A decade ago, Mohamed Hage and Lauren Rathmell set out to change the way Montrealers get their fresh produce. Their company, Lufa Farms, has so far opened 3 rooftop greenhouses, currently employing 200 people and offering fresh, locally grown produce directly to thousands of customers in Montreal and beyond.
When this IGA supermarket was required to install a green roof by the St-Laurent district of Montreal, store co-owner Richard Duchemin took it as an opportunity to become the first supermarket in Canada to grow produce for sale on its rooftop. More than 30 different kinds of produce are being grown on the 25,000-square-foot roof, and all of it is certified organic.
In the center of Utrecht, within a stone's throw from the Central Station - a new restaurant has opened. 'The Green House' proclaimed in large letters above the entrance. The restaurant, opening to the public on April 9, did not get that name for nothing. A greenhouse of 85 m2 has been built on top of the restaurant, in which various vegetables and herbs are grown to be processed in a number of delicious dishes.
Earth Day and World Environment Day are approaching fast, and this year each have chosen to focus on pollution from single-use plastic. There is plenty of single-use plastic in the urban farming industry, so Mark Horler at The Soya Project wants to use this time as an opportunity for the industry to reduce its plastics use. In his note to urban farmers, Mark calls for a coordinated effort to reduce single-use plastic within the industry.
A group of German scientists stationed in Antarctica have successfully grown vegetables in a specially designed sunless, soilless environment. Working out of a shipping container-sized lab in an otherwise barren snowscape, the team gathered about 8 pounds of produce from their first yield, the AP reports, including herbs, lettuce, arugula, and red radishes.
A multi-trillion dollar opportunity is emerging at the convergence of food, technology and rapidly evolving consumer behaviour. While many companies are hoping to capitalize on this new market potential, Sensei, a brand new approach to marketing a hydroponic food production company, are positioning themselves in a more sophisticated industry niche than the competition.
In India, a simple greenhouse is transforming lives—creating jobs for women and arming growers against the hot temperatures, long droughts, and torrential downpours caused by climate change.
In Vancouver, Canada, Danny Kovach is a visionary working to make his city a better place to live. At his job with BC Greenhouse Builders, Danny designs and sells custom greenhouses for a variety of customers. And outside his job, Danny is an avid member of coFood Vancouver, a neighborhood collective that operates a collaborative garden on a vacant piece of land. It is here, in this community space, that Danny is designing modular systems he hopes will revolutionize the way fresh food is grown and accessed within cities.
For a city to be 'smart', it must include agriculture. This is exactly why the recent AgLanta Conference brought together professionals from far and wide to discuss the future of urban agriculture, 'smart cities', and the important integration that must take place between the two. Our society tends to be heavily siloed, but at AgLanta 2018 the walls were temporarily removed and the discussions and connections that took place were incredible. This was my experience:
Urban farming has been flourishing in Paris, especially since the city's mayor, Anne Hidalgo, declared her intention to make Paris a greener city. The Paris government launched Parisculteurs, a project which aims to cover the city's rooftops and walls with 100 hectares (247 acres) of vegetation by 2020. One third of the green space, according to its plan, should be dedicated to urban farming.
Times Square’s concrete jungle may soon welcome a thriving pavilion of moss. As part of Design Pavilion 2018, a nine-day event that takes place in celebration of the city’s official design week NYCxDESIGN, designer Sam Biroscak has conceptualized Mossgrove, an eco-concious project that highlights the possibilities of two “under-appreciated,” but seemingly ubiquitous urban elements: scaffolding and moss. If successfully funded through Kickstarter, New Yorkers can expect to see the installation blooming to life in Times Square from May 12th to 20th, 2018.
If you're thinking about starting an urban farming business, you're not alone! More and more people are becoming interested in commercial urban farming. But no matter how you envision your farm, it's essential to understand the common mistakes made in the industry, and the simple solutions that will save you a lot of time, money and stress as your business grows. Agritecture's Commercial Urban Farming Class is one of the best ways to gain insider knowledge before you start your farm. This 2-day class gives you only the most important knowledge and skills to plan out and profitably operate an urban farm of your dreams.
Indoor farming is a rapidly expanding industry with new farming technologies emerging constantly. One of the latest stand-out innovations is by German farming company Farmers Cut. Seeking to improve upon the already existing soilless growing technologies, Farmers Cut is growing plants using "Dryponics", a system that they claim allows them to be more flexible with space and able to manage resources better than the competition.
Last year, City Council Member Rafael Espinal introduced a bill that would have set up a comprehensive plan, calling for in-depth analysis of potential spaces, zoning laws, and building codes, as well as the expansion of the availability of healthy food in low-income neighborhoods. The law the council ended up passing, however, was barely a shadow of the original proposal. It required the city simply to create an “urban agriculture website.”
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Gotham Greens broke ground yesterday on the first phase of a 140,000-square-foot greenhouse facility in the Pullman neighborhood on Chicago’s south side. The state-of-the-art indoor farm will be built on vacant land at the former Ryerson industrial site, which is being acquired from Chicago Neighborhood Initiatives (CNI), the Pullman-based nonprofit developer.
Mark Korzilius knows a thing or two about creating transformational food experiences. As a Founder of Vapiano, he was instrumental in developing the fast-casual chain from a European startup to a globally recognizable brand in more than 31 countries. Now, Mark is the Creator of Opportunities at Farmers Cut, a vertical farming startup focused on transforming the customer's experience with local food. Take a listen as I interviewed him about vertical farming, smart operations, and Farmers Cut's "Customer-Centric" approach.
We lose more than 50 acres of American farmland to urban development every hour. And in that same amount of time, our population grows by 240 people. Less land to grow food + more mouths to feed = big problem. But, increasingly, forward-thinking farmers are eschewing the confines of conventional agriculture and growing on what’s traditionally been considered unusable space: city rooftops.
“Millennials were responsible for 31 percent of houseplant sales in 2016,” according to Ian Baldwin, a business adviser for the gardening industry. The 2016 National Gardening survey found that of the six million Americans who took up gardening that year, five million were ages 18 to 34. “This group has more college debt and as a result, are renting homes instead of buying,” Mr. Baldwin said. “Houseplants are a low-cost way to have a green space at home.”
It's not every day I get to talk with a CEO of one of the leading developers of LED grow lights. So, when offered to interview Illumitex CEO Jeff Bisberg, I jumped at the chance. Jeff moved to Illumitex after years of working at GE to optimize their technology and service for a wider market. Now, Jeff has his sights on 'Digital Horticulture', what he and the team at Illumitex see as the future of indoor farming. Watch the full interview to understand just what the future of indoor agriculture might hold and how Illumitex wants to help growers get to the next level of production.
Frasers Property Australia has announced plans to regenerate Burwood Brickworks in Melbourne’s east into what it’s calling “the most sustainable shopping centre in the world”.The developer has enlisted eco-pioneer, florist and designer Joost Bakker – best known for his sustainability-focused projects Silo, Brothl and Greenhouse – as a creative consultant to help turn the site’s 2000-square-metre rooftop into an urban farm and restaurant space.
