Can New Tech Finally Get Urban Farming Off the Ground?

Food availability presents a major issue in today’s city’s. More specifically, rapidly growing cities are struggling to supply their residents with healthy food options, particularly in poor and historically marginalized neighborhoods. While simply increasing the number of grocery stores in an area can help, new research suggests that an increase in grocery stores often isn’t enough to change the eating habits of a community. Urban farming may present a solution that is both more sustainable and more grounded in an overall community improvement effort.

Modern industrial urban farms use closed loop ecosystems and indoor, vertical farming to produce food in the heart of a community that allows them to supply local stores while also adding new jobs and revitalizing many buildings that otherwise serve as decrepit reminders of America’s industrial past.

While urban farms rely on high tech equipment to get off the ground, that equipment is readily available online. Beyond the equipment, new would-be farmers only need space and electricity to begin production. Given the abundance of abandoned industrial space in many mid-sized American cities, this presents a huge opportunity for scale across many communities.

Kolata, G. (2012, April 18). Studies Question the Pairing of Food Deserts and Obesity. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/18/health/research/pairing-of-food-deserts-and-obesity-challenged-in-studies.html Retrieved September 22, 2019

Caughill, P. (2018, January 17). Urban farming is the future of agriculture. Retrieved from https://futurism.com/urban-farming-future-agriculture Retrieved September 22, 2019