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Urban Greenhouse Brings New Meaning To Eating Local In Montreal
Often, when you buy fruits and vegetables at your local grocery store, they were actually grown far away. A new initiative east of downtown aims to totally change the relationship between Montrealers and their food. It’s called the Emily De Witt greenhouse
By Dan Spector Photojournalist Global News
WATCH: A coalition of community groups has created an urban oasis where fruit and veggies are grown and sold locally. Global's Dan Spector explains.
Often, when you buy fruits and vegetables at your local grocery store, they were actually grown far away. A new initiative east of downtown aims to totally change the relationship between Montrealers and their food.
It’s called the Emily De Witt greenhouse.
“We want to offer local produce, a product of quality, and we want to do it in partnership with the community,” explained Maxime Comeau, project manager for the greenhouse with Sentier Urbain.
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On Tuesday, Comeau was tending to the beans growing in the greenhouse. There are also tomatoes, eggplants, watermelons and and much more.
READ MORE: Urban farming business finds success in Saskatoon
While it may look like a fairly run-of-the-mill operation from the inside, what’s different about the greenhouse is that it’s right in the middle of a park east of downtown.
“It’s pretty unique,” said Comeau.
The greenhouse is right next to a baseball field at Walter Stewart Park in the Sainte-Marie district.
WATCH: (June 15, 2018) Southern Alberta producers team up to teach Calgary kids about modern farming
Since 2017, the urban greenhouse has been run by a coalition of community groups.
“Food security was a concern over here in the neighbourhood, so we wanted to create a short circuit. The food is produced, delivered, transformed right here in the neighbourhood,” said Amelie Fraser Pelleter of Société écocitoyenne de Montréal.
Food is grown in the greenhouse and then sold at the Solidaire Frontenac Market at the Frontenac Metro station just a few blocks away.
With the small size of their operation, making money is not the goal. The urban gardeners just want to bring people closer to the food they eat and give some Montrealers a better idea of where their fruits and veggies come from.
READ MORE: Lufa Farms takes gardening to a whole new level
“We want people to be a more active part of their own food,” said Fraser Pelletier.
The greenhouse gets support from Centraide and the city of Montreal.
Not only do they provide food and education, but also jobs for vulnerable members of society.
It’s a concept the urban farmers believe can sprout up all over the city.
“We believe it’s possible,” said Comeau.
They’re encouraging people to speak to their own local officials, and plant the seed in their minds to help grow the initiative.
© 2019 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Flower Tower: Landscapers Show Property Owners How To Turn Rooftops Into Gardens
A Greenpoint-based urban landscaping group is pushing Kings County property owners to take a top-down approach to environmental sustainability by transforming their rooftops into verdant gardens.
Alive Structures
The Kingsland Wildflowers rooftop is located atop Broadway Stages in Greenpoint.
BY ELIZABETH WINN
These green thumbs are taking gardening to new heights!
A Greenpoint-based urban landscaping group is pushing Kings County property owners to take a top-down approach to environmental sustainability by transforming their rooftops into verdant gardens.
“I believe that New York City needs nature and green roofs are the only place left in New York City to create a natural habitat,” said Marni Majorelle, founder of Alive Structures, located at 130 Diamond St. between Meserole and Norman avenues.
Last month, Majorelle and her team at Alive Structures hosted a panel to discuss their green-roof movement alongside other environmental advocates at a rooftop meadow, called Kingsland Wildflowers, located atop Broadway Stages in Greenpoint, which the green thumbs used as an example of rooftop gardneing done right, before discussing how sky farms can help their borough weather global warming.
“Green roofs are not just pretty or decoration,” Majorelle said. “[Green roofs are] an absolute necessity in this city as we move into a hotter and wetter climate.”
The elevated oases provide a variety of environmental benefits, including absorbing and retaining stormwater, reducing temperatures, cutting energy costs, improving air quality, and creating more homes for birds, bees, and creepy crawlies high in the sky, according to Majorelle.
However, specific structural requirements and hefty installation cost make Majorelle’s green-roof movement a tough sell for many property owners, and she praised Broadway Stages — a sound stage and equipment supplier for television productions — for jumping on the bandwagon!
UK: Onwards And Upwards! Vertical Farms Could Come To York Central
In a bid to meet City of York Council’s pledge for the city to be carbon neutral by 2030, Cllr Christian Vassie said creating urban farms is just one of the initiatives the organisation is looking at
July 30, 2019
By Chloe Laversuch - Local Democracy Reporter in Environment, Life
Urban farms to grow food for residents could be built on new developments in York.
The plans could see salad leaves, tomatoes and even more exotic crops grown in greenhouses on major housing schemes like York Central.
In a bid to meet City of York Council’s pledge for the city to be carbon neutral by 2030, Cllr Christian Vassie said creating urban farms is just one of the initiatives the organisation is looking at.
Cllr Vassie, chair of the council’s new climate change committee, said York could follow in the footsteps of the Netherlands, where produce is grown in small vertical farms with six or seven layers of vegetables stacked on top of each other.
He said:
The key is how we can produce our food closer to home.
Food like lettuces may be grown in one part of the country and transported all over the UK before they reach us. It’s not good for the environment.
Vertical farms are innovative. Space to grow food costs a lot more in a city so it’s about making best use of our land.
Surprised by what you can grow
Speaking at a council meeting about the design guide for new council developments, he asked if urban farms could be included in proposals for schemes – including York Central.
He said:
We could have small farms on new developments. We talk about York Central being innovative – this is exactly the kind of thing you would want to see there.
It’s one of many things that the climate change committee is looking at. I’m proud that the council declared an ambition to be carbon neutral by 2030.
But delivering it is going to be really tough, it requires more creative decisions.
Food is just one part of that. I think people would be surprised by what we can grow here that we currently do not.
The climate change committee will have to consider everything. The challenge we face is massive.
While the urban farms would not be able to feed the whole city, he said they would be a good start, adding that it may even be possible to grow exotic crops such as bananas could be grown in the UK.
And that growing food close to where it is eaten is one way to tackle carbon emissions.
The first meeting of the council’s new climate change committee is due to take place on September 10.
Lead photo: Vertical farming makes maximum use of limited space. Photograph: verticalfarming.net
Forging A Way Forward In Urban Agriculture
With the population of Americans living in rural parts of the country growing ever smaller, the agricultural community must begin to consider the ways in which it engages with the urban population
By Bailey Corwine
With the population of Americans living in rural parts of the country growing ever smaller, the agricultural community must begin to consider the ways in which it engages with the urban population. Recently a group of key stakeholders, including state and county Farm Bureau leaders and staff, met to discuss the role Farm Bureau plays in cultivating agriculture in an urban setting.
The Urban County Farm Bureau Coalition Summit II was the second such meeting of the coalition, which is working to broaden conversations and develop relationships between traditional farmers and ranchers in rural settings, modern agriculturalists in urban settings, elected local officials, Capitol Hill lawmakers and consumers in a variety of demographic areas.
“We’re always looking for ways for Farm Bureau to be more active and engaged on the county level when it comes to promotion and education, member engagement and building relationships, especially with urban legislators,” said Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Summit attendees heard presentations from Jason Henderson, associate dean of the College of Agriculture at Purdue University, and Hubert Hamer, administrator of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, as well as thoughts from Marie Ruemenapp and Katherine Williams, chair and vice chair of the National Urban Extension Leaders, respectively.
The urgency of connecting urban America with rural America was stressed by each speaker.
“We’re at a crossroads in many different ways,” Henderson said. “But this is the exact right time to engage urban consumers.”
Ruemenapp echoed this statement, saying “the time is now” to have conversations about bridging the gap between America’s farmers and ranchers and the people they feed. She also highlighted the potential for partnerships between Farm Bureau and the Extension service.
The summit wrapped up with a discussion between Randy Kron, Indiana Farm Bureau president, and Jamie Johansson, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation, covering perspectives from their states and the work that is being done to connect with the urban population.
“Going forward, it’s going to be even more important that we are engaging our urban members,” Johansson said. “Those people in our urban centers really are on the front lines in terms of explaining what we do out in the countryside.”
The Urban County Farm Bureau Coalition is led by a steering committee, which is chaired by Marion County (Ind.) President Jack Haefling. The county Farm Bureau surfaced the idea of a coalition focused on connecting urban county Farm Bureaus after a strategic planning exercise. The group has exhibited at two AFBF annual conventions and at the 2019 Farm Bureau FUSION Conference.
Bailey Corwine is an intern in the American Farm Bureau Federation’s Communications Department. She will graduate from the University of Arkansas in December with a degree in agricultural communications.
UAE Delegation Visit To Japan Opens Avenues For Environmental Collaboration
A UAE delegation, headed by Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, MoCCAE, has concluded its visit to the Japanese capital Tokyo. The agenda included a visit to ‘Techno Farm Keihanna’, the largest automated vertical farm in the world
30-07-2019
TOKYO, 30th July, 2019 (WAM) -- A UAE delegation, headed by Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, MoCCAE, has concluded its visit to the Japanese capital Tokyo. The visit aimed to promote collaboration on various environmental fronts and allow the delegation to explore best practices and technologies in Japan’s agricultural and fisheries sectors.
The delegation comprised Salah Al Rayssi, Acting Assistant Under-Secretary for the Biodiversity and Marine Life Sector at MoCCAE, and a host of representatives of private sector companies in the UAE.
Commenting on the visit, Dr. Al Zeyoudi said, "The UAE enjoys deep-rooted economic and environmental ties with Japan. Our visit aimed to build on our strong synergies and identify new opportunities for collaboration in the environmental sector. We also sought to exchange expertise in relevant areas."
"The UAE strives to boost international cooperation and learn from successful experiences of friendly nations with the aim of ensuring sustainable development across all sectors," the minister added.
Al Zeyoudi held multiple bilateral meetings with high-level environment officials, in the presence of Khalid Omran Al Ameri, UAE Ambassador to Japan. Among these was a meeting with Yoshiaki Harada, Japan’s Minister of the Environment, who reiterated the importance of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Initiative that will elevate relations between the two countries to new heights.
The UAE Minister also met with Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi, Japan’s Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety, who applauded the strong UAE-Japan relations, and highlighted the UAE’s leading role in supplying natural gas and other energy resources to Japan following the Fukushima earthquake.
Dr Al Zeyoudi met with Kohjiro Takano, Japanese Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, who praised the recent measures taken by the UAE to relax the restrictions on all imports from Fukushima.
He also met with Saito Ken, Chief Secretary of Japan-UAE Parliamentary Friendship Association, to explore ways to enhance the strategic bilateral relationship.
In a meeting with Yuriko Koike, Governor of Tokyo, Al Zeyoudi discussed further boosting bilateral relations through creating investment opportunities in renewables as well as twinning Abu Dhabi and Tokyo.
The agenda included a visit to ‘Techno Farm Keihanna’, the largest automated vertical farm in the world, where Dr Al Zeyoudi and delegates from Madar Farms, the UAE-based vertical farming company, gained insights into the latest developments and technologies in vertical farming that significantly accelerates food production.
The delegation also visited Toyosu Fish market, the largest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world, the Institute of Energy and Economics, Japan International Cooperation Agency, a governmental agency that coordinates official development assistance for the government of Japan, and Mebiol, a Tokyo-based technology corporation that invented the sustainable agro-tech concept of using films to cultivate plants and ensure zero wastage of water.
On the sidelines of the visit to Japan, Dr Al Zeyoudi attended the second round of the fifth edition of the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Jiu-Jitsu World Tour that witnessed athletes from 35 countries competing for the top honour.
WAM/Nour Salman/MOHD AAMIR
Live In Your Own Farm In The Sky In This Plant-Covered Apartment Building
The concept for Farmhouse shows a vision of city living where people are more connected to their food—and get time in nature just by going out to their balcony.
07.24.19
The concept for Farmhouse shows a vision of city living where people are more connected to their food—and get time in nature just by going out to their balcony.
In the design for this new apartment building, each kitchen connects to a massive greenhouse. If you need a salad for dinner, you can harvest it yourself, or go to a farmers’ market in the lobby to buy greens from a neighbor.
[Image: courtesy Studio Precht]
The design is one variation on a modular system called Farmhouse—ranging from simple A-frame houses to multifamily buildings—intended to reconnect residents with the food system. The architects, from the Austria-based firm Studio Precht, were inspired by their own experience moving from Beijing to an off-grid life in the Austrian mountains that includes growing their own food. “It’s a very direct connection to nature,” says architect Chris Precht.
Read the complete article here.
How Tech Is Helping The Agriculture Sector Curb Carbon Emissions
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed stated that 2018 was a record-breaking year for climate, but 2019 doesn’t look much better. As the list of extreme weather events and climate shocks grows, so does our shared responsibility to act
A worker harvests Image: REUTERS/Edgar Su at a vertical farm in Singapore.
26 Jul 2019
Alzbeta Klein Director and Global Head, Climate Business , International Finance Corporation (IFC)
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed stated that 2018 was a record-breaking year for climate, but 2019 doesn’t look much better. As the list of extreme weather events and climate shocks grows, so does our shared responsibility to act.
For the agricultural sector, these weather events are particularly devastating, with increased cycles of more frequent floods and drought hitting many farmers. The good news is that, two years ago in Bonn, the world’s governments finally acknowledged for the first time that agriculture has a major role to play in our changing climate. Following a series of intense all-night discussions and years of division and deadlock, governments at COP23 finally agreed on the connection between industrialized farming and our warming climate.
The world’s leading climate scientists have concluded that how we farm and use our land (whether for food production, forestry, or other types of land use) is responsible for about one-quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. If we include emissions caused by the processing, transport, storage, cooling and disposal of the food that we consume, then that figure rises to more than 40% – an unthinkable price for how we farm and eat.
With the global population set to rise from 7.3 billion to 9.7 billion between now and 2050, world governments are faced with an overwhelming dilemma: how to feed the future without putting irreparable strain on our planet’s already overburdened soils and oceans? I believe that technology can get us there.
Agricultural technology – or agtech – approaches like precision farming, drought- and pest-resistant seeds, mobile phones and digital technology platforms are a solution. They boost farmers’ profits by cutting costs and increasing yields and benefiting customers the world over. But more technological innovation is needed. Fortunately, some of the International Finance Corporation’s partners are at the forefront of innovation when it comes to agtech.
Take Planet Labs, an innovative geospatial start-up that uses 149 earth-observing satellites to generate a daily stream of high-resolution images of the earth’s surface for farmers to understand crop and soil changes from pre-season to harvest.
Planet Lab’s goal is to take images of the Earth’s entire surface every day to make climate change visible, accessible and actionable, according to Tara O’Shea, Planet’s director of forestry. Founded in 2010 by three former NASA scientists, the company visualizes daily changes across the Earth’s surface in real time. Until now, satellite imagery data was not frequent enough to react to crop stress in a timely manner. Planet’s daily imagery has been a game changer in the digital ag space – enabling farmers to manage their precision agriculture at scale and farm more efficiently, profitably, and sustainably.
Agriculture isn’t just a rural concern. As urban density increases around the world, and more and more people move to cities, locally sourced food is taking on greater importance. Crop One Holdings is a “vertical farming" company that is transforming the landscape of indoor farming in urban areas.
The term vertical farm is relatively new. It refers to a method of growing crops – in Crop One Holding’s case, leafy greens and lettuce – usually without soil or natural light, in beds stacked vertically inside a controlled-environment building. One of the company’s 320 sq ft units can substitute up to 19 acres of farmland and use 1/2500th of the water usage of field-based growing. In Boston, a Crop One Holding one-acre farm produces yields equivalent to that of a regular 400-acre farm.
Crop One drastically reduces the length of transportation as well as carbon use, due to the farms’ proximity to consumers. There is no soil used in the growing, nor any chemical intervention or pesticides. Competitive field products are usually 12 to 15 days old by the time they are delivered to a store, resulting in significant losses for the retailer.
Vertical farms that rise to the challenge of climate change are still in the early stages of development, but a recent $40 million joint venture between Crop One and Emirates Flight Catering to build the world’s largest vertical farming facility in Dubai suggests that agtech business models are showing potential to scale across markets.
That’s good news for my climate business team at IFC, who are helping existing and potential agribusiness clients acquire and leverage new agricultural technologies for both large scale and smallholder farms. Our “climate-smart” approach targets animal protein, land and crops, and food losses, yielding $1.3 billion in investments since 2017. Agtech can accelerate these investments and help farmers adopt more sustainable agronomic practices.
At this year’s One Planet Summit, IFC signed two agreements with the Kenya Tea Development Agency Power Company Ltd. (KTDA Power): one that enables carbon credits, and another that will support KTDA with various advisory activities such as financial literacy training for farmers, soil testing for productivity improvement and development of a wood-sourcing strategy.
How we farm matters. In addition to record-breaking temperatures, super typhoons and drought, Deputy Secretary-General Mohammed has also spoken about how 5G technology and AI can build smarter agricultural systems.
Feeding our growing population requires revolutionary transformations in farming and land cultivation. Adopting pioneering agricultural technologies with the potential to increase yields while limiting greenhouse gas emissions is an essential step. If agriculture is to continue to feed the world, then we must enable technology to shape the farms of the future.
US: Pennsylvania - State Agriculture Secretary Tours 3 Urban Gardens In Erie
State and local officials toured urban gardens in Erie Wednesday as part of Urban Agriculture Week activities in Pennsylvania
By Christopher Millette
July 24, 2019
The visit by state Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding was part of Urban Agriculture Week activities in Pennsylvania
State and local officials toured urban gardens in Erie Wednesday as part of Urban Agriculture Week activities in Pennsylvania.
At the first stop, the student-maintained garden at Perry Elementary School, 955 W. 29th St., Erie, about 20 representatives from the Erie School District, Erie County government, local businesses and the state Department of Agriculture held a roundtable discussion about the effectiveness of the district’s urban gardens program, and urban gardening across the state in general.
Other planned tour stops included French Street Farms, at the corner of French and East 22nd streets, and the community garden run by the Sisters of St. Joseph Neighborhood Network, 425 W. 18th Street.
Russell Redding, state Secretary of Agriculture, began the tour at Perry Elementary School and noted the connection between locally-sourced food and economic development.
“It’s just important to celebrate what’s in Pennsylvania,” said Redding, who is touring urban agriculture sites across the state this week. “And a big part of that is our urban centers and what happens around food and agriculture.”
Redding also reminded roundtable participants about the state’s Urban Agriculture Infrastructure Grant program, which provides $500,000 in reimbursement grants to qualified applicants. The grants, which are part of the 2019 Pennsylvania Farm Bill, are meant to improve urban agriculture gardens and programs across the state.
Beginning Aug. 1, information about applying for the grant will be available on the state Department of Community and Economic Development website. The application deadline for the UAIG is Sept. 15.
Like all 15 of the Erie School District’s gardens, the Perry Elementary site is maintained by students. The 1,500 square-foot garden at Perry produces vegetables, herbs and flowers. Much of the produce goes home with Perry students, said Stephanie Ciner, an AmeriCorps Vista service member who helps maintain the district’s gardens. Ciner also said some of the gardens products are donated to the Emmaus Food Pantry on Erie’s east side.
One of the roundtable participants at Perry is taking an active part in the success of the garden.
Amanda Karns, 34, is a neighbor and works as a special projects coordinator at Harborcreek Youth Services in Harborcreek Township. She is coordinating a project with HYS clients, who are building and donating to the garden a set of rain barrel platforms.
Karns, who walked her daughter Charlie Karns, 1, around the garden during the discussion, is glad to be a part of the school’s garden program. “We’re really excited that this is here,” she said.
Christopher Millette can be reached at 870-1712 or by email. Follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/ETNMillette.
All photos by: CHRISTOPHER MILLETTE/ERIE TIMES-NEWS
Going Green: Urban Farming in Hanoi
In the past twenty years, Asian countries have experienced massive and unprecedented urban growth, and with it a host of new challenges, as swelling urban populations have increased pressure on resources such as land, food, and water
July 17, 2019
By Lesley Wynn
In the past twenty years, Asian countries have experienced massive and unprecedented urban growth, and with it a host of new challenges, as swelling urban populations have increased pressure on resources such as land, food, and water. As in other major cities in Asia, the rapid growth of Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, has had a dramatic impact on its citizens and the environment.
These changes have been particularly acute for Hanoi’s farmers. As agricultural communes have fallen under urban administration and rice land has been allocated to developers, farmers have lost much or all of their land—often their only source of income. Fragmented and noncontiguous agricultural plots make collective farming more difficult, and farmers’ cooperatives have dissolved or become inactive. With opportunities in nearby industrial zones limited by their age, education, and lack of transferable skills, these farmers are uniquely vulnerable to poverty and joblessness, and none more so than the middle-aged women, often supporting children and elderly parents, who make up the majority of this struggling population.
A Hanoi farmer walks through her fields. Urbanization has hit Hanoi’s farmers particularly hard.
At the same time, as the city expands, there is growing concern about food security for Hanoi’s nearly eight million residents. Demand has been rising for locally available “safe foods”—fruits and vegetables reliably free from pesticides and other toxic chemicals—but small-scale producers often don’t have the means or the technical training to meet the safe food requirements or satisfy market demand.
At the intersection of these agricultural, economic, and social problems lies the opportunity to rebuild and improve the infrastructure of cooperative urban farming. Since July 2014, The Asia Foundation has partnered with the GSRD Foundation on Sustainable Livelihoods, a project to improve the lives of low-income farmers in Hanoi and increase food security for urbanizing areas through the cultivation and marketing of safe fruits and vegetables.
The project combines training to increase yields through sustainable methods with business development skills to build brand recognition, consumer relationships, and financial management skills. Given the rapid development of new urban areas everywhere within the city limits, the project focuses on land managed by two communes on the banks of a river outside of protective dikes, an area where new permanent construction is forbidden due to flood risk. With support from Long Bien District, which built all-weather roads and a piped water system, the 274 members of these two cooperatives are now able to earn roughly $250 per month—more than full-time factory workers, but working roughly half the time. And as the farmers’ management skills have grown, they have been able to register under new regulations governing cooperatives. The project has been welcomed by the chair of the Hanoi People’s Committee, Nguyen Duc Chung, for increasing the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables, reducing transportation costs, and bringing urban residents into closer touch with the foods they eat.
Farmers working together at the Dong Tam Cooperative.
The Dong Tam Cooperative, in the district of Long Bien, began its transformation into a green cooperative in 2014 with support from Sustainable Livelihoods. “We used to grow vegetables using traditional practices,” says Mrs. Khoi, a Dong Tam farmer. “Our yields were low, our crops were of low quality, and they were sometimes unsafe for customers due to improper use of pesticides.” Farm incomes were low, and farm livelihoods were tenuous, as farmers mostly sold their surplus in baskets at sidewalk markets.
But an impact assessment survey in May 2018 found that Sustainable Livelihoods had brought significant changes. Thirty-eight percent of farm households were now cultivating at least three additional types of fruits and vegetables, and all the farmers trained in the program showed a commitment to green cultivation methods. Eighty-five percent said their monthly income from fruits and vegetables had grown at least 30 percent, and a Dong Tam business report showed that revenues per hectare increased by a factor of 2.6 from 2016 to 2017.
Members of the Dong Tam Cooperative.
The co-op also developed a new, consumer-driven marketing strategy. This included website development, video production, farm tours, weekend markets, customer appreciation events, a co-branding partnership with a nearby ecotourism business, connections to institutional and group buyers, and marketing materials to promote co-op members’ products. In one innovation, Dong Tam launched four mobile retail kiosks within nearby apartment blocks.
Sustainable Livelihoods builds on The Asia Foundation’s previous efforts in Long Bien to provide resources, training, and market access to farmers and support the transformation of their co-ops. Sustainable Livelihoods trainings have been shown to foster safe agricultural practices, improve business management, raise yields, create safer working conditions, and increase farmers’ incomes.
In one marketing innovation, Dong Tam launched four mobile retail kiosks within nearby apartment blocks.
The project’s work on improving market access has helped farmers develop a customer-producer trust network, essential to the long-term success of produce markets. Sustainable Livelihoods has also made public advocacy a priority, using workshops and local media to raise awareness of the positive social, economic, and environmental effects of safe food production within the urban boundaries of Hanoi.
Most importantly, the project has supported urban farmers, the majority of whom are women, in building up a community of support and raising awareness of the need for green urban farming.
Sustainable Livelihoods is made possible by the generous support of the GSRD Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Dutch designer-clothing brand G-Star Raw, whose grant-making focuses on the countries in which their products are made. Since 2013, the GSRD Foundation has partnered with The Asia Foundation to develop programs on women’s entrepreneurship and education in Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam. Lesley Wynn is an international development professional and a consultant for The Asia Foundation’s Resource Development Department. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author, not those of The Asia Foundation.
RELATED LOCATIONS: Vietnam
RELATED PROGRAMS: Environmental Resilience
Sheep Tour Around Paris To Boost Urban Farming
A flock of sheep that has taken a 140-kilometer (87-mile) tour around Paris, nibbling on the grass at historic monuments and housing blocks along the way, ended their 12-day journey on the banks of the river Seine on Wednesday.
FRENCH PRESS AGENCY - AFP
PARIS
17.07.2019
A farmer leads sheep during an urban transhumance in Paris on July, 17 2019 (AFP Photo)
A flock of sheep that has taken a 140-kilometer (87-mile) tour around Paris, nibbling on the grass at historic monuments and housing blocks along the way, ended their 12-day journey on the banks of the river Seine on Wednesday.
The trip began in the low-income Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis on July 6 and ended on Wednesday with the 25-strong flock on the left bank of the Seine near the Trocadero gardens in central Paris.
It was organized by local authorities to highlight the advantages of urban farming, in collaboration with a group called Urban Shepherds based in Aubervilliers, just north of Paris.
Guided by two shepherds, the flock was monitored by policemen on scooters and volunteer "walkers" on foot who helped them cross roads as they moved around the capital.
"For us, the most important thing is to show that it's possible to have sheep in the city," Julie-Lou Dubreuilh, co-founder of Urban Shepherds, told AFP at the start of the trip.
"The idea is to show there is a new up-and-coming profession," added the group's other founder, Guillaume Leterrier. "It is possible to create exceptional microsectors of meat production while ensuring that green spaces are maintained like we've done in the last three years."
Dubreuilh and Leterrier both have contracts with social housing landlords to let their animals graze on a weekly basis on the public housing estates of Seine-Saint-Denis.
The unusual presence of livestock caught the attention of many amused Parisians and motorists -- with some taking pictures or bleating in support.
Groups in Lyon, Marseille and Bruxelles are also experimenting with urban sheep.
Exploring The Power And Politics of Urban Agriculture
Urban Agriculture is a deep dive into who gets to till soil in the city and why. It looks at one central question posed on the syllabus: What do gardens do for people?
In the video above, students in MET’s Urban Agriculture class visit the Fenway Victory Gardens. Photo by Cydney Scott. Video by Jason Kimball
New MET class examines the subject’s roots in Boston
July 8, 2019
On an early June evening, Zachary Nowak and the students in his Urban Agriculture class are strolling through the Fenway Victory Gardens, the nation’s oldest victory garden, admiring the pristine beds of lettuce and mop-headed peonies growing there. But this outing is far more than a walk in the park. Sitting in the shadow of the Prudential and Hancock towers, the Fenway Victory Gardens predates both, a vestige of World War II, when citizen gardeners raised vegetables to aid the war effort.
Urban Agriculture students touring the Fenway Victory Gardens, the nation’s oldest victory garden, to learn more about what people grow in their garden plots. Photo by Jason Kimball
Today the garden remains, seven sunny acres divided into 500 individual plots surrounded by towering multimillion luxury condos and office buildings. How that occurred is what Nowak wants to discuss with his students. After the war, he explains, the Victory Gardens never reverted to city parkland as intended because the Fenway’s upper-middle-class residents used their clout to keep the gardens going, for decades successfully fighting off various proposals to build on the site.
“On the one hand, thank God. I mean, imagine if this was a big IRS building,” says Nowak, a Metropolitan College lecturer, gesturing to the patchwork of plots. “But I also don’t want you to lose sight of the fact that this is a public place and certain people are being allowed to enjoy it and others not. So there’s a trade-off here.”
Urban Agriculture is a deep dive into who gets to till soil in the city and why. It looks at one central question posed on the syllabus: What do gardens do for people? Nowak leads students on an exploration of local community gardens, school and prison gardening programs, and the guerilla gardens that appear on abandoned city lots as a way to better understand power and politics in the city.
Class instructor Zachary Nowak, a MET lecturer, says he’s interested in what urban agriculture says about the political economy we live in. Photo by Jason Kimball
Students visit the rooftop garden at Boston Medical Center, interview gardeners at some of the city’s historic community gardens, and explore the racial and ethnic dynamics that can frequently determine who gets to garden in the city and where. Nowak is uniquely qualified to lead the class. He finished a PhD in American studies at Harvard University last year, and as a postdoctoral fellow, he currently teaches classes at Harvard on the history of the built and natural environment. (He is working on a book about the social history of train stations in 19th-century American cities as well.)
He also lived in Italy for 12 years, where he cofounded a “sustainable studies” program at the Umbra Institute in Perugia and tended his own urban garden. He draws on those varied experiences for the class, he says, as well as on research in a variety of disciplines; economic concepts like neoliberalism and the role of government in urban agriculture are central to class discussions.
“The class is really not about urban agriculture” per se, Nowak says. “It’s about what urban agriculture can tell us about the political economy that we’re living in.”
A rogue garden
Some of those lessons were on display during a class trip to the Berkeley Community Garden in Boston’s South End, a 140-plot garden that has been a neighborhood fixture since the 1960s. Lesser known are its origins as a rogue garden planted by Chinese immigrants who wanted to grow traditional Chinese vegetables they either couldn’t afford to buy or couldn’t find in local markets. They tilled the soil along Berkeley Street, where housing had been razed for a highway on-ramp that never materialized, and began to cultivate the land.
The Urban Agriculture class explores the racial and ethnic dynamics that can frequently determine who gets to garden in the city and where. Photo by Cydney Scott
That was more than 50 years ago, a scruffier era in the South End. Today, the low-slung community garden sits within one of the city’s most desirable neighborhoods, surrounded by multimillion-dollar brownstones and wine bars.
Students went to the Berkeley garden to interview its gardeners and found that Chinese immigrants continue to garden there.
Grad student Jared Kaufman (MET), a freelance food writer interested in food policy, says the visit was a highlight of the course. Many gardens there remain dedicated to growing Asian vegetables, beans, or the distinctive hairy gourds that hang from the top of elaborate cages.
Other plots were devoted to cutting flowers, salad greens, and herbs, or transformed into postage stamp–size sitting areas. Kaufman says the visit raised questions about whether soaring property values and gentrification in Boston threaten the existence of some gardens.
“Support from the city can wither away at any moment,” he says, especially if the city has an incentive to see a site return to the property tax rolls.
Graduate student Jared Kaufman (MET) during a class tour of the Fenway Victory Gardens. Photo by Jason Kimball
Grad student Priyokti Rana (SPH), who is pursuing a master’s degree in public health with a focus on epidemiology and biostatistics, says the visit exposed unexpected tensions about the role the garden plays in the neighborhood: while some South End residents complained that some garden plots looked messy or smelled bad, she says, others described them as a lifeline.
Rana interviewed Helen, an aging Chinese gardener, who grows hairy gourds and other vegetables in her plot as her main form of recreation. “That was so interesting,” Rana says. “The class was definitely more political than I expected.”
Students also consider the role of government in urban agriculture, particularly if community gardens are used to justify government cutbacks in social service programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps.
Grad student Sarah Hartwig (MET), a graduate assistant in BU’s Programs in Food & Wine, is working on a master’s in gastronomy. She says the class debated the implications of neoliberalism and whether community gardens are an answer to food insecurity.
“By filling that vacuum, urban gardens often inadvertently reinforce the system they were responding to,” Hartwig says.
That’s the kind of big thinking about tiny plots of land that fuels lively class discussions. Nowak says he also tries to give students high- and low-tech tools that will help them comprehend and absorb extensive reading assignments more quickly. This includes teaching his self-developed system of highlighting texts and speed reading. (He jokes that he was a grad student for so long, he’s really good at it.)
To honor the Berkeley Community Garden’s guerilla garden legacy, the class is creating signage in English and Chinese that tells the story of its history and evolution and will be posted at the garden.
Anyone walking by the gardens today, Nowak says, would have no idea what it’s about, its role in the community, or its unique staying-power. “It’s like residents have got a place on the Cape, right there outside their door,” he says. “It doesn’t always happen like that.”
Why Shipping Container Farming?
The local food trend isn't going away anytime soon, but as demand increases, traditional farmers and restaurants are faced with the challenge of providing fresh, hyper-local food year-round
Local Food Is Here To Stay
The local food trend isn't going away anytime soon, but as demand increases, traditional farmers and restaurants are faced with the challenge of providing fresh, hyper-local food year-round.
Since the advent of the grocery store, customer's have become accustomed to an endless summer regarding the variety of produce available on store shelves regardless of where they live. In order to feed the rising demand for local food, as well as meet the nutritional needs of a growing population, methods of indoor farming are a large part of the solution designed to meet increasing demand created by the local food movement.
There are a variety of approaches to growing crops in indoor environments including home growing, retrofitting warehouses, rooftop farming, and of course, container farming. If you want to learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of these practices, read our article on Comparing Different Indoor Farming Methods. But in this article, we are going to focus on what makes freight farming so accessible to new farmers, no matter where they're located.
An (extremely) brief history lesson
The number of farms producing the food we eat here in the United States has dropped by roughly 70% since the 1930's, leaving the majority of the food we eat grown by giant corporations, often shipped from hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Despite this trend, however, consumers' appetite for local food is growing. In 2014, local foods generated nearly 12 billion in sales and are expected to double by 2019. While the "local" label conjures up images of small farms, pastoral scenes, or perhaps even urban farming operations, the reality is, big box retailers are elbowing their way into the space and capitalizing on the trend.
Studies show that only about one-third of small farms has a designated successor in the family, in part because many young people are unwilling to make the significant financial investment in an industry that requires them to work long hours and has a somewhat antiquated reputation.
Container farming can work for anyone
The Leafy Green Machine at Google's Campus in Mountain View, CA.
At Freight Farms, we're committed to lowering the barriers to entry for small farmers by decreasing the start-up cost of farming and increasing the productivity on a per-square-foot basis. Furthermore, the automation inside the farm makes container farming less labor intensive than traditional agriculture and other indoor growing techniques, meaning that you have more time to grow the business side of your operation or pursue your other interests and entrepreneurial endeavors.
Container farming works well in both urban and rural settings and can function as a stand-alone business, or be an accessory to your existing farm or restaurant, making it easier for both small businesses and institutions to incorporate truly sustainable practices. It's a great learning tool, plus it can feed your employees, guests, or students.
Although some of our farmers come from farming backgrounds, many freight farmers are new to the industry. Part of our mission here at Freight Farms is to provide both the hardware and software solutions to simplify the hydroponic growing process, so that any company, individual or organization can grow fresh produce year-round no matter what their technical or farming experience might be.
“I just remember when we harvested our first round of produce the pride that our department felt – none of us are farmers! – in knowing that we made this happen ”
— Lenore Musick, Executive Director, Sustainability Initiatives at Georgia State.
A complete farming system inside a box
Unlike other indoor growing methods, the Greenery comes fully assembled to allow you seamlessly kickstart your farm and get growing.
Turnkey: The Greenery is a complete hydroponic growing system in a box. Meaning, freight farmers can perform every farm-related task from seeding to harvesting and packaging right inside the container!
Climate Controlled: Intuitive climate controls automatically respond to air and water sensors inside the farm to ensure an ideal growing environment for your crops.
Automated: Inside each farm is a central brain that is programmed to automatically adjust all the components inside the farm so that it's creating the perfect environment. That means the climate is managed by the Greenery, enabling farmers to focus on growing the crops and their business.
Remote Monitoring and Control: The farmhand® mobile application allows our freight farmers to remotely monitor and control the climate components inside the farm such as the lights, temperature, and humidity, so they can know what's going on inside the farm, even when they're not there.
Scaleable: The modular and stackable design of the Greenery allows you to quickly scale up your farming operation or start a new business from scratch.
Artificial Intelligence And Controlled Environment Agriculture
As the role of controlled environment growing increases in agriculture, so does the opportunity for artificial intelligence. But can AI replace the human touch? Kent Gruetzmacher investigates
Kent Gruetzmacher | July 15, 2019
Takeaway: As the role of controlled environment growing increases in agriculture, so does the opportunity for artificial intelligence. But can AI replace the human touch? Kent Gruetzmacher investigates.
As both a process and vocation, controlled environment agriculture (CEA) is intimately entwined with technology. As CEA gets increasingly sophisticated through technological advancements, how these developments will affect horticultural processes and, in turn, world food supplies, remains largely unknown. At the forefront of new frontiers in CEA technology lies artificial intelligence (AI), which can potentially forever change the way humankind procures fresh produce, largely by replacing human labor with mechanized production.
We live in a world increasingly dependent upon, and defined by, technology. This notion rings true in almost every facet of day-to-day life in the 21st century, including communication, entertainment, and work. Similarly, for those living in the Western world, this same technology contributes to meeting our general human needs, as food is readily available for most people at grocery stores and beyond. Yet, our current food subsistence patterns are far from infallible and the technologies that make commercial agriculture possible are falling short on several fronts.
These shortcomings are evident in pesticide- and preservative-laden food sources as well as hungry human populations in less-fortunate regions of the globe.
Over the last few decades, CEA production has grown leaps and bounds in its scale and capabilities. Many believe CEA practices such as urban agriculture and vertical farming will eventually help resolve global food crises. This positive outlook is largely because of technological advancements in “smart” environmental controls and LED lighting, which have made CEA production viable, as well as profitable, on a commercial scale for the first time.
Sophisticated irrigation systems have also drastically reduced the amount of human labor required in propagating crops. For many CEA advocates and technology authorities, AI is the next phase in streamlining and sophisticating agricultural procedure as well as global subsistence patterns.
Why Artificial Intelligence?
There are several reasons why AI has so much potential in the world of CEA. These reasons mainly have to do with notions of horticultural processes and labor efficiency. Today, automation is already an essential element in most CEA growing, and its benefits are related to both consistency and efficiency in operations. For example, smart controllers take much of the guesswork out of troubleshooting environmental issues, while fertigation systems accomplish irrigation in a controlled and effective fashion.
Artificial intelligence has the capabilities to take these advancements even further.
Technology authorities postulate that AI can potentially circumvent human interaction with horticultural processes and garden maintenance almost in their entirety. According to agfundernews.com: “Hypothetically, it is possible for machines to learn to solve any problem on Earth relating to the physical interaction of all things within a defined or contained environment… by using artificial intelligence and machine learning.” The important take away here is the idea AI systems can learn as well as make choices based on the objective constraints that dictate rational human decision making.
Concerning both production and labor, this avant garde theory pushes notions of CEA automation to their absolute extremes. This AI learning concept postulates robots would be at the controls of environmental and irrigation systems that currently require human intervention in the way of fine tuning and decision making. Also, AI could circumvent human error from these processes by removing the human labor needed to grow CEA crops.
While these ultramodern appraisals of AI and CEA cultivation can seem somewhat alarming, many see a real potential benefit in the technology, namely because humans are, well, undependable. The industry is traditionally plagued by labor shortages in jobs that aren’t very attractive to even the most entry-level employees. Many companies, in CEA and beyond, understand the struggles of finding dependable help for their businesses, with tech retail giant Amazon currently employing more than 40,000 robots in its warehouse operations.
In agriculture, there are several robots being developed that can handle more rudimentary CEA garden chores such as leaf pruning. When it comes to AI learning applications and high-level jobs in CEA, it’s worth noting even the most rudimentary human error in fertilization or irrigation can have devastating effects on crops. Large vertical farming companies are aware of this and are currently implementing AI help in certain facets of their operations.
Read also: Automation Options for Outdoor Soil Gardens
Sensors and Data Analytics
Artificial intelligence applications in CEA are entirely data driven — machines both gather, as well as use, this information as the basis of machine learning. This sort of remote sensing, data compiling technology is already widely popular in more advanced CEA operations, especially regarding soil and air sensors. These technological advancements are used to measure moisture levels in grow mediums, and temperature and humidity levels in the air, and give cultivators real-time updates on the working analytics of their operations.
Commercial agriculture operations are taking notions of remote sensors and data analytics to the extreme by way of drone sensing. Some commercial farms use drones to fly over fields of crops and take precise readings of growth patterns and environmental conditions. This data informs growers, in real time, what sort of elements their garden is lacking or burdened with — allowing them to make proactive decisions in counteracting potential problems.
For the time being, drone technology in commercial agriculture is still being utilized to inform rational decision-making in the human mind — but many feel these processes would be integral with informing data matrices in the “minds” of AI machines.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Potential advances, as well as drawbacks, of AI applications for CEA can be drawn from current mainstream research — such as with IBM — into the technology’s capabilities regarding commercial agriculture. agfundernews.com reports: “Interviews with some of the IBM project team members … revealed that the team believed it was entirely possible to ‘algorithm’ agriculture, meaning that algorithms could solve any problem in the world.”
While IBM’s claims are grandiose and positive in nature, they are not entirely unreasonable. Major computer tech companies such as Google and Pandora already utilize algorithms to isolate relevant data, make decisions, and cater to human needs. However, all these algorithmic applications depend upon objectively derived, predictable points of data in informing the machine learning process.
When it comes to creating algorithms for agriculture, researchers have been running into countless problems stemming from the unpredictability of the natural world. There are countless variables contributing to weather patterns around the globe; the nuances of these factors are far beyond the scope of human understanding. This notion is relevant because humankind cannot program machines to learn about environmental systems that we don’t yet understand, and AI cannot make the critical step in accounting for anomalous factors in weather or crop production. Therefore, our technology is only as strong as the data we supply it with via our own knowledge.
While issues with environmental predictability that plague AI applications in traditional agriculture may not seem to affect CEA production as intensely, there are still factors that make AI fall short in controlling CEA growing in its entirety. For instance, many greenhouse gardens are still largely at the mercy of Mother Nature and present challenges with anomalous weather patterns.
Similarly, indoor growing operations experience problems with such irregularities as equipment failure and power outages, which only human intervention can fix.
Controlled environment agriculture crop production is only as strong as the equipment and human labor supporting it, so the balance between these two continues to shift under the pressures of new advancements with technology such as AI. This notion presents an interesting crux in modern cultivation processes, as automation can provide a more efficient platform for consistency than with human labor. However, machines cannot account for the rhythms of the natural world or other operational variances.
Many accomplished horticulturists understand the intuitive touch it takes to produce exceptional crops — this intuition comes as a feeling rather than as a form of objective knowledge or data. AI and other technological advancements in CEA growing have their place in today’s horticultural processes, yet cannot match the capacity for creativity explicit in the human mind.
Written by Kent Gruetzmacher
Kent Gruetzmacher is a California-based freelance writer and the west coast director of business development at Mac & Fulton Executive Search and Consulting, an employment recruiting firm dedicated to the indoor gardening and hydroponics industries. He is interested in utilizing his Master of Arts in humanities to explore the many cultural and business facets of this emerging industry by way of his entrepreneurial projects.
Rooftop Farm-to-Table Food Part of Javits Expansion
The new venture will source food from a working farm being built on the roof as part of the center’s massive expansion. Brooklyn Grange will manage the farm and work with the Cultivated culinary team
by REW July 19, 2019
The 1.2 million Javits Center expansion is expected to be complete next year.
The Javits Center is launching a new hospitality brand aimed at offering a locally grown and celebrated food and beverage operation to exhibitors and visitors.
The new venture will source food from a working farm being built on the roof as part of the center’s massive expansion.
The New York Convention Center Operating Corporation (NYCCOC), which operates the Javits Center, has joined with Levy Convention Centers and CxRA to launch the brand called Cultivated.
NYCCOC president Alan Steel believes Cultivated will redefine hospitality at the Javits Center undergoes 1.2 million square foot set to be completed in 2021.
The 1.2-million-square-foot addition has been designed by tvsdesign at a cost of nearly $1.5 billion. It will increase the total area of the facility to 3.3 million square feet and add an extra 22,000 s/f to what is already the largest green roof in New York City.
In collaboration with a design/build team led by Lendlease (US) Construction LMB Inc. and Turner Construction, the project features 90,000 s/f of permanent exhibit space, to be combined with current exhibit space, which will create an approximately 500,000 s/f exhibition hall.
In addition, the expansion will include 45,000 s/f of meeting room space, a 55,000 s/f ballroom, and a green roof terrace and pavilion accommodating 1,500 people for outdoor events.
As an urban convention center, the team is also creating an on-site truck marshaling facility with room for more than 230 event and exhibit related trucks and 27 new loading docks out of the public view.
The new Cultivated hospitality venture will focus on sustainability and community and use of state-of-the-art technology to create “an inspirational culinary experience that captures the vibrancy and vitality of the greatest city in the world.”
As well as the rooftop pavilion and outdoor space, the expansion will include additional kitchens, multiple food preparation stations and loading docks, all designed to transform the on-site catering experience.
Andy Lansing, president and CEO of Levy. “We’re rolling up our sleeves and working closely with the restaurants, purveyors, farms, and community organizations that define New York’s culinary scene. Anyone who visits Javits Center should leave feeling like they experienced the best the city and state have to offer.”
All event managers, exhibitors and attendees at the Javits Center will now be served by the Cultivated team.
New menus and a new microsite are dedicated to advanced and on-site catering services and a leadership team at Cultivated will leverage local resources and producer partnerships to showcase New York offerings.
The Javits Center will offer coffee roasted by El Dorado Coffee Roasters, based in the Maspeth section of Queens and sustainable beer made by re-using bread made on-site in partnership with a local brewery.
There will be a line of products infused with honey harvested from the Javits Center’s rooftop bee hives; and straws will be scrapped as the center introduces 100 percent compostable serviceware
Cultivated will also play a role in the success of a one-acre rooftop working farm being constructed as part of the expansion project.
When completed, the farm is expected to produce up to 40,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables, which will be directed to the convention center’s kitchens where Cultivated staff will create a true roof-to-table experience for customers throughout the year.
Brooklyn Grange will manage the farm and work with the Cultivated culinary team.
I Ate The Freshest Lettuce You’ll Find In N.J. And It Was Grown In A Metal Garden
A giant lime-green storage container parked behind Robbinsville Township’s Senior Center is not what I imagined I’d be looking at when I learned the town had a public garden. But that’s exactly what it is and the magic happening inside the 40-foot-long space might surprise you
July 23, 2019
Visitors exit the Robbinsville Hydroponic Farm, a vertical hydroponic shipping container – called the Leafy Green Machine (LGM). TT Michael Mancuso
A giant lime-green storage container parked behind Robbinsville Township’s Senior Center is not what I imagined I’d be looking at when I learned the town had a public garden. But that’s exactly what it is and the magic happening inside the 40-foot-long space might surprise you.
Affectionately called the “leafy green machine” by the staff that runs the garden in a box, it operates on a hydroponics system, which, after stepping inside, made me feel like I was inside a sci-fi movie with its eery lights and machinery.
The storage container-turned-garden, which cost the town $104,000, was first installed in 2017. Its main focus is to provide local residents with fresh vegetables that are able to be grown year-round in nutrient-rich water without the need for dirt or pesticides.
Lettuce being prepared for packaging at Robbinsville's hydroponic garden.
“This is really a great urban solution to bring localized greens to residents,” said Kyle Clement, the farm’s coordinator. Clement was hired shortly after graduating from Rutgers to oversee the farm’s production.
Despite its tiny size, the storage container allows them to grow the same amount of crops as a 32,000-square-foot plot of land, which amounts to about 500 heads of lettuce harvested a week. The majority of the produce — lettuce and kale, and eventually herbs like basil — is donated to the town’s senior center and the Mercer Street Friends food bank. The rest is sold to residents who sign up through the town’s program and pay $20 for four weeks of veggies.
I got a tour of the space on a recent afternoon. The inside of the container was mostly dark and was almost solely lit by blue and red LED lights. The closest I’ve come to have an experience like this is when I took a darkroom photography workshop in middle school.
The sides of the storage box are lined with rows and rows of white vertical shelves, which is where the heads of lettuce grow.
As Clement walked me through the process of farming, he pulled one of the inward-facing shelves off its stop to reveal the most perfect and symmetrical heads of lettuce that I’ve ever seen.
The reason these veggies look so perfect has to do with their growing process, which goes a little something like this:
Everything is grown from seeds. They first start out in the seed nursery for about three weeks until the lettuce bulb is big enough to fit into the vertical rack. From there, the entire growing process is controlled and monitored by the farm’s computer system.
“The sensors take all of the readings of water, temperature and pH levels, which are sent to the farm computer, and the computer reads it and adjusts the environment as needed,” Clement said.
The vertical growing system requires no soil and uses a drip water method that conserves 90% of the water used. Any water that isn’t absorbed by the vegetables is collected by the box’s irrigation system to be reused.
Instead of sunlight, the LED lights provide the energy the plants need to grow. The red and blue wavelength lights provide optimal light to the leafy vegetables growing in each garden.
Once the vegetables are fully grown, they are harvested by Clement and a team of volunteers each week. The heads of the lettuce are pulled from the vertical stacks and are cleaned on a workbench before being bagged and prepared for customers.
On my way out of the tour, Clement handed me a bag of lettuce and a flyer promising me the best vegetables I had ever tasted. So I obviously had to put the claim to the test.
I went home and made myself a salad for lunch. I added some tomatoes and cucumbers with chicken and balsamic dressing. This is pretty much my go-to salad recipe but the super fresh greens really pushed it to the next level.
To start, washing off all the heads of lettuce was super easy because there was no lingering dirt particles clinging to the leaves, so I managed to get things prepared in only a couple of minutes.
The taste and texture were also great and I give that credit to knowing the lettuce was just harvested a few days ago and hadn’t been sitting on a truck and going through shipping for weeks at a time.
When I was done with my lunch I still had enough lettuce left over for at least one or two more meals, and I definitely intend on making them last. Robbinsville residents who want to sign up can register online. Customers will be able to pick up their vegetables at the senior center.
Olivia Rizzo may be reached at orizzo@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @LivRizz. Have a tip? Tell us.nj.com/tips.
Pink Farms Secures Early Funding To Bring Vertical Farming To Brazil
Post-harvest food losses can reach 40% in many places, and Brazil is no exception. São Paulo-based Pink Farms has raised two million reals ($532,000) to combat food waste by bringing the farms into the city
Impact Tech | July 17, 2019
ImpactAlpha, July 18 – Post-harvest food losses can reach 40% in many places, and Brazil is no exception. São Paulo-based Pink Farms has raised two million reals ($532,000) to combat food waste by bringing the farms into the city.
The funding round was backed by agribusiness venture capital firm SP Ventures and seed venture fund Capital Lab. Pink Farms will use the funding to build its first large-scale facility to grow greens and vegetables in São Paulo.
The company is an early mover in vertical farming in Brazil, but globally, its peers have been raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in investment capital to improve the nascent technology’s capabilities and costs.
New Jersey-based AeroFarms and Germany’s InFarm both recently raised $100 million funding rounds to support their vertical farming growth.
Need For Fresh Office Fruit Is Growing Steadily In Germany
Many companies now offer their employees free fruit. People can organize that themselves or can employ a delivery service. These are now available in almost every town, says the Handwerksblatt.
Number of Delivery Points is Increasing At A Rapid Pace
Many companies now offer their employees free fruit. People can organize that themselves or can employ a delivery service. These are now available in almost every town, says the Handwerksblatt.
Enzio Reuß has been the proud managing director of Fruitful Office since 2011. The delivery service is based, among others, in Frankfurt a.M. - Pictures: Freshplaza.de
Once or twice a week, a fresh fruit basket will be delivered to the office. Bananas, apples, pears, grapes, peaches or kiwis. Employees can pick whatever, whenever. "Fresh fruit is probably the simplest and most cost-effective method of sustainably increasing the quality of life of employees," says Enzio Reuß, who founded Fruitful Office in 2011, a nationwide delivery service for fruit baskets.
Identification with the company
Reuss is convinced that a serving of fruit a day already helps to reduce absenteeism. In addition to this, it helps to increase the loyalty to the company when management regularly supplies fresh fruit.
For more information:
Fruitful Office GmbH
GF: Enzio Reuß
Central: Dieselstraße 37
60314 Frankfurt
+49 69 43008208-0
enzio@fruitfuloffice.de
www.fruitfuloffice.de
Publication date: 7/19/2019
Why An Entrepreneur Believes Urban Farming Is The Future In D.C.
Acky's company, Little Wild Things uses small, under utilized outdoor spaces in D.C., 80 percent of her farming is done indoors. When chefs call, Acky and her team deliver quickly
by WJLA
Friday, July 19th 2019
Mary Acky owns Little Wild Things, an indoor farming business in D.C. Friday, July 19, 2019. (ABC7 photo)
WASHINGTON (WJLA) — Down an unmarked trail at a monastery in Northeast Washington, you might not expect a farm delivering to some of the District's top restaurants.
Please Click Here to View the Video
And in an unmarked warehouse near Union Market, you probably wouldn’t expect an indoor farm.
But that’s exactly what’s happening. Meet Mary Acky—a young entrepreneur— she’s innovating the way America farms are created.
Acky and her team of six employees, don’t just grow regular fruits and vegetables. They grow micro greens. Smaller, nutrient packed greens ready to eat just days after planting.
In terms of health, micro greens in general have about 4-6 times the nutrient density of a fully grown version of a plant.
Acky's company, Little Wild Things uses small, under utilized outdoor spaces in D.C., 80 percent of her farming is done indoors. When chefs call, Acky and her team deliver quickly.
She believes farming innovation in cities, both indoor and outdoor, must be the future.
Anyone can order from Little Wild Things by going to their website or visiting them at the Dupont Farmers Market.
Wilmington’s First Vertical Farm Clears A Final Hurdle
An amendment to the City Code was needed for Second Chances Farm, which aims to employ people returning from the prison system with urban agriculture jobs, to start operating in its Northeast location.
City Council member Zanthia Oliver and Mayor Mike Purzycki show off recently harvested hydroponic lettuce from Second Chance Farms. (Photo by Holly Quinn)
An amendment to the City Code was needed for Second Chances Farm, which aims to employ people returning from the prison system with urban agriculture jobs, to start operating in its Northeast location.
A lot of things have had to come together in order to make Second Chances Farm, founded by entrepreneur and TEDxWilmington organizer Ajit George, a reality.
As an Opportunity Zone project, there were applications and approvals; a reentry program was established with a Delaware Department of Corrections contractor; a location on Bowers Street in Northeast Wilmington was secured.
There was one more detail: The City of Wilmington, which has been supportive of the program that aims to employ people returning from the prison system with $15-an-hour “green collar” urban agriculture jobs, had to officially put it in writing that indoor farms are permitted in the city.
On Wednesday, July 30, at the offices of Second Chance Farms on West 13th Street, the legislation sponsored by City Council member Zanthia Oliver, which amended Chapter 48 of the City Code to permit indoor commercial horticultural operations, was signed by Mayor Mike Purzycki.
A small version of the hydroponic unit is up and running in the office, growing four tiers of lettuce and basil under the cool LED lights; the units that will be in the Northeast location — 400 of them — will be eight tiers high.
“There’s no soil used, just water,” said Evan Bartle, chief growing officer for Second Chances Farm, lifting a panel of basil plants to show the roots. What looks like soil at the base of the plants is actually rockwool — “rock that has been spun out like cotton candy,” Bartle said. The reusable medium, a standard in commercial hydroponics, is used to support the plants above the water.
After signing the amendment, they mayor ceremonially cut the first leaves of lettuce with (slightly) oversized golden scissors and had a taste.
“This is the baby lettuce that restaurants love,” said George. (And, yes, it tastes very good — members of the press were also given samples of the lettuce to try.)
When the farm official opens on Bowers Street, in a building conveniently named The Opportunity Center, it will provide jobs for returning citizens with the goal of reducing recidivism in Wilmington, while providing locally grown, chemical-free produce to businesses in the region.
In addition to the vertical farm, the facility will offer services including CrossFit or a gym to employees and community members.
Check out more pics from the event:
(Photos by Holly Quinn)
Coworking Produce Subscriptions - Wework And Freight Farms Are Offering Members Fresh Greens
Unconventional partnerships often bring about the best ideas, and this rings true with a collaboration formed between WeWork and Freight Farms, in which members of the coworking space are able to receive fresh and locally grown produce
By: Ellen Smith - Jul 19, 2019
References: freightfarms
Unconventional partnerships often bring about the best ideas, and this rings true with a collaboration formed between WeWork and Freight Farms, in which members of the coworking space are able to receive fresh and locally grown produce.
This partnership follows the announcement that WeWork is making moves in the agricultural space, as the brand announced the WeWork Food Labs at the beginning of 2019.
In this particular partnership with Freight Farms, WeWork is aligning its brand with conscious consumerism and sustainability, allowing its members to subscribe to a weekly delivery of fresh greens delivered to WeWork locations.
The subscription program is available for $12.50 weekly, or $50 monthly, effectively bridging accessible food, with convenience and affordability
WEWORK X FREIGHT FARMS
A UNIQUE FARM-TO-OFFICE PROGRAM DIRECTLY AT YOUR WEWORK LOCATION
PROGRAM BASICS
Weekly delivery of fresh greens
Pick up at your WeWork location
Greens delivered less than 24-hours after harvest
$50/month (only $12.50 per box!)
Start date week of July 8th, 2019
24 deliveries between July and December
REGISTER TODAY
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
+ How long is the program?
Each session is 6 months (24 weeks) long. The program starts the week of July 8th through the week of December 16th. You’ll be setup to auto-renew and we’ll be sure to remind you with plenty of time if you’d prefer to cancel instead.
+ How does pick-up work?
For WeWork offices we’ll be delivering shares on Tuesday afternoons after harvesting that same morning. Shares will be delivered between 2 - 4 pm close to your community manager’s desk.
+ What if I’m out during pick-up?
Since we deliver only once a week, we will not be able to defer pick up on an individual basis (we will find alternate days and notify you if pick-up conflicts with a holiday). If there’s no way around picking up your share, we recommend gifting it to someone in your office.
+ How does payment work?
The cost for the full subscription is due upon sign-up. At $50/month, the full subscription cost is $300.
+ How frequently will I be charged?
Your subscription will automatically renew at 24 weeks unless you decide to cancel. If you don’t cancel in time, we will have already planted your shares of the greens and we won’t be able to retroactively cancel your subscription or issue a refund.
+ How does cancellation work?
All of the program dates are scheduled around the farm’s growing schedule. As an early adopter, you will have the option to cancel within the first month (July 8 - August 2) for a $250 refund and you would still receive shares through those four weeks. After August 2nd, there is no cancellation allowed. However, you would be able to transfer the remainder of your subscription to someone else at a WeWork office.
+ How do I provide input?
After your first month, we’ll begin soliciting periodic feedback to influence what we grow in the WeWork farm. You will see the direct impact roughly 2 months after providing feedback since that is the typical time it takes to grow new crops.
+ How can I get in contact with Freight Farms about my share?
For any and all questions, simply email weworkgrown@freightfarms.com and the WeWork designated member of our Grown Ops team will provide you with an answer.
+ How often will you be emailing me directly?
We will be reaching out… Once a week, to remind you about pick up and share recipes. Once a month, with reminders to collect feedback. As needed, if there’s any change to the pick up schedule. Towards the end of your subscription, with information about auto-renewal and the cancellation window. And ASAP, in response to any of your emails!