Urban Farming - Solutions For The Coming Starvation

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

Urban Farming - Solutions For The Coming Starvation



San Francisco's New Victory Garden
Mayor Gavin Newsom helps Slow Food Nation plant the first edible garden at City Hall since 1943 During World War II, civilians across the country were encouraged to aid the war effort by growing their own food in so-called victory gardens

Farm of the Future?
Vertical farms, like this one envisioned in downtown Toronto, theoretically would bring food production into the heart of population centers, with one farmscraper feeding thousands of people

Boston Harvest
The Food Project in Boston grows nearly a quarter of a million pounds of food without chemical pesticides, donating half to local shelters and selling the remainder at farmers' markets in disadvantaged neighborhoods or through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) crop "shares"

Tower of Food
Vertical farms like this one envisioned on the Chicago waterfront would grow food closer to where it is consumed, thus eliminating much of the fuel and transportation costs

Model of Self-Sufficiency
Seattle-based architecture firm Mithun designed this vertical farm so that it would not require any water from municipalities and would also use photovoltaic cells to produce nearly 100% of the building's electricity

Powering Up a Sky Farm
A vertical-farm design by French architect Pierre Sartoux includes rooftop wind turbines to help power the enterprise and uses a light-shading skin that can be opened and closed to control exposure to the sun

Farming on the Roof
The nonprofit Food Project works to achieve both social and agricultural change by bringing together kids from diverse backgrounds to farm several lots in urban Boston, like this one on a hospital roof, along with 31 acres in nearby Lincoln, Mass

A New Food Pyramid
Co-designed by Columbia Professor Dickson Despommier, this building — like other proposed vertical farms — could grow food year-round in a controlled environment No exposure to parasites or bugs would mean no pesticides needed

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (and Other Stuff Too)
On the site of a former asphalt-covered playground in Brooklyn, N.Y.
, the Red Hook Community Farm provides job training to local teens Of the more than 40 crops grown here, some are sold at farmers' markets, others to local restaurants and the rest is donated to those in need

Hydroponic High-Rise
Instead of filling a vertical farm with soil, plants could be grown indoors hydroponically with just the roots submerged in water, thus reducing the weight the structure needs to support

From City Field to Fork
Food grown at San Francisco's City Hall will be donated to local food banks and meal programs for those with limited access to fresh produce



http://www. time. com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1825907,00. html

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Vertical Farming
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Time Magazine
By Bryan Walsh Thursday, Dec 11, 2008

http://www. time. com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1865974,00. html

Dickson Despommier became the guru of vertical farming because his students were bummed out. A professor of environmental health at Columbia University in New York City, Despommier teaches about parasitism, environmental disruption and other assorted happy topics. Eventually his students complained; they wanted to work on something optimistic. So the class began studying the idea of rooftop gardening for cities. They quickly discarded that approach--too small-scale--in favor of something more ambitious: a 30-story urban farm with a greenhouse on every floor. "I think vertical farming is an idea that can work in a big way," says Despommier.
(See pictures of urban farming)

Why would we want to build skyscrapers filled with lettuce when we've been farming on the ground for 10,000 years? Because as the world's population grows--from 6.8 billion now to as much as 9 billion by 2050--we could run out of productive soil and water. Most of the population growth will occur in cities that can't easily feed themselves.
Add the fact that modern agriculture and everything associated with it--deforestation, chemical-laden fertilizers and carbon-emitting transportation--is a significant contributor to climate change, and suddenly vertical farming doesn't seem so magic beanstalk in the sky

"Vertical farming could allow food to be grown locally and sustainably," says Glen Kertz, CEO of Valcent, a tech company based in El Paso, Texas, that's trying out the process. His firm uses hydroponic greenhouse methods to grow upward rather than out.
The result saves space--vital in urban areas--and allows farmers to irrigate and fertilize with far less waste

At Valcent's El Paso lab, potted crops grow in rows on clear vertical panels that rotate on a conveyor belt. Moving them gives the plants the precise amount of light and nutrients needed, an optimization that Kertz says lets him grow 15 times as much lettuce per acre as on a normal farm, using 5% of the water that conventional agriculture does.
The company aims to finish a commercial-scale facility by early 2009

Despommier's plans are even grander. He has drawn up models for a 30-story, city-block-size vertical farm that would have transparent walls to maximize sunlight and would produce enough food for 50,000 people. "With about 160 of these buildings, you could feed all of New York," he says. His idea has intrigued architects, but Despommier concedes that it would cost hundreds of millions to build a full-scale skyscraper farm.
That's the main drawback: construction and energy costs would probably make vertically raised food more costly than traditional crops At least for now.