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Joburg Food Expo Bring Opportunities To Urban Farmers
It is estimated that 805 million people worldwide live with chronic hunger.
It is estimated that 805 million people worldwide live with chronic hunger.
November 1, 2018
MMC for Health and Social Development, Dr Mpho Phalatse. Photo: Twitter.
With the purpose of decreasing unemployment and poverty, the City of Johannesburg has launched Joburg Food Expo for urban farmers.
The Food Expo is an initiative of the City’s Food Resilience Unit to create a platform for emerging farmers to sell their products directly to clients.
The expo was hosted in conjunction with the United Nations World Food Month celebrations. According to MMC for Health and Social Development, Dr Mpho Phalatse, it is estimated that 805 million people worldwide live with chronic hunger, with almost five million children under the age of five dying from malnutrition-related causes every day.
The event serves as a platform to share ideas and exchange best practices on how to make use of the land they own to be sustainable farmers.
The expo, which was packed to capacity, provided an opportunity to exhibitors, private companies, government departments, and institutions of higher learning and industry suppliers to showcase their offerings.
Phalatse said the expo created a platform for all role-players to showcase their work and interact with one another to achieve the one objective of increasing food production and supply of fresh produce.
She said the event indicates that Johannesburg as a region is extensively involved in urban agriculture as a means to counter sluggish economic growth, bolster employment and make visible progress in eradicating hunger.
The City of Johannesburg’s Social Development department has initiated programmes such as communal gardens, rooftop gardens, aquaphonic projects, food empowerment zones and agri-resource centres with the intention to promote sustainable food production practices.
“It is important that we continue to seek solutions that will help us eradicate poverty among our communities. The statistics of those who go to bed hungry remains a concern. As the City of Joburg we have a dedicated Food Resilience Unit that assists our most indigent communities to grow their own food. The more people we empower to grow their own food in their small back yards and in communal land, we will be able to feed more people and contribute to the economy of the City,” said Phalatse.
Joburg Market CEO, Ayanda Kenana, told those in attendance that they need to organise themselves and begin to sell their produce beyond their communities through the Joburg Market. He shared statistics provided by Joburg Market which revealed an imbalance in the agriculture industry, indicating that Africans shared about 10 per cent of the agriculture sector.
“It is important that we work together to change the face of agriculture in this country and we can only achieve the required results if we understand and commit to what we are doing. Joburg Market has the means to assist and build your capacity to grow your communal farms. Joburg Market trades across our neighbouring countries and its market reach is what you need to make a success of your urban farms,” said Kenana.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at roodepoortrecord@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
Can Cities Produce Enough Food To Feed Their Citizens?
By Dan Nosowitz | October 11, 2018
An urban rooftop garden. YuRi Photolife on Shutterstock
The areas in and around American cities may not scream “farming powerhouse.”
As cries for local food ring louder and louder, many have begun looking to flashy new urban farming missions: rooftop gardens, vertical farms inside abandoned factories or warehouses, that kind of thing. But a new study from the University of Minnesota finds that urban areas already produce a lot of food—the challenge is matching local producers with local consumers.
The study looked at “metropolitan statistical areas,” or MSAs, and compared both their production and their demands for milk, eggs, fruits, and vegetables. MSAs are a sort of confusing metric, but essentially they refer to a county with a population of at least 50,000, plus any surrounding areas that depend in large part or can be considered part of that urban county area. New York City, for example, includes both Newark and Jersey City as part of its MSA. Los Angeles includes Long Beach and Anaheim, and Miami includes Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
Food production in these areas is a lot more robust than you might think. Much of the country most associated with farming—the bread basket, for example—is not, primarily, growing crops for direct human consumption. Corn and soy are processed into animal feed or oil or various other products. Near cities, in places without the vast quantities of land required to make a living growing monocrop grain, farmers are more likely to produce eggs, milk, fruits, and vegetables.
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The study found that 20 percent of MSAs already produce enough milk and eggs to feed their individual populations. For fruits and vegetables, that number drops to 10 percent, which is still pretty significant, considering that the vast, vast majority of the American population lives within an MSA.
Those findings vary, of course, by location. Upstate New York, the Philadelphia area, and parts of Wisconsin and Michigan are capable of being fully self-sufficient in dairy. South Florida is already self-sufficient in oranges, and the Seattle area is taken care of for apples.
The authors of the study hope that it can be used to more carefully measure what a community needs and what it has, or could easily have, and try to balance those supplies and demands. Understanding the food needs of a given area can help reduce transportation fees and pollution as well as encouraging local farmers to grow what their community really wants.
'The Next Evolution of Farming Has Already Begun'
By Austin Stankus - Wednesday, October 10, 2018
The world population continues to grow with ever-increasing urbanization predicted to reach 80 percent by 2050. The U.N. predicts that human population will reach nearly 10 billion by 2050. This increasing population is also growing richer — and hungrier.
To feed this population using traditional farming practices, much more land would need to be brought under cultivation. But, already much farmland around the world has been degraded from poor management practices, and lands remaining available for food production are decreasing from the effects of erosion, salt buildup and pollution.
As you read this today, tens of millions of children are going to bed hungry, with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimating the number of hungry in 2018 at 812 million or approximately one out of 9 people.
Something needs to change. Food production needs to get more efficient, more equitable and more environmentally minded. Moreover, food production should follow the population to the cities, or as Dickson Despommier, a forerunner of this movement, simply states: “Put the food where the people live.”
Indoor farming through controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) will be an important component towards establishing local food systems that can address this pending crisis in global food insecurity. CEA, simply put, is using smart, sustainable farming practices inside of high-tech greenhouses. This is nothing new, and these modern greenhouses are an established technology and can be found around the world. In fact, much of the lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in the EU come from CEA in the Netherlands and Spain.
These greenhouses have incredible benefits compared to traditional farming: They use less water because they are protected from the sun and wind, they use fewer pesticides because insects and disease can be kept outside, and there is less waste because production can be matched exactly to consumer demands.
If hydroponics or other soil-less practices are used, the farmer does not need to use tractors for tilling, plowing and reaping, so the oil bills and energy consumption are lower. In addition, the fertilizer usage is reduced, and all the fertilizer the farmer uses is consumed by the plants, thereby reducing nutrient-rich runoff that can pollute watersheds.
Known as eutrophication, this nutrient pollution is a huge problem for coastal communities in the Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Mexico and has impacted fisheries, recreational activities and livelihoods around the world.
However, CEA greenhouses can occupy a lot of space. So, the next logical evolution is stacking these modern greenhouses, one atop the other.
Vertical farming, as greenhouses stacking is called, has additional benefits. Reducing the footprint means that more food can be grown in a smaller area and therefore can be brought closer to the people eating that food. As populations move toward the cities, it makes sense for the food to follow.
Part of the vision of vertical farms is the reconnection of the producer and the consumer plus the restructuring of food value chains to become more transparent and responsive to the needs and wants of the people.
An added benefit of farming inside of skyscrapers is the option of having mixed-use buildings. When combined with a wholesale market, the skyscraper can not only produce the food but get it to the consumer faster. Less time in storage, less transportation and less handling means fresher produce and reduced need for postharvest treatments like irradiation and chemical fumigation.
There are still some daunting challenges as well as some encouraging recent developments.
Unleashing the innovative power of American small businesses has jump-started the transition to modern farming, and the public desire for local, healthy food is an economic engine driving the industry toward change. In fact, there are currently so many vertical farm startups that a shortage of qualified workers is now the main hurdle to accelerating the establishment of new indoor farms. On one hand this is a challenge to the industry, but on the other it presents an enormous opportunity for job creation in urban areas if an inclusive, enabling environment is codeveloped with the vertical farms to provide vocational training and career advancement prospects.
On a technical level, there is a significant energy demand needed for pumping water, maintaining good environmental conditions like temperature and humidity, and powering the grow lights to keep producing year-round. However, with smart buildings wired on intelligent platforms, the energy consumption can be monitored and controlled to maximize efficiency — and by tying into other green enterprises like photovoltaic and biogas generation, this energy demand is decreasing day by day. In fact, with the new innovations in LED lighting technology, the power demand has been reduced tenfold in the last few years.
The next evolution of farming has already begun, and big players are already involved. In fact, the National Grange wrote a letter to Congress with their support to public-private funding mechanisms to accelerate the modernization of agriculture, specifically highlighting the potential of vertical farming.
With this type of buy-in from large agribusinesses, national and international agricultural organizations, funded with innovative financial mechanisms, and driven by the innovative spirit and technological power only found in the U.S., vertical farming will feed tomorrow’s children with healthy, safe food; protect the environment while being resistant to environmental shocks; and spur economic growth in the process.
For a detailed look at one such startup, see the centerfold story on Skyscraper Farm.
• Austin Stankus, an integrated farming specialist, is chief science officer at Skyscraper Farm LLC.
Metropolitan Areas Are Becoming Significant Sources of Sustainable Produce
One-in-five cities in the United States produce enough eggs and milk to feed their residents; another one-in-ten could completely satisfy local demand for fruit and vegetables using what they grow within their metropolitan boundaries.
by Emma Bryce | Oct 12, 2018
One-in-five cities in the United States produce enough eggs and milk to feed their residents; another one-in-ten could completely satisfy local demand for fruit and vegetables using what they grow within their metropolitan boundaries. These findings, detailed in a new study, reveal that metropolitan areas are a much more significant source of local, sustainable produce than we might realise.
Through an analysis of food production and demand within the boundaries of 377 US metros, the researchers discovered that a surprisingly high proportion were already producing enough of four staple food products–eggs, dairy, vegetables, and fruits–to feed their citizens. In some cases this food provision may be going unrecognised: for instance, backyard gardens and urban farms may be providing unquantified amounts of food to local citizens. In other cases where food is farmed at larger scales on city outskirts, that produce may not actually be reaching local residents, because supply chains are often set up to export food further afield.
But, if these trade networks were formalised and reconfigured to feed local residents, based on current production a striking 21% of metropolitan areas would be self-sufficient for eggs and milk, 12% would supply their residents’ fruit needs, and 16% would be self-sufficient in vegetables, the study found.
Localising production is widely recognised as a way to make food more sustainable, because it reduces the environmental costs and greenhouse gases associated with producing and exporting produce. It could even make cities more climate-smart by using plant cover to reduce the heat-island effect and deflect flooding. Plus, it brings the added benefit of making cities more food secure.
These advantages have encouraged several US cities to commit to boosting local food production. But the researchers on the new Environmental Science & Technology study say this overlooks the fact that so much urban food is alreadybeing produced.
In fact, while rates of production varied by product and region, they noted that almost every metro analysed in the study produced at least some quantity of eggs, fruit, and veg. In many, the production rates were high enough that they could meet not only direct demand–i.e. fresh eggs, fruit, and veg–but also indirect demand for those products, where they’re used as ingredients in other things, like milk being used to make cheese, and apples as the basis for applesauce.
To get their detailed findings, the researchers first modified an existing database that estimates dietary habits and household demand, based on sociodemographic information. Then they paired this with county-level estimates on the farm-production of eggs, milk, fruit, and veg. They also considered more informal food sources, like backyard food growing and community gardens.
Currently, 80% of the US population lives in an urban area, which underscores the need for urban food security. That’s accompanied by the growing global need for food systems that have a lighter environmental footprint. What the study reveals is the surprising fact that metros have latent potential to fulfil both those roles.
Since publishing, the researchers have made their data public: now they hope it will aid individual cities not only in recognising how much food they actually produce, but in revamping the local food system to feed the people that surround it.
Image: Travis Estell via Flickr
Company Working To Bring Fresh Produce To U.Va. Dining Halls, Charlottesville Businesses And Homes
Babylon Micro-Farms has developed a system using hydroponic farming to make growing fresh produce more sustainable
By Rupa Nallamothu | 10/10/2018
In hydroponic farming, plants are grown in nutrient-rich, water solvent mineral solutions rather than in soil. Courtesy Babylon Micro-Farms
Babylon Micro-Farms, founded by University alumnus Alexander Olesen during his undergraduate years, has developed a system using hydroponic farming to make growing fresh produce sustainable for the urban consumer. The Babylon team has recently installed more apparatuses in the University dining halls, Charlottesville businesses and consumers’ homes.
Olesen developed Babylon Micro-Farms, a hydroponic farming system, to create an urban farming system easily accessible by consumers. During the spring semester of 2016, in the early stages of the company’s development, Olesen utilized several entrepreneurship resources available through the University.
“We started with the social entrepreneurship class, but then the founders went through the HackCville Alpha program, which was very helpful for them,” said Will Graham, the director of sales and marketing at Babylon. “From there, they went through the Darden iLab.”
In hydroponic farming, plants are grown in nutrient-rich, water solvent mineral solutions rather than in soil. This farming method removes environmental limitations to maximize respiration and absorption of nutrients in plants, which contribute to a greater harvest yield. Genetically modified organisms, pesticides or inorganic fertilizers cannot be used in a hydroponic culture.
Moreover, hydroponic farming can help reduce the distance between where a food item is grown and where it is sold by allowing plants to grow in normally inhospitable environments, such as inside urban buildings. This system could potentially allow restaurants and homes to grow plants inside their own spaces.
Since hydroponic systems are generally used in mass production due to their high cost, they are not readily available for urban consumers performing small-scale farming. Hydroponic systems also usually have restrictions on the types of plants that can grow in them.
However, Babylon Micro-Farms seeks to make hydroponics available for personal use and has developed technology that allows consumers to grow several different types of plants in their systems.
According to Graham, the Babylon team has several types of systems with varying degrees of technology. Some of the systems have two different reservoirs to allow different types of plants that require different types of nutrients or stratified sections of the same crop to grow on the same system.
The farming system has several versions which were developed throughout the growth of the company. Initially, the systems could not monitor the growth of the plants on each rack and were not stratified enough to grow multiple different types of produce on the same apparatus. Now, racks are divided based on the type of plant and can also be scanned into an app, which displays available information and data from the hydroponic system.
“You should able to scan a farm and tell it where you're putting plants, and it can adjust the lights and nutrients to grow something,” Graham said.
The Babylon team began testing prototypes around Grounds in 2017 after building an early model through HackCville, and received funding by winning $6,500 from the Green Initiatives Funding Tomorrow grant. After earning the GIFT grant, the company utilized the resources of Darden’s iLab, or the W.L. Lyons Brown III Innovation Laboratory — which supports the growth and development of business at an early stage by providing them resources, such as funding opportunities, legal services and faculty support.
According to Patrick Mahan, an electrical engineer at Babylon, the resources at the iLab helped the Babylon founders navigate the process of establishing a business.
After obtaining a financial basis for the project, the Babylon team installed their micro-farms in dining halls at the University. At Newcomb and O’Hill, these systems are utilized to grow produce used to prepare meals. On Sept. 12, the Babylon team installed two new systems in O’Hill and Runk.
"We mostly got positive reception,” Mahan said regarding the placement of systems in dining halls. “Part of it was almost confusion because they had never seen anything like it before, so they weren't sure what it was doing. But once they saw the plants start growing and saw the workers harvest the plants, I think they came around to it.”
Although Babylon is still installing systems in O’Hill and Runk, the team is also working on creating new technologies. Currently, they are developing a solar powered farm at the Morven Farm with the Morven Kitchen Garden.
The Morven Kitchen Garden, similar to Babylon Micro-Farms, is part of a student-run undergraduate sustainability initiative, according to Morven Kitchen Garden manager Stephanie Meyers. Students manage a community-supported agriculture program on a one-acre sustainable garden, donated by philanthropist John W. Kluge.
In addition to the project with Morven, the company is expanding their work outside the University. The Babylon team has implemented their hydroponic systems in Boar’s Head Resort and Three Notch'd Craft Kitchen & Brewery, two local businesses a few miles away from Grounds.
Babylon has also provided prototypes for personal use in the home, which are being used to further develop a hydroponics system available for purchase by local consumers.
Future Jobs: Unlocking The Secrets of Urban Farming In A Bristol Shipping Container
Future Jobs - Grow Bristol Urban Farming
19 October 2018
VIDEO: Grow Bristol delivers fresh leafy greens grown in a shipping container to city shops and restaurants by bike
Food often travels long distances to reach shops and restaurants. But demand for ultra-local food is growing.
Using special hydroponic lighting, crops can now be grown indoors without sunlight or soil. Based in city centres, so-called 'urban farms' can reduce water, pesticide, and land use - as well as transport emissions.
Grow Bristol is one such pioneering project and it is already delivering fresh leafy greens to city shops and restaurants by bike - all from a shipping container in the centre of the city.
BusinessGreen went to see how special techniques enable the company to grow 100kg of nutrient-rich leafy greens each month. Could this be the future of farming?
The BusinessGreen Future Jobs Hub is supported by Green GB Week
From Roof to Table, This Farm is Bringing Organic Vegetables to Brooklyn Residents
Part of the Food Policy Community Spotlight Series
Name: Eagle Street Rooftop Farm
What they do: Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is a 6,000-square-foot organic vegetable farm located on a warehouse rooftop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The Farm is a product of the collaborative effort between the green roof design and installation firm Goode Green and the Brooklyn-based sound stage company Broadway Stages, which financed the installation of the Farm.
The Farm realizes the economic, ecological and societal benefits of green roofing while also bringing local produce to the North Brooklyn community. According to Michigan State University, green roofs can “improve stormwater management by reducing runoff and improving water quality.” In addition, they help to “conserve energy, reduce noise and air pollution, sequester carbon, increase urban biodiversity by creating a habitat for wildlife, increase the space available for urban agriculture, provide a more aesthetically pleasing and healthy environment for surrounding residents, and improve return on investment compared to traditional roofs.”
Eagle Street Rooftop Farm operates a weekly farm market and caters to area restaurants. Between 2010-2011, it became the first rooftop farm to host its own site-based Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. In 2010, the Farm also launched an Apprenticeship Program, which instructs seasonal apprentices (spring, summer, fall) in organic farming based on the Farm’s planting and growing practices. Additionally, with support from Growing Chefs, a nonprofit field-to-fork education program that is also under the aegis of Annie Novak (the co-founder and farmer of Eagle Street Rooftop Farms), the rooftop farm’s education staff operates a range of other educational programs.
How they do it:
In its first season, the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm grew over thirty types of produce, from watermelon to cabbage, in order to see which would thrive in a green roof growing environment. The most botanically successful crops for health and high yield included hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, and sage.
Since the 2012 growing season, the Farm has focused on a selection of hot peppers to begin development of a Brooklyn-based hot sauce. Currently you can find their hot sauce – “Awesome Sauce” – at Archestratus Books + Food as well as at Littleneck Outpost, both located in Greenpoint.
The Farm sells its harvest through its site-based Sunday farm market and delivers fresh produce by bicycle to local restaurants including Williamsburg’s Marlow & Sons and Greenpoint’s Paulie Gee’s, Brooklyn Brine, Eastern District, Anella’s, Spritzenhaus, Ovenly, Sea Bean Soups, and Champion Coffee.
On Sundays in the growing season, the Farm is open to the public and welcomes volunteers of all skill levels during its market hours, which are listed on the events calendar. Growing Chefs curates the farm’s Free Lecture series, which are held at two o’clock on Sundays and have covered topics ranging from urban chicken-keeping to pickle making.
Mission: to provide fresh, organic, locally produced fruits and vegetables to Brooklyn residents and restaurants
Latest project/campaign: The publication of their book, The Rooftop Growing Guide: How to Transform Your Roof into a Garden or Farm, in February 2016.
Major Funding: Broadway Stages, Gina Argento & family
Profit/nonprofit: Profit
Interesting fact about how it is working to positively affect the food system: The Eagle Street Rooftop Farm’s education staff, working with Growing Chefs’ curriculum, hosts a range of workshops for children and adults. Topics include growing food in New York City, seed-saving, the art of cooking locally, city composting, the benefits of green roofs, beekeeping, and guest lecturers.
FACT SHEET:
Location:
44 Eagle Street
Brooklyn NY 11222
Core Programs:
-Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA)
-Community Outreach/Education (urban farming education, Growing Chefs workshops)
-Farmers’ Markets
-Apprenticeship Program
Number of staff: 4
Areas served: Brooklyn
Year Started: 2009
Director, Manager or CEO: Annie Novak
Contact Information: info@Rooftopfarms.org
Owned by Broadway Stages and built by Goode Green, the farm was made possible by the generous support of Gina Argento and family. Learn more about Broadway Stages’ green work in Greenpoint here!
Tags: Eagle Street Rooftop Farm Farmers markets Garden Education Organic Farming Rooftop Farm Urban agriculture
Gabrielle Khalife
Vertical Farming As A Local Food Market Innovation
By Dr. Dawn Thilmany
and Elizabeth Thilmany
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Vertical farming is an emerging niche in the food supply chain, defined as the practice of growing food indoors by controlling all elements of its development.
As vertical farms are stacked, multistory and typically aligned with large skyscrapers in densely populated urban areas, they can prompt mixed feelings about their aesthetics: Some observers believe they make urban areas feel green while others believe the structures will compete with their access to sunlight.
There are additional unique issues related to their role in food markets, the food environment and broader community impacts.
The nature of production
One potential benefit of vertical farming is its role in encouraging cities to become more self-reliant by producing at least some share of their food supplies. This may lead to more resiliency if there are natural or political events that disrupt our food distribution system. Plus, in an era of renewed interest in food-based economic development, a new generation of farmers may be attracted to vertical farming since their operations can be year-round and integrate high-tech solutions.
Still others see vertical farming as a potential innovation in real estate development — operations may be designed to be aesthetically pleasing, or, if rooftop development is used, permit buildings to conserve air-conditioning costs, and more broadly, help mitigate urban heat islands.
However, many potential benefits (eliminating food miles, reducing spoilage and food waste, better management of environmental implications from agricultural inputs) have yet to be evaluated.
Only a few successful vertical farms have been built, and both building and maintenance costs for a vertical farm are expensive, according to a 2014 article in the Journal of Agricultural Studies. In 2011, vertical farming pioneer Dickson Despommier estimated an upfront cost of $80 million to build a commercially viable vertical farm and over $6 million in annual energy expenditures (with other operating and labor costs above that).
One can quickly estimate that such investments are only possible if one is creative about the potential benefits that may accompany a vertical farming development, such as:
— A strong consumer base to create demand to provide a viable market for the local produce offerings as local produce is seen as a premium offering in mainstream food retailers and supply chains.
— The positive “spillovers”of such a real estate amenity, e.g., aesthetic, lifestyle or environmental benefits to the business, government or residential partners who may help offset the original investment of operating costs. For example, a residential building may see vertical farming as an amenity akin to a golf course or fitness center for its tenants.
— The multiple ways vertical farms can benefit communities economically — acting as a food provider to education venue to source of starter plants that expedite production on surrounding farms.
Consumers as a catalyst for change
We can address some of the research that has been done as a starting point to consider these economic tradeoffs.
Consumer research on food buyers is newly focused on where, how and even why people make their food purchase decisions and confirms that local food is a key driver for several food industry changes. For decades, there has been increasing evidence farmers markets were growing as consumers sought to reconnect with their food sources, but increasingly, local foods have been identified as a key market trend by food manufacturers, retailers and chefs as well.
Through farmers markets, community-supported agriculture and farmstands, direct-to-farmer consumer (DTC) engagement is found to be a value to a growing set of consumers — e.g., those who want to re-engage with their food producer, perceive direct purchases as higher quality or believe they can verify that the farms and ranches they purchase from are better environmental stewards or an important part of their local economy.
Direct markets are not always practical for producers (who have too much volume to sell or they live far from consumer markets) or consumers (who perceive barriers to the locations or prices of direct markets). Thus, the majority of consumers experience local food only in the context of intermediated channels, the term used for food hubs or distributors that broker local foods to mainline retailers, restaurants and other large buyers.
Within the U.S. food system, major food retailers see the integration of local foods into their product offerings as one means to compete, but local sourcing by retailers can be challenging as consumers rely on in-store signage, product labelling and/or recognized farm brands to identify local items.
Since retailers entering the local foods space will need to pay particular attention to clearly and credibly communicating their retailer-farmer partnerships, perhaps they will seek nearby sources, such as vertical farms that are visible to urban dwellers. Yet, it may require vertical farms to engage their communities, be transparent with their production processes, and align with other values that local food consumers seek (e.g., environmental benefits, returns to the farmer, healthful offerings and fair treatment of workers).
Since few locally oriented producers have the requisite scale and/or consistent quality to work with medium/large distribution or food retailer networks, vertical farms may be well-suited for intermediated local food sales. If consumers encourage their primary grocer to carry more local food offerings, vertical farms can seize the opportunity to be a key food source for their nearby retailers.
Vertical farming in communities
Urban agriculture, widely upheld as a solution to the food crises facing increasingly metropolitan populations, has seen a resurgence in recent years.
There are, however, potential disadvantages to this increasing drive for urban agriculture including associated urban health risks and threats to already limited water supplies. In response, cities such as Denver, New York City and Baltimore are bringing more permeable land to rooftops to capture and filter water in hopes of lessening the burden to overwhelmed sewage plants.
Clearly, the potential that controlled atmosphere systems, such as vertical agriculture, may have for addressing food security and economic development justifies a closer look, and public institutions are stepping up to that challenge. Expect to see more pilot programs of vertical agriculture aligned with real estate development such as Denver’s Green Roofs initiative (https://www.denvergreenroof.org/the-basics/), or technical assistance from land grants such as University of Maryland’s programs in Baltimore (http://extension.umd.edu/baltimore-city/urban-agriculture).
Still, it is important to realize these new innovations come with questions about best practices for production, and there is a need to develop a policy and regulatory environment that allows for this sector to operate effectively. As a response to new interest in urban farming as a potential food system investment in communities, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has developed toolkits that offer up resources for both urban agriculture producers (http://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/urban-agriculture-toolkit.pdf ) and the communities that want to assess their potential community and economic impacts (https://localfoodeconomics.com/toolkit/).
Dawn Thilmany McFadden, Ph.D., is a professor at Colorado State University and specializes in economic development related to food supply chains, focusing on market responses to consumer behavior. She has over 90 peer-reviewed publications and has presented to over 400 academic, industry, community and policy audiences. She is co-director for CSU’s Regional Economic Development Institute and worked with the USDA on many projects, most recently a Toolkit on the Economics of Local Foods (localfoodeconomics.com). She has provided leadership to the Colorado Food Systems Advisory Council, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, the Western Agricultural Economics Association, and the Food Distribution Research Society.
• Elizabeth Thilmany is an undergraduate student at University of Maryland-College Park studying Agriculture and Natural Resource Economics and has conducted research with Colorado State University on adding value along the wheat supply chain for a Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research project. On campus, she is involved with the Food Recovery Network and the Sustainability Department.
For more information on local food consumers and vertical farming, please read:
Banerjee, C. and L. Adenaeuer. 2014. Up, Up and Away! The Economics of Vertical Farming. Journal of Agricultural Studies. 2, 1-21.
Bauman, A., D. Thilmany and B.B.R. Jablonski. 2018. The financial performance implications of differential marketing strategies: Exploring farms that pursue local markets as a core competitive advantage. Agricultural and Resources Economic Review. 1-28.
Bond, C., D. Thilmany, and J. Bond. 2008. “Understanding consumer interest in product and process-based attributes for fresh produce.” Agribusiness 24(2):231-252.
Despommier, D. 2011. The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century, second ed. St. Martin’s Press, New York.
Urban Farming Projects Attracting Greater Interest, Investments
By The Washington Times Special Sections Department - Wednesday, October 10, 2018
International interest in sustainable urban ecosystems — especially vertical farming — is exploding, according to numerous market forecasts.
Valued around $2 billion in 2015, the global vertical farming market is projected to reach anywhere from $6 billion in 2022 to $10 billion by 2025, according to forecasting firms such as Research and Markets and Grand View Research.
The impetus to scale up vertical farming worldwide stems from two U.N. projections on population and urbanization: The world’s population is expected to grow to 9.6 billion people by 2050, and most of these people — 68 percent, according to the U.N.’s revised 2018 urbanization report — will live in cities.
Governments, urban planners and architects, researchers, investors and the entire world of agriculture are now exploring ways to make sure there will be abundant, high-quality, nutritious foods to feed such a growing population — while also conserving energy and water and reducing environmental damage.
To many observers, the future is bright, thanks to advances in greenhouse technologies such as hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics.
“These high-tech systems represent a paradigm shift in farming and food products and offer suitable and efficient methods for city farming,” Dr. Kheir Al-Kodmany, an urban planning scholar, wrote in the Buildings journal in February 2018.
Dr. Al-Kodmany and his colleagues at the University of Illinois at Chicago reviewed more than 100 sources about vertical farming research since 2010 and examined 15 vertical farming projects worldwide — including two rooftop farms in New York; four “low rise” farms in Michigan, Illinois and Tennessee; and six proposed “high rise” farms in Sweden, France, Canada and the Philippines.
“Hypothetically”, if vertical farms were integrated in the city, they will be able to supply food for the entire population,” Dr. Al-Kodmany concluded. However, there are many challenges to address, including finding funding to build and sustain such projects; finding less costly ways to power facilities; and quickly assembling interdisciplinary research and collaborations on urban agriculture, he wrote in the Buildings article.
In the U.S., the U.S. Department of Agriculture is already supporting research funding on vertical farming through its National Institute for Food and Agriculture.
Also, on June 27-28, the USDA and the Department of Energy co-hosted a stakeholder workshop on vertical agriculture and sustainable urban ecosystems. A report on the two-day event, which was open to the public, will be issued later this year, a USDA spokesman said.
In its workshop, several USDA officials spoke, including Dr. Dionne Toombs, director of the USDA Office of the Chief Scientist; Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young, acting USDA chief scientist and acting deputy under secretary for research, education and economics; Dr. David Babson, senior advisor in the USDA Office of the Chief Scientist; Dr. John Hartung, research plant pathologist at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland; and Dr. Sarah Federman, AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in the USDA Office of the Chief Scientist.
Additional featured speakers at the workshop included:
— Dr. Sabine O’Hara, dean of the College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences at the University of the District of Columbia, on envisioning ways to incentivize sustainable urban ecosystems.
— Dr. Dickson Despommier, microbiology and public health professor emeritus at Columbia University and author of the 2010 book, “The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century,” on envisioning vertical agriculture.
— Dr. Nate Storey, co-founder and chief science officer at Plenty, Inc., a San Francisco-based indoor farming startup, on vertical agriculture in practice.
— Dr. Raymond Wheeler, NASA plant physiologist, on expanding applications for controlled agriculture.
— Nick Starling, U.S. Army Ranger and founder of Skyscraper Farm, LLC, on the economics and scalability of vertical farms.
— Dr. Weslynne Ashton, associated professor of environmental management and sustainability at Stuart School of Business at Illinois Institute of Technology, on industrial ecology for sustainable urban ecosystems.
The two-day workshop featured breakout sessions on pest and pathogen management, plant selection and breeding, systems engineering, community services, ecosystems services and economics.
US (HI): Helping Waimānalo Families Use Aquaponics, Improve Health
Researchers Help Waimānalo Families Use Aquaponics, Improve Health
Three researchers at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa have won a national fellowship and will receive $350,000 funding over three years to assist Waimānalo families with backyard aquaponics to sustainably produce healthy food.
The project will connect the modern technology of aquaponics with Native Hawaiian food practices. Aquaponics taps into the power of the natural symbiotic relationship between fish and plants, and combines the raising of plants in water with raising fish in tanks to create a sustainable, contained food production system.
The fellowship was awarded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to promote health equity in the U.S.
The research team is comprised of Jane Chung-Do, an associate professor with the UH Mānoa Office of Public Health Studies in the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work; Ilima Ho-Lastimosa, community coordinator at the Waimānalo Learning Center and an education specialist in the Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Science (TPSS) in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources; and Ted Radovich, a TPSS associate specialist.
They will expand their work with families in Waimānalo to develop an aquaponics program to grow fresh fruits and vegetables and raise fish that families can use to prepare meals and Hawaiian medicines. This builds on the decade-long work that Ho-Lastimosa has been promoting in her community of Waimānalo.
The researchers will recruit Native Hawaiian families in Waimānalo to participate in aquaponics lessons and will guide the families in building and maintaining backyard systems. The researchers will follow up to see whether the systems are successful in helping the participants increase their intake of and access to fresh fruits, vegetables and fish, as well as promote healthy eating habits. In addition, impacts on participants’ mental wellness, cultural identity, family strength and community connectedness will be measured.
Ilima Ho-Lastimosa feeds fish in an aquaponics set-up, while Jane Chung-Do looks on.
“Our goal is to restore Native Hawaiian practices related to food and community,” said Chung-Do. “The study embraces the perspective that health is holistic and interconnected with our culture, families, communities and the ʻāina.”
As a public health scientist, Chung-Do has worked to enhance the wellness of children and families in Hawaii, especially in rural and minority communities.
Radovich was born and raised in Waimānalo and holds a PhD in horticulture. His expertise is in sustainable and organic farming systems.
Ho-Lastimosa grew up on the Waimānalo Homestead and holds masters degrees in social work and acupuncture; she is also a master gardener. The community leader and cultural practitioner in Waimānalo founded God’s Country Waimānalo, a group that initiated a food sovereignty and sustainability movement in the community.
Source: University of Hawai'i (Theresa Kreif)
Publication date : 10/11/2018
Skyscraper Farm Raises Farming To A Higher Level
October 18, 2018
DES MOINES, Iowa -- The future of farming is on the rise. A new type of vertical farming is being introduced to the United States in the form of a skyscraper. Skyscraper Farms are 52 story green houses that produce food in a controlled environment as well as be a space for offices, retail and real estate.
The world's leading vertical farming economist and founder of Skyscraper Farms Nick Starling said the vertical farm will bring farm food to the table even faster.
"Our goal is to have farm to table in less than five hours for anybody living within 75 miles of our full sized skyscraper," Starling said.
Starling also plans to build 40 foot grow-only buildings that, just like the skyscraper, grow food in a controlled environment with zero pesticides and fungicides.
Another problem Starling hopes to help stop with the Skyscraper Farm is wasting water.
"Currently 80% of the world's fresh water is used on agriculture and with a global yield of about 50% that means a full 40% of the world's fresh water is used on agriculture that doesn't even make it to harvest," Starling said.
Starling said Skyscraper Farms use 99% less water than field farming.
"So that means all these developing countries and all these cities will have a lot more water for people to drink, to wash their clothes and other public health necessities, Starling said.
Plans to build the 52 story Skyscraper Farms are in development in several cities across the country but Starling hopes to build the 40 foot grow-only farms in rural areas across America by next summer.
Nick Starling is holding a presentation on the Skyscraper Farm at 7 A.M. on Thursday as a part of the World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogues.
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Cities Can And Must Work To End Food Deserts Within Their Communities
By Mayor Debra March - - Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Limited access to healthy food continues to affect urban communities across the U.S., including the City of Henderson, Nevada, where I am privileged to serve as mayor.
Nearly all of the food consumed by the 2.1 million residents and 42 million annual visitors to the Las Vegas Valley, where Henderson is located, comes from somewhere else. This is a necessity given the environment of our drought-burdened Mojave Desert home, which makes growing fruits and vegetables for residents and visitors challenging.
In addition, many economically challenged areas across the nation, including our own, lack access to supermarkets with affordable fresh vegetables, fruits and other nourishing foods, so residents rely on neighborhood corner stores and fast-food chains that offer few fresh food options. As a result, despite being a vibrant community with a robust economy, safe neighborhoods and high student achievement, Henderson is not immune to the development of food deserts or food insecurity.
But hope is on the horizon. Among the strategies we are implementing to increase access to healthy food in economically challenged neighborhoods is the incorporation of urban vertical farming. This is an innovative process that sustainably produces exponentially greater numbers of crops while using significantly fewer land and water resources, making it a viable option for our desert home.
Even under normal conditions, our hot and arid climate — which averages less than 4 inches of rain a year — make it very challenging to grow produce. But through hydroponic watering and microclimate controls for crop cultivation, vertical farming can use up to 90 percent less water than traditional farming methods. This is a critically important benefit for a region that finds itself in the 18th year of a serious drought, with no relief in sight.
Vertical farming is an emerging industry, and the private sector is eager to encourage its development as evidenced by an increasing number of vertical farms being built across the country. And just recently, Oasis Biotech opened its doors in Las Vegas, joining Urban Seed Inc., which opened in 2016.
Oasis Biotech, located near Henderson, is producing 9,500 servings of green salads per day from its 200,000 square-foot facility that houses the equivalent of a 34-acre traditional farm. The healthy food produced there supports local resorts, casinos and a national supermarket chain. Before this development, all local produce was usually supplied by distant farms in California and Arizona. In addition to added cost, produce shipped to Southern Nevada often loses vital nutrients and freshness during transport.
Being able to access locally produced and vertically farmed leafy greens and fruits for their restaurant salads allow these resorts to decrease reliance on produce shipped by truck or train. This change helps reduce air pollution and cuts carbon emissions while also promoting increased water conservation and sustainable farming techniques.
In addition, vertical farms like Oasis Biotech and Urban Seed Inc., will be able to tailor their produce to the specific need of its resort and supermarket partners and go from farm to table in 24 hours, which will create more nutritious, better tasting and diverse options for their clientele.
Henderson is taking a multifaceted approach to resolving issues that contribute to the lack of fresh produce experienced by our residents — an issue that can often lead to major health concerns including diabetes, hypertension and low student performance.
We recognized the importance of working with community stakeholders to effectively meet the challenge of providing all residents with access to healthy food. We incorporated this goal into the City’s “Henderson Strong” comprehensive plan and made this healthy food strategy a key component of the revitalization plan for Pittman, one of the City’s oldest underserved neighborhoods.
Part of this approach also includes working to attract new supermarkets and expanding existing stores. We’re also supporting school and community gardens and mobile farmers markets. The City Council also will consider an urban agriculture ordinance to support and facilitate larger scale and more sustainable food production — like vertical farming — in our city.
We have an exciting opportunity that will allow us to address the challenge of food deserts and food insecurity in our urban centers with vertical farming that takes place 365 days a year and produces food closer to where it’s consumed. But we must keep in mind that continued growth of this industry will not be possible without the assistance of public and private funding to support the infrastructure needed to develop it.
While there is no quick and easy panacea for the lack of healthy food options that residents across the nation face on a daily basis, forward-thinking municipalities like Henderson are actively implementing community-supported programs and exploring new technologies like vertical farming that will provide our most vulnerable families with healthier options.
• Henderson Mayor Debra March, a former councilwoman, was elected to Nevada’s second largest city in 2017. Please follow @debra_march and @cityofhenderson.
A New Crop of Benefits: Fresh Produce Grown At The Office
Indoor farming allows organizations to have fresh produce year-round, and one company wants to offer these indoor farms to companies as an employee community-supported agriculture benefit.
by Andie Burjek October 12, 2018
Most employers want their employees to be healthier, and healthy eating is one way to achieve that. One company is taking this idea to the extreme and offering organizations the chance to grow fresh produce on site with their own farm.
Boston-based agriculture technology company Freight Farms builds IoT-connected, vertical farms — literally growing plants on the walls of shipping containers — using hydroponics, a growing method that utilizes 90 percent less water than traditional growing and a mineral nutrient solution in a water solvent without soil. The company sells its farms — called the Leafy Green Machines — to companies that would then be the ones responsible for staffing and upkeeping the farms.
In September, Freight Farms announced a new service called Grown that provides the labor to manage the farm, said Caroline Katsiroubas, director of marketing and one of the founding members of Freight Farms. Previously, some organizations didn’t have the staffing or facilities maintenance capacity to maintain a farm. With the Grown service, organizations pay an average pay $5,000 a month, for custom crop scheduling, maintenance, supply replenishment, 24/7 farm monitoring and all farming operations, such as seeding, transplanting and harvesting.
“We hope to see this huge barrier to entry for these organizations get resolved,” she said.
Indoor farming has come a long way in the past two years and become increasingly mainstream, she said. It’s becoming less of a challenge to convince people that it’s possible to grow food in an indoor shipping container.
The Leafy Green Machine operates by growing in a shipping container, 40′ x 8′ x 9.5′ per unit, in a climate-controlled environment, Katsiroubas said. Air temperature, carbon dioxide levels and watering are managed. LED lights stimulate day and night for the plants to echo a more natural environment. A central brain in the farm knows when to increase or decrease and turn off or on these environmental factors.
LED lights stimulate day and night for the plants.
Freight Farms focuses on leafy greens such lettuce, heartier greens including kale and herbs because this produce uses the space more efficiently and growers get more food per square foot.
This isn’t unlike what many other indoor farms do, according to the “State of Indoor Farming, 2017” by Agrilyst, a management and analytics platform for indoor farms. Agrilyst tracks and analyzes farm data from 150 farmers who participated in this survey. This research found that 57 percent of growers focused on leafy greens, while only 16 percent grew tomatoes and 10 percent flowers.
Dassault Systemès SolidWorks Corp., a company that develops 3D editing software and is based in Waltham, Massachusetts, is using the vertical farm as an employee benefit, Katsiroubas said. “It helps them skip the produce aisle essentially when they’re going grocery shopping,” she added.
By growing its own fresh produce on campus Dassault Systemès was able to set up a community supported agriculture, or CSA, program with weekly deliveries that employees could sign up for, said Jim Wilkinson, former vice president of user experience architecture at Dassault Systemès and leader of the Boston Campus Employee Activities Committee. He recently retired after 22 years at the company.
Dassault Systemès SolidWorks Corporation is using fresh, company-grown produce as an employee benefit.
A CSA is an arrangement in which consumers can subscribe to receive a certain amount of fresh produce from a farmer on a regular basis. For example, by signing up, an employee could receive a couple heads of lettuce, a couple heads of kale and a box of herbs every week.
About 50 employees, or 6 percent of the campus population, signed up for the deliveries, which cost the same or less than other local CSA programs, he said. Also, the produce doesn’t need to be washed, lasts longer in the refrigerator and does not need to be consumed right away.
“Plus, we were able to give input on what type of produce we would prefer which was a big bonus,” Wilkinson said. “Often CSAs deliver types of produce that you don’t even know what to do with.”
Dassault Systemès, whose software Freight Farms uses to design their farms, was interested in having their own farm for a few years, but, before the CSA program was introduced, that was not possible, he said. Now, the software company is participating in the first pilot for Grown.
Another way employers can distribute this company-grown produce is by offering a salad bar to employees, Katsiroubas said.
Freight Farm’s service provides the labor needed to operate and maintain the vertical farm.
Freight Farms is starting out with its new service in the New England area with plans to grow in other geographies next year, according to Katsiroubas. Although she sees this as a benefit for interested employees, what often attracts leadership is how the hyper-local Leafy Green Machine contributes to corporate social responsibility, she added.
Also read:
Workplace CSA Models (Appalachian Sustainable Agricultural Project)
The Promise of Indoor, Hurricane-Proof ‘Vertical’ Farms (The Atlantic)
Green Thumbs and Living Walls in Urban Areas (Workforce)
Welcome to the Era of the Activist CEO (Talent Economy)
Andie Burjek is an associate editor at Human Capital Media. She primarily writes for the wellness and benefits beats for Workforce.
email editors@workforce.com.
Filed under: Benefits
Tagged with: community-supported agriculture, corporate social responsibility, CSA, Freight Farms
Green Things Are Sprouting High In The Sky In The Joburg Inner City
Green Things Are Sprouting High In The Sky In The Joburg Inner City
Those things are spinach, basil and lettuce, planted in hydroponic farms on skyscraper rooftops in a project called the Urban Agriculture Initiative (UAI).
The UAI has been developed by the Johannesburg Inner City Partnership (JICP) with support from the City of Johannesburg, the Department of Small Business Development, the Small Enterprise Development Agency, and SAB Kickstart.
“The JICP has played a role in incubating, facilitating, and enabling this project. It is this work that has been initiated in the inner city with a view to perfecting it there and then replicating it elsewhere in the city and indeed in the country,” says Anne Steffny, a director at JICP.
Story and picture by Lucille Davie
“I would like to thank you and the members of the JICP, on behalf of the Executive Mayor, for your constructive engagement with the City and their shared commitment to reclaiming the Inner City,” says André Coetzee, the Director: Policy & Research in the Executive Mayor’s office.
The JICP has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the City’s Department of Social Development. They both have a common purpose, namely, creating jobs, developing youth, ensuring food security and resilience as well as providing access to entrepreneurial opportunities.
One of the initiators of the UAI, Dr Michael Magondo from business incubator Wouldn’t It Be Cool (WIBC) and a director of JICP, believes that the “UAI is not about putting the farm on the roof, it’s about the lives that can be changed.”
Thirty-three year-old Puseletso Mamogale grew 3 600 fledgling spinach seedlings in August - arranged in A-fame racks of 10 shelves – on the rooftop of a building at 1 Fox Street. She harvested them after four weeks, and sold them to a local restaurant. She is now planting basil seedlings, a more lucrative crop.
The plants are grown in a medium that holds them upright while their roots reach through the pot into a tray below, filled with nutrient-rich water. Plastic sheet-roof tunnels keep them warm in winter, and protect them from storms and hail in summer. The sheeting can be rolled back to release heat.
Hydroponic farms of 300m² can produce the equivalent of one hectare of open farm production. Water costs are between R70 to R200 monthly, up to 95% less than conventional farming. This means that the hydroponic farm has 26 annual crop cycles, compared to four to five crop cycles with open-field farms.
Mamogale is a graduate of the WIBC, a programme that seeks to take young people aged 18 to 35 and to turn them into entrepreneurs. So far 13 farm entrepreneurs have been trained, and 25 are about to receive training. It has as its mission to “foster job creation through the creation of an urban agricultural entrepreneurial ecosystem supporting young black, urban farmers”.
It was launched in October 2017 with Nhlanhla Mpati’s farm, bursting with lush basil, on the roof of the Minerals Council South Africa building in Main Street. He started with 300 plants and in just over six months he had 1 000 plants eagerly waiting delivery to nearby restaurants. He calls his enterprise Gegezi Organics, and in just 66m² of rooftop space and 21 days he has produced 110kgs of basil. Another rooftop farmer is Mapaseka Dlamini, whose garden overflows with gourmet lettuce and basil plants. She now employs four people and supplies restaurants in Maboneng.
Other farms are in Hillbrow and Newtown, with rooftops supplied by the Outreach Foundation, the Jozi Housing Company, and the Joburg Land Company. There are two farms on the rooftops of FNB Bank City in the CBD. The training that entrepreneurs undergo is intense. Before they are given their starter packs of seedlings, pots, irrigation systems and pumps, they have to present a business model, including potential customers for their produce. They are given financial support from the WIBC, with an interest-free loan.
City Farms To Rise Up In Russia
BY TOM JOYCE @tomfruitnet
10th October 2018 - London
TealTech Capital is investing in a network of vertical city farms in major Russian cities, with the first set to launch in Moscow
The TealTech Capital venture fund is creating a network of city farms in Russia dubbed Local Roots, according to GreenTalk.ru.
In the next three years, ten sites are reportedly planned for Moscow and other major Russian cities, for the cultivation of lettuce and greens.
The total capacity of the ten sites will reach around 1,000 tonnes per year, with an annual turnover of RUB1bn (€13m).
Such vertical farms employ aeroponic technology, where the plant roots are sprayed with a nutrient solution. For TealTech Capital, this will be its first agribusiness-related project.
Local Roots LLC was established in Moscow in August. TealTech has so far invested RUB6m (€78,500), but the project’s total investment has not been disclosed.
By the end of the year, the first phase of the Moscow farm is expected to be launched, with 8 tonnes of basil and rocket cultivated per year. By next March, the farm is expected to reach a capacity of 160 tonnes.
Initially, Local Roots will supply exclusively to food retailer Vkusvill, selling under the brand Local Roots. In the future, around half of the produce will be delivered to other chains and restaurants.
“It is extremely important to have an efficient supply chain, since the optimal sale time for salads does not exceed three days,” explained Mikhail Glushkov, executive director of the National Fruit and Vegetable Union.
In the off-season, he said, imported greens from Israel and Lebanon can take several days to reach the market, leading to losses of up to 60 per cent.
The potential of the Russian market for greens grown on city farms is estimated at 140,000 tonnes annually, with a turnover of around RUB70bn (€0.9bn).
Abundant, Nutritious Food, Available Close By And Year-Round
A Q&A with Skyscraper Farm founder Nick Starling
By Nick Starling - Wednesday, October 10, 2018
U.S. Army Ranger, economist and real estate developer Nick Starling is founder and chairman of Skyscraper Farm LLC. Below is a conversation he had with Washington Times Special Sections Manager Cheryl Wetzstein about his company and his vision for worldwide vertical farming that is conducted in very tall buildings — with residential and commercial space as well as dozens of floors for aeroponic and hydroponic crops — and relies primarily on sunlight for the crops. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What attracted you, an economist, to the concept of vertical farming?
I first came up with the idea of Skyscraper Farm during my freshman year taking “Intro to Human Geography” at Hawaii Pacific University. A professor put up a map of America, pointed to the coasts and said, “This is where everybody lives,” and then pointed to the center and said, “And this is where we grow our food.” That’s when I had my light bulb moment, and I made this really crude drawing trying to figure out how to get sunlight into the center of the building.
Q: What kind of innovations distinguish Skyscraper Farm from other types of vertical farming?
You can’t feed 9.6 billion people with field farms. And we, at Skyscraper Farm, are betting that sunlight is better than LED lights. Sunlight is like dinner to the plants, and LED lights are like protein bars.
Also, Skyscraper Farm is the only vertical farming solution that can maintain its “alpha,” which means it will keep a return on investment above the industry standard. The reason why we’re able to do that is due to low cost of goods sold — 90 percent of costs in other vertical farms are their electric bills because they’re running LED lights 24 hours a day. We cut that out completely; we use sunlight. Judging by its track record, we’re pretty confident in betting that sunlight can grow plants.
Q. You have an overarching concept you call HIDDEN WAFER about your project. Can you explain this?
The acronym stands for health, infrastructure, diplomacy, development, energy, national security and water, agriculture, finance, environment and real estate.
With health, the shorter time to table has massive implications for health and nutrition. When you can get a vegetable right from a bush, it’s so much more nutritious and it just tastes better. If you can get food from farm to table in less than an hour — or within an hour to everyone within a 15-mile radius, which is a goal of Skyscraper Farm — then that’s great. And for those who buy our condos, it’s farm to table in less than five minutes.
On infrastructure: There’s a 55,000-trucker shortage so that means it costs even more to get fruits and veggies across the country to your table. With a vertical farm right in the center of the city, you can reduce the number of what’s called “food miles” — and reduce wear and tear on the nation’s highways and byways. There’s also a reduction in the need for water infrastructure or to get water to remote fields where those farmers are farming.
Development refers to the elevation of economic conditions. The global average farm yields are 50 percent; with vertical farming, there’s greater yield of 92 percent or better at a cheaper cost. Engel’s law says that the less money you make, the greater proportion of your income you spend on food, which is why people in Haiti are spending 60 cents on the dollar for food while Americans spend 6.7 cents on the dollar for food. Furthermore, if people can spend less money on high-quality, high-nutrition foods — like kale and other vegetables — it will help fight malnutrition.
Diplomacy means vertical farms will permit diplomats to pull certain levels in their diplomatic relations with countries; no more food or water riots.
Energy: Around 20 percent of U.S. oil demand is for agriculture, and a full 60 percent of that is for production. People may see 16-wheelers hauling produce, but they don’t see the combines and tractors running in the field. Vertical farming can make countries more energy independent.
And national security is critical: Armies march on their stomachs. So having a Skyscraper Farm in the world’s largest Navy base means fresh produce can be delivered from farm to ship almost immediately before departure as well as provide a stable source of fresh crops. Moreover, field farms are absolutely indefensible and subject to constant threat of bio and chemical attacks; a Skyscraper Farm is the only defensible option.
And W-A-F-E-R?
Then with water: We don’t have a water crisis, we have a water allocation crisis. Seventy percent of the world’s freshwater is used on agriculture. With the current 50-percent yield globally, there’s a lot of water wasted on food that doesn’t even make it to harvest. Vertical farming recycles 95 percent of the water it uses. Furthermore, the quality of water is greatly affected: With regular farming, you have agricultural runoff [with pesticides and herbicides] that get into the watersheds and ultimately into the oceans, creating nitrogen hypoxia, algae blooms, ocean acidification and other deleterious effects.
Regarding agriculture, we are able to do 17 to 20 harvests a year with speed breeding or selectively breeding a crop such as wheat that grows shorter and faster, with more wheat and less chaff. You can imagine that one of the things we’re going to be working on with Skyscraper Farm is developing fast-growing lettuces, arugulas and spinaches — with the proteins of lentils and quinoa bred into them and as many vitamins as we can pack in there. Our produce will maintain the highest nutrient content out there. People on diets could eat just one bowl of Skyscraper Farm salad and have everything they need for the day, which is also huge for the developing world where people might only be able to afford one bowl a day. No messing with genetics. Non-GMO. No pesticides. No herbicides. No fungicides. Just fresh, clean food for your family.
For finance, we will be able to finance buildings off of clean, nutritious and safe commodities. For example, there was news in April of soil-based spinach crops being attacked by algae. If this were to try to happen in a Skyscraper Farm, we would clean out the buildings and have new harvests in 18 to 22 days. Also, in times of scarcity of a crop, with enough scale and quantity, we can push the price back down. That way poor people who could barely afford to buy spinach would be able to buy it again.
Another financial impact occurs through the leasing options that can be instituted with American farmers. Hydroponic and aeroponic growing systems will make such large quantities of food that field farmers will not be able to compete. So, if our farmers don’t move inside and start using vertical farming technologies, within 10 years almost all of our produce is going to come from China because they will be able to outprice us. China is watching and learning everything that Singapore, the world capital of vertical farming, is doing and will likely be close behind in vertical farming technology.
Environmental impact: Once Skyscraper Farm is to scale, there will be an elimination of agricultural runoff. There’s a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico from Houston to Pensacola because of runoff from the Mississippi River. In the Chesapeake Bay, 45 percent of the nitrates, 44 percent of the phosphates and 55 percent of the sediment come from agriculture. That’s why we want to put Skyscraper Farms all around the Bay — to prove the point about agricultural-runoff elimination.
Going into real estate, we need to feed 9.6 billion people in several decades — which could mean needing an extra 8.5 million square kilometers of farmland! That’s the size of Brazil. So, we need to be able to grow up instead of growing out.
Q: What is your vision for Skyscraper Farm in terms of number, timeline, etc., in the next decade?
I would like to see at least 75 52-story Skyscraper Farms built in the United States in 10 years. To maintain energy neutrality, we must have at least 200 sunlight days a year; if there are more sunlight days, we can actually add energy back to the community.
Q: Are there likely to be differences by country? Or is a Skyscraper Farm in Dubai likely to function the same as one in Manila?
No, it’s all the same building. Any differences would relate to height variances that are allowed.
Q: What kinds of jobs — and how many jobs — do you anticipate being associated with a Skyscraper Farm?
Tons of jobs: engineer, mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, software developers, all kinds of jobs. And, of course, training farmers on indoor harvests year-round.
• U.S. Army Ranger Nick Starling is a Harvard-educated economist and Virginia-based real estate developer who has been researching vertical farming since 2011. For more information, please follow @SkyscraperFarm, visit skyscraper.farm or email info@skyscraper.farm.
Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.
Skyscraper Farm: Army Ranger Takes Aim At Global Hunger
By Skyscraper Farm - Thursday, October 11, 2018
Everyone knows what’s coming: The agricultural sector will face enormous challenges to feed the 9.6 billion people projected to inhabit the planet by 2050. In order to do so, food production must increase by 70 percent in spite of the limited availability of arable lands. Another 8.5 million square kilometers, or land the size of Brazil, are needed.
Not only is land needed but there are also increasing needs for fresh water — more than 70 percent of the world’s fresh water already goes to agriculture. As Skyscraper Farm CEO Nick Starling puts it: “We don’t have a water crisis. We have a water allocation crisis.”
Society has responded to these challenges with three innovative shifts: new farming techniques, younger farmers to pioneer them and utilizing technology to make fulfillment easier. Vertical farming refers to the practice of growing crops indoors in vertically stacked layers or on vertically inclined surfaces inside structures like warehouses, shipping containers or even skyscrapers.
These indoor farming systems are designed to maximize crop yields while minimizing environmental impacts. Moreover, by bringing farms closer to where people live, this farming method is expected to be both efficient and cost-effective by reducing transportation expenses and environmental damage.
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Agricultural Mixed-Use: Revolutionizing Farming
Indoor farming has its challenges: Most methods consume a surplus of energy, calling into question the impact on sustainability, or are located too far from urban centers where populations need it most. Thankfully, one firm is ready to bridge the gaps.
Skyscraper Farm, LLC, is a Virginia-based business venture dedicated to vertical farming. Founded by Nick Starling, an Iraq invasion war veteran, its vision is to bring sustainable, cost-effective agricultural products to city centers and remote sites in the U.S. and abroad by combining cutting-edge vertical farming with high-end, attractive, mixed-use real estate.
Skyscraper Farm specializes in the construction of urban, mixed-use buildings that feature an indoor, vertical farm that uses primarily sunlight to grow plants and has the capacity to have 20 harvests a year.
The Company has designed three types of buildings: a four-story facility that is solely outfitted for growing space, a mid-rise built on top of grocery stores, and a 52-story skyscraper that includes residential condos, commercial office space and restaurants.
Buffalo, New York - Vertical Farming Co-Op Growing Into New Space On East Side
Michael Zak, the chairman of vertical farming organization GroOperative, is moving his company to a 4,200-square-foot space at Clinton and Bailey avenues.
DMFOTOGRAPHY
By Dan Miner – Reporter, Buffalo Business First
October 10, 2018
Michael Zak has been searching for ways to make a big impact on inner-city Buffalo youth since he was a teenager.
Now the 34-year-old will have his chance.
Zak, the chairman of vertical farming organization GroOperative, is moving his company out of the small basement he leases underneath Buffalo Roots in University Heights to a 4,200-square-foot space at Clinton and Bailey avenues. He has room to grow the second-story space out to 20,000 square feet.
The move was supported with a $100,000 grant award won during this year’s Ignite Buffalo competition. Zak said he is also launching a $100,000 capital campaign in which people can buy shares of common stock in the company, earning them a small dividend while supporting urban farming in Buffalo.
The new home is expected to give GroOperative the scale to be a profitable enterprise while meeting the surging demand for its basil, lettuce and micro-green products. Zak said he will be able to grow more fish – which provide fertilizer for his plants and are also sold to customers – and expand his mission of teaching children about sustainable agriculture.
“This is becoming the business I always wanted it to be,” said Zak, who was part of GroOperative’s founding team in 2014. “We’ll be able to take up to 20,000 square feet of space, employ 20 to 30 people, provide fresh produce for people in the Buffalo area and teach children about sustainable farming systems.”
The African Heritage Food Co-Op will lease first floor space in the building, which was last home to Willowbrook Farms and is in a section of the city known for its cluster of food distribution warehouses.
GroOperative is built as a farming cooperative, and Zak said the goal is to support more owner-operators working alongside him. He expects to move into the new space by January.
Urban Farming Organization Visualizes a Franchise Model To Produce Fresh Fish And Vegetables
Lisa Waterman Gray
On a cool September morning, Dre Taylor dodged raindrops while talking with several people tending beans, peppers, tomatillos, collards and more outside of a 4,500-square-foot building. This is Nile Valley Aquaponics, a vibrant fixture in Kansas City, Missouri's urban core. The name came from Egypt where people cultivated plants and fish thousands of years ago. Goats and picnic tables share outdoor space and offices occupy a nearby house.
Last summer (2018), Nile Valley Aquaponics grew dozens of fruits, vegetables and herbs, from tomatoes and squash to basil and sage, kale and Swiss chard. Its 100,000 Pound Food Project seeks to produce 100,000 pounds of local fresh fish, vegetables and herbs, creating greater access to healthy food choices, while providing volunteer opportunities and economic stability in the area. Health education is also important. Several October classes will address growing mushrooms, building a greenhouse for less than US$500, and building a personal aquaponics system.
Nile Valley Aquaponics' 100,000 Pound Food Project seeks to produce 100,000 pounds of local fresh fish, vegetables and herbs, creating greater access to healthy food choices.Lisa Waterman Gray
The organization operates under the 501c3 M2M (Males to Men) Community Foundation mentorship program, which Taylor launched in 2013. He also founded the Kansas City Urban Farm Co-Op whose Fruit Orchard opens on Sept. 29 in Swope Park.
Taylor's interest in aquaponics began following a Will Allen workshop by former professional basketball player and founder of Milwaukee-based Growing Power Backyard Aquaponics (the nonprofit has closed). After creating a personal aquaponics system and a 2013 visit to Growing Power Backyard Aquaponics, Taylor's dream expanded. Once he had a 378-liter (100-gallon) fish tank operating, Taylor began talking to potential funders.
Construction began in October 2015 on two vacant lots donated by long time residents and community leaders Harrel Sr. and Myrtle Johnson. Three conjoining vacant lots were also purchased from the Land Bank of Kansas City. Taylor and volunteers removed 18 trees, which became tables, benches and a desk.
By March 2017, these previously distressed vacant lots had become a welcome urban oasis. "Our goal is to grow all fish food here, by January 2019," Taylor said. "About 800 people have worked on this project. Everybody loves it and we have a lot of community support. We're building a community based on food. Kids involved during the summer received stipends funded through grant money."
Nile Valley's facilities are welcome urban oases for the community.
Lisa Waterman Gray
Modern-day aquaponics facilities operate from Myanmar to Peru. Aquaponics critics fear energy consumed by these indoor farms may negate potential climate benefits and Taylor admits his monthly electric bill can top US$1,000.
But these operations typically use less water than traditional farms do. Aquaponics farmers re-circulate water while housing more fish in smaller spaces. With plants included in 'the loop' the land and water needs decrease. In Half Moon Bay, California, Ouroboros Farms circulated the same 227,125 liters (60,000 gallons) of water for a year.
Organic certification has been another sticking point. However, late last year, the National Organic Standards Board rejected a proposal prohibiting hydroponic and aquaponic farms from organic certification. Nile Valley Aquaponics isn't currently certified.
Taylor has patents pending on his state-of-the-art system. Today, approximately 30,000 tilapia thrive here, while three six-foot-deep troughs feed and water 5660-square-meters (20,000-square-feet) of indoor 'farmland' on four levels.
Taylor also created an organic pesticide liquid that should be available for sale next year. Every week three hundred pounds of coffee chaff from a coffee roaster, plus water, create 'feed' for more than a million Black Soldier Flies that eat it while breeding. This yields one ton of waste per month, making compost and releasing a natural pesticide liquid that is mixed with water before application to plants.
In 2019, a major expansion will unfold. Designed by St. Louis-based HOK (a global design, architecture, engineering and planning firm), it will incorporate two additional greenhouses, raised garden beds, a chicken coop and beehives. Sustainable materials, a wind turbine and rainwater cisterns will enhance the site, where neighbors will find community gathering and event spaces too.
"The new facility will be a sleek, new urban [agriculture] design that can be used in a mixed-use area—from neighborhoods to new developments," Taylor said. "Nile Valley is a game changer, bringing healthy food, community, education, and economic development to an underserved community."