Hello All,
The NY Times has a nice piece up about vertical farming.
Vertical farming, or the integration of farm and high-rise, certainly has its supporters and detractors.
Supporters point out that growing food close to home would greatly reduce transportation, and thus fuel costs, while ensuring that cities had constant access to fresh vegetables and greens.
Detractors seem to be saying… uh… Hey, that won’t work!
We think that not only will it work, it’s a great idea.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba stopped receiving aid. That meant no more diesel for tractors and farm equipment, no more farm equipment, and no more fertilizers, among other deprivations.
The Cubans busily set to work transforming any and all unused space into gardens, and as a result, Cubans are eating better, more sustainably, and most importantly, not relying on a foreign power to ensure their nutritional needs are met.
They did this in part by using an ancient Roman term called “usufruct.”
Usufruct in a nutshell means: If there is vacant land, sitting unused, then whoever needs to can utilize the land for growing food, so long as the land is undamaged. And the owners can show up at any time and ask for their land back.
The reason we mention it is that New York has plenty of usufruct-able land. Vacant lots abound, as do vacant buildings.
We have a bounty of unused space that could quite quickly and easily be converted to food production, and NYC has plenty of folks who need both a job and a place to live.
The detractors of vertical farming point out that when it comes to paying top dollar for high-rise living, who is bound to pay more? An heirloom tomato, or a hedge fund manager?
Why let that thinking complicate what seems to be a simple equation?
There is empty land, plus the bodies and desire to see it put to sustainable use. Why not let those forces conjoin?
There is no need to build a high rise just to fill it with plants, there are plenty of spaces already built or just sitting empty that could be filled with plants.
The beauty of vertical farming is in its scalability. We posted last month about the Farm Fountain, which sits in a window and can provide enough for a few folks. Build a Farm Fountain the size of a building, you’ll feed a lot more people.
So, vertical farming takes its first, tentative, baby steps into the zeitgeist.
Fun to watch.
All around us are the signs that things are going to work out just fine, and we hope to remind you of that.
Love to all,
Team SuperForest
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