Sustainable Food Lab Home. Vertical Farms Need a Residential Piggyback. Urban farming continues to ride the wave of sustainability with efforts sprouting up across the country that find very real and fruitful results. The rush of interest has maintained conversations of massive towers buried in the center of urban cores to produce local, sustainable crops for city dwellers.
However, the conceptual mecca of farming in the city, vertical farms, still remains mired in the theoretical world due largely to the unwillingness of any funding sources to make the first cut on a bleeding edge development pattern. On their own, large vertical farms in the cityscape bring costs that may be insurmountable for a largely unproven model, but if the system was paired with high-end residential and positioned as an amenity then new crops could get the prime exposure they need to test their strength where it its needed most. The Planting of Blocks The fascination for farming in cities bears a greats deal of latent merit. Efficient Doesn’t Always Mean Cheap. Verti-Gro Company Profile. Eat Well Guide :: Local, Sustainable, Organic Food. Up On The Roof: Vegetables! The bagged organic baby mixed greens on sale in my local Whole Foods Market in Bethesda, MD, are not very “green” at all.
To grow the lettuce, vast amounts of water must be moved from the Colorado River to California, the most hydrologically altered landmass on the planet. The lettuce is picked, packaged, washed and shipped in refrigerated trucks (because it’s perishable) roughly 2,800 miles across America. The cost? $3.99. If you believe, as I do, that the demand for water and oil are going to grow, this five oz. bag of greens will only get more expensive. There ought to be a better way of getting lettuce into the hands of supermarket shoppers. Paul Lightfoot, the chief executive of BrightFarms, a New York City-based startup, thinks he has found one: His company is planning to design, build, finance and operate hydroponic greenhouse farms on supermarket rooftops, eliminating time, distance and cost from the food supply chain.
A mockup of a BrightFarm on a roof Paul Lightfoot. Aquaponic Aquaculture Resource in Midtown Sacramento California. Grow a Living Wall. Cool Copper Projects Warm metallic hues are easy to love but often pricey. When you create the look... Easy Doily Bowl Craft a decorative bowl from a doily picked up from a flea market, antique... Camper Birdhouse Encourage birds to stay awhile with an adorable vintage birdhouse. The Vertical Farm Project - Agriculture for the 21st Century and Beyond | www.verticalfarm.com. OBSESSIVES: URBAN FARMING - CHOW.com.