we’re farmers. It’s a different approach a little bit.”