Click on the link above and you can zoom around this high-res photo of the Gold award winning B&Q garden at the Chelsea Flower Show. The garden is such a great melding of horticultural tradition and modernity. Oh, how I wish that I could have attended this fantastic show.
All of the plants produce edibles. The tower uses hydroponics. The structure to the left of the tower is the "insect hotel". Watch a video of school children constructing the individual "rooms" for the insects. If you sit at the glass dining table in front of the tower, you will see fish (tilapia) swimming below. Would you like fresh fish and salad for dinner?
Shades of vertical farming maven Dickson Despommier, Clemson U. has won funding from the EPA to conduct a vertical farming study in downtown Charleston, SC. The results of the study will be most interesting and I look forward to following its progress. Stay tuned!
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) -- The downtown area is known for its skyline of church steeples, but it may soon be known for building vertical farms.
Vertical farming is an indoor farming technique where produce and animal life is grown in high-rise buildings in urban areas. Clemson University's Institute of Applied Ecology recently received funding from the Environment Protection Agency to develop a design-feasibility study to build a vertical farm in downtown Charleston.
If you have not watched this video, you should. Dickson Despommier, the now (or near) celebrity Columbia University professor has probably gone a bit over the top with his farmscraper hyperbole. There is not much doubt that he is a skilled hypster but there can be unintended consequences from that.
Stewart Truelsen takes him to task in this Southeast Farm Press polemic titled "Who decides the future of farming, ranching?” This is not the only article that I have read recently with this point of view. There is definitely a pushback from the farming community and rightly so.
Professor Despommier has progressive ideas but he has perhaps taken them to a polarizing level that may be counter productive.
Watch this video and you will see that start-up Gotham Greens is becoming a reality here in New York City. At about the 5:30 minute mark in the video you will see that their new rooftop hydroponic greenhouse is taking shape.
While this is happening a very similar type of business has started up in Montreal. Lufa Farms is now actually selling their produce. They also recently launched a redesigned website.
It will be most interesting to follow the progress of these two leading edge businesses. It is very possible that they will be competing right here in New York City and that would be a good thing. I leaned a long time ago in my corporate career that one of the best things you can have in business is good competition.
There is a lot of over-hyped Dickson Depommier in the video too. He probably has his head in the clouds but he has stimulated much lively conversation about modern method urban food production and that is definitely a good thing. "Sex and the City" yes but there is no future in "Dirt and the City".
