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Last year a farm floated into the city on a barge and this coming summer a farm will sprout at PS1, but will a sustainable urban farm ever take root in New York for good?
WebUrbanist has the top 5 designs for a city farm (the first of which may be going vertical in Vegas soon). One design, the first of its kind, is a "vertical farm project undertaken by Chris Jacobs in cooperation with the grandfather of skyscraper farm concepts: Dr. Dickson Despommier of Columbia University." (Last year NYMag visited Despommier's ideas of transforming skyscrapers into crop farms.)
Which design would work for New York? Check out some renderings below -- and until our skyline gets a little more green, be sure to head to that public farm in LIC this summer!
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I had this idea when I was six.
Nobody is going to want to live near one of these. NIMBY lawsuits are a given.
thats cool i hope it works, i can't wait. i mean it
With the untold square miles of rooftop acreage in the city, you'd think somebody could put some under glass for some year-round urban farming. It would reduce the heat island effect and add a little bit of food (maybe even "organic") to the chain. But, noooo, the best we can do is some "green" roofs that have useless grass growing on them.
Hopefully profit motives will arise for retrofitting green roofs and living walls into existing high rises, because money saved or money earned is what really drives American change. Excelsior!
Great idea, but I'm not sure I would like to spend $18 on a head of lettuce.
Why not just dome over Central Park and grow food there?
The only way this could become profitable is to grow marijuana in those structures.
Seems like play time to me. Why the need have this in a city? There's lots of cheaper land around, that would allow for more money to go into a more elaborate, more concentrated design targeting crop production. Offices, housing? Why? Why in the city?
there are lots of reasons why urban agriculture is a good idea. as it stands, most people live nowhere near where their food is produced, making it not only more expensive and increasing "hidden" environmental costs as well.
promotion of community gardening and traditional urban farming for supplementing the diets of low-income, nutritionally-deprived urban dwellers would decrease their reliance on government support mechanisms, get them active and outdoors, and increase consumption of fresh fruits and veggies. i'm not sure if a project as fancy/expensive as this would pay off in the same way, for those to whom it matters the most.
it still looks cool, though! and this and other similar projects seem to be raising awareness about these types of issues, which is never a bad thing.
Great idea, but won't this create an influx of illegal immigrants that want to work at these urban farms?
I think KLK is suggesting that all the poor and impoverished of the city will take up toiling the earth to provide their families with wholesome fresh produce without impacting the earth's environment as much as those about them.
How might I ask are these crops going to be fertilized? Are the people of NYC suppose to raise a cow in every apartment and then donate the cow shit to this community supported farm? What are you going to feed the cows with that create the shit to provide all this locally grown food?
They're already doing this in Tokyo.
Japan has very limited toilable area. And that is where they have Kobe steak. Their priorities are different than ours.
Plus their cars are smaller for the most part.
The only idea that will work is the one Bloomber and his friends can make money from.
The only idea that will work is the one Bloomberg and his freinds can make money from.
Wow, there are a lot of people on Gothamist who flunked science, not to mention economics.
Why do this on city roofs? It probably wouldn't make much of a dent in the food supply, but black roofs on buildings are a major contributor to the heat island effect. Which means the city gets hotter in the summer and air conditioners have to work harder. Don't blame Con Ed the next time you and your neighbors draw too much electricity and blackout the neighborhood. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. Some buildings claim they go "green" with rooftop lawns. Which does help somewhat, but it's still useless, inedible grass that needs fertilizer and water for no other benefit. Besides, transportation costs factor into food production, too, as all the truckers who are justifiably angry about $3+ diesel can tell you. Remember that the next time you bitch about the high prices at Gristedes.
How are they going to be fertilized? Most of what plants need is nitrogen. Anybody who remembers even third grade science remembers nitrogen-fixing crops can be rotated in, like soybeans and peanuts. Too many idiots around here who'd rather be snarky than studious.
Um, hello! I guess everyone has forgotten about the Added Value/Red Hook Farm since Red Hook is SO last year:
http://www.added-value.org/
There's also Wycoff farm in East Flatbush and the Queens farm museum. If you want to learn more about farming and sustainable agriculture in the city, please check out:
www.justfood.org/cityfarms
With roof tops, I believe that if all of the buildings in 200 blocks had roof greenhouses, that would feed Manhattan.
Dealing with building it, the best would be for a pre-built greenhouse lifted to the roofs. On way would be using 20' and 40' ISO containers as the greenhouse.
What could possibly work is a deal where building buy into a rooftop gardening and they join an association which would have some professionals and the distribution of the food between the building and the association was based upon who spent time on the garden.
This is based on using Aquaculture
correction I keep on loosing words not aquaculture (which may be useful also) but Hydroponic farming. That is growing plants in a mineral nutrient solutions which is demonstrated on the science barge. It looks like the barge is closed for the winter but will be available for touring after May 2nd 2008.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. Ja Ja Ja Ja Ja.
Greatest pulling off of a comedy act since John Belushi left Saturday Night Lie.
Cheeburgie cheeburgie cheeburgie. Grow that on your roof.