Can urban farming be a catalyst for regeneration and resilience in our cities?
According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, food production across the world will need to increase by 70% by 2050 to feed a global population of 9.1 billion.
This is against the backdrop of between 30 to 50% of food currently never getting consumed. The value of this wasted food is more than $1 trillion. This represents 50% of all freshwater consumption. The food that does get consumed, at least in the US, travels on average over 1500 miles.
Cities have experimented with urban farming to solve some of these issues. Not only urban agriculture can contribute to food security and resilience, but it could also create jobs, lessen the strain on the environment and bring more nature back into our communities.
Urban farming could also be hugely productive. Vertical farming can have a yield of 200–400% and use 90% less water compared to traditional agriculture. One acre of skyscraper floor could produce the equivalent of 10 to 20 conventional soil-based acres.
Wasted space in urban areas can be utilised for food production. Just in the city of Manchester in the UK, unoccupied flat roofs account for an area of 136 hectares, representing one-third of the city’s inner urban area.
In Berlin, Prinzessinnengarten is an urban farm nestled in the shadow of the former Berlin Wall, between unused subway stops, graffiti-ed concrete walls and crumbling apartment blocks.
In Detroit, Michigan Urban Farming initiative has transformed empty urban areas to empower urban communities by using agriculture as a platform to promote education, sustainability, and community while simultaneously reducing socioeconomic disparity.
Some of the most exciting and successful experiments are being tried in Netherlands, where empty offices are converted into vertical farms. Dr Hilde Remøy of the Delft University of Technology has predicted office vacancy in the Netherlands will soon reach 25%, the highest in Europe. ReGen village is another mesmerising example.
There are new technology and culture trends that could help find ways to make urban farming mainstream. Innovation in supply chain management, digital platforms, the blockchain, new plant-based foods (see Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat), cellular agriculture and alt farming are all steps in this direction. Here are a few more interesting examples at the end of this piece.
But urban farms are not without their challenges. The barrier at least with indoor farms seem to be the initial investment in the system according to Yiannis Ampatzidis, an assistant professor of agricultural engineering at the University of Florida. The current cost per pound is around $40, which needs to be driven to $1 for the venture to start looking attractive for investors.
Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City University in London. “I can show you books from the 1950s where people were saying that the future of food is hydroponics, but it hasn’t happened. It’s simply costly to run.” This is due to the high cost of energy and real estate for hydroponics farms. Controlled-environment agriculture (CEA) is good at lettuce, arugula and microgreens. Not protein. This is contributing to the perception that vertical farming is only for rich hipsters.
Even though urban farming is not mainstream yet, due to the cultural and commercial challenges, they are on architects and city planners mind. See Cloud Citizens, winners of a competition for designing a new business district in Shenzen, which includes tall buildings incorporating vertical food farms and wild gardens.
In the near term, perhaps on a smaller scale, the aesthetic, mental and physical benefits of urban gardens and farms are already being seen.
In Mexico City Via Verde project has started to cover over one thousand motorway columns with sixty thousand square metres of vertical gardens and plant life. The project claims a long list of benefits can be obtained from their vertical gardens, ranging from the environmental to the psychological.
The High Line project, in New York, was the catalyst of urban transformation through the creation of a park on a disused rail line. The success has inspired cities throughout the United States to redevelop obsolete infrastructure as public space.[16] The project has spurred real estate development in adjacent neighbourhoods, increasing real-estate values and prices along the route in an example of the halo effect. As of September 2014, the park had nearly five million visitors annually.
Within communities, the social, organisational underpinnings of gardens give rise to a range of social processes, including social connections, reciprocity, mutual trust, collective decision-making, civic engagement and community building, all critical processes associated with improving individual health and strengthening neighbourhoods.
Some other interesting projects:
- Iron Ox. Robotics farming
Vertical Farming
- Plantagon
- Aerofarms, claiming to be 390 times more productive. Ikea and Dubai are investors
- Sky Greens in Singapore
- Plenty, raised over $220m from investors including Jeff Bezos
- Plantlab. Netherlands
- Intelligent Growth Solutions
- Grow Bristol
- Grow Urban
- The Plant, Chicago. Inside an old packing factory
Container Farming
- Square Roots founded by Kimbal Musk (Elon’s brother). Farming campus. Takes 30% of the revenue + $30k
- Podponic. Container farming. Closed by 2015
- Urban Farmers
- Freight Farms, which creates ready-made hydroponic farms inside a shipping container
Rooftop Farming
- Gotham Greens in New York
- Lufa Farms in Montreal
- UrbanFarmers. The Hague. Europe’s largest urban farm. 1,200 sqm rooftop greenhouse. Declared bankruptcy in July 2018.
Hydroponics
- Growing Underground. Supplying M&S, wholefoods, Planet Organic and top restaurants.
- Persona o2
- Growup. Recently closed their farm and relocating. Could not make it commercial. Here is a video. The farm was built with help from Arup, CambridgeHOK, I+S Associates, Philips and Sterner Aquatech. Raised £1.2m. Customers were Fristchoice, farmdrop, ROSA’s Thai cafe, Eat 17. Their farm (600 m2) at full capacity could generate £67k/month. 43% gross margin
- VFarm. HydroGarden is the UK’s leading manufacturer and distributor of hydroponic equipment. Might also be closed. All posts are old
- Infarm, modular
Data players
- Green city watch. Insight from big data
- Naturvation
- OpenFarm
Crowdfarming
Thanks to my friends Lucas Fuhrmann and Rich Taylor for collaborating on this piece.
