rooftop farming
Canadian Nonprofit Keeps Rooftops Green in North American Cities
May 31, 2015 | Jenny Smiechowski
Photo courtesy of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities
Since space in most cities is scarce, rooftop farming has become an increasingly important piece of the urban agriculture puzzle. While most cities do not have much open land, empty rooftops abound, making green roofs (used for farming or otherwise) an obvious choice for filling this underutilized space.
According to Green Roofs for Healthy Cities’ 2013 Green Roof Industry Survey, the green roof and wall industry experienced a 10 percent growth rate in 2013. While 10 percent may sound nominal, 2,164,926 square feet of green roofs were installed in the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area alone within that one year period.
Though this growth is encouraging, it has also been slow coming. The benefits of green roofs have been undisputed for several decades, but the industry itself is perceived by many as still being in its infancy. Read More
New York City’s Edenworks Advances Urban Aquaponics with Custom Ecosystems
March 29, 2015 | AJ Hughes
Edenworks Farmstacks are customized for the crop they support. (photo courtesy of Jason Green/Edenworks)
New York City resident Jason Green wanted good local produce available in his city on a year-round basis. Concluding that other New Yorkers wanted the same thing, he addressed this insufficiency with aquaponics.
Desiring a more intimate relationship with food, Green was already gardening in his apartment window box. But in order to grow local produce year-round in New York City, he knew that a new sort of infrastructure was needed.
So Green, along with co-founders Ben Silverman and Matt La Rosa, founded Edenworks, which utilizes vertically-terraced, closed loop, modular aquaponic ecosystems. Read More
Santa Cruz Modular Hydroponics Entrepreneur Moves From Bathtub to Business
January 13, 2015 | AJ Hughes
Nick Halmos, founder and CEO of Cityblooms, is seen in his “pea-shoot suit” at the headquarters of Plantronics, where Cityblooms grows hydroponic vegetables and greens for Plantronics employees. (photo courtesy of Nick Halmos)
For Nick Halmos, CEO and farmer-in-chief of Santa Cruz-based Cityblooms, urban agriculture has meant a passionate pursuit of innovation.
The native Floridian started his journey in Providence, Rhode Island in 2001 when he was an undergraduate at Brown University. Halmos can thank climate change for spurring his interest in urban agriculture well over a decade ago, when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report on global climate.
“Issues of climate change were permeating through all academic discussions,” Halmos says. Read More
Urban Farming Co Takes Aquaponic Farming to Europe’s Rooftops
September 18, 2014 | David Sands
Concept of future rooftop aquaponic farm in The Hague. Image courtesy of UrbanFarmers
UrbanFarmers is on a mission to bring commercial-grade urban farming to consumers hungry for fresh locally-grown produce, and it’s doing so from the rooftops.
Based in Zürich, Switzerland, the company offers a brand of rooftop-based and modular growing systems to client businesses. It does so using aquaponics, a technology that combines plants and aquatic life forms into a harmonious recirculating habitat.
“At present, UF operates the only commercial aquaponic food production system in the EU,” Urban Farmers’ Director of Business Development Tom Zöllner tells Seedstock. “Although there are numerous initiatives and projects in almost every city, almost all of them are socially driven community-based, small-scale projects. We are not aware of anyone else that has been able to implement a large-scale, high-tech aquaponic system that sells year round into a major retailer.” Read More
11 Urban Rooftop Farms Feeding America from Above
September 4, 2014 | AJ Hughes
Lufa Farms rooftop greenhouse in Montreal as seen from above. Photo courtesy of Lufa Farms photo
As urban populations grow and the demand for local food rises, agricultural innovators see opportunity atop the roofs of city buildings. Much of this space is devoted to outdoor gardens, but rooftop greenhouses are also sprouting up in cities with cold climates.
Some are large structures used for commercial purposes, some are owned by restaurants, some assist in feeding the needy, and some are used for educational purposes. But all have one thing in common—they enable growers to grow food year-round in urban settings. Read More
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