Urban Farming- the future?

JupiterKid

I live in Dublin and help,out in an allotment directly behind my house. I and my neighbours grow spuds, cabbage, rocket, carrots, onions, pumpkins, tomatoes, leeks and radishes.

While it's not perfect, it's great to grow your own food and is very rewarding when you collect the veg and use them in your cooking.

In the past few years, more and more people are also keeping chickens and bees in their back gardens.

Anywho, I was reading an article about farming in urban areas. Over half the world's population is urban now, and the demand for food continues to grow. As well as open space for growing veg, there are plans for green skyscrapers, where each floor would be farmed. Here's an illustration of what I'm talking about and a link to an article:



http://www.citymetric.com/skylines/why-we-should-be-farming-skyscrapers-1029


So, what do you make of urban and vertical farming? Do you think it has a future? Will it affect conventional farming? Will it ever happen in Ireland?

DX85

This post has been deleted.

patsy_mccabe

Just because it's physically possible to grow food this way doesn't mean it is commercially possible. Just price the veg the next time you are in Tescos and you'll see what I mean.

arctictree

I grew a small drill of carrots once in the garden. 4 months from planting, to weeding to harvest. Lots of work to get a small bag of weedy carrots. My heart broke when my wife returned from Lidl with a bag of lovely carrots costing 99c. I think my packet of seed was more expensive than that!

JupiterKid

I understand that there would be significant issues and obstacles to vertical/urban farming but in very large, high density cities like Shanghai and Tokyo/Sao Paolo wouldn't the advantages of very low/ nonexistent transportation and distribution costs be a significant advantage?

laoch na mona

some interesting examples here https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/jul/02/next-gen-urban-farms-10-innovative-projects-from-around-the-world

Defiantly not more eco friendly than conventional farming but it seems that commercially viable growing is possible in urban farming

_Brian

JupiterKid wrote: »

I understand that there would be significant issues and obstacles to vertical/urban farming but in very large, high density cities like Shanghai and Tokyo/Sao Paolo wouldn't the advantages of very low/ nonexistent transportation and distribution costs be a significant advantage?

Personally I'd like my fresh veg and fruit to come from a more rural area. It's hard to see them not absorbing smog and pollutants locking them into the plant and then you'd be poisoned eating them. Lol at the smog in places like Beijing, was there last spring and it would sometimes smother ya.

freedominacup

arctictree wrote: »

I grew a small drill of carrots once in the garden. 4 months from planting, to weeding to harvest. Lots of work to get a small bag of weedy carrots. My heart broke when my wife returned from Lidl with a bag of lovely carrots costing 99c. I think my packet of seed was more expensive than that!

A good friend of mine says he never begrudges the poor fcukers who grow them a few pounds after the hardship he got as a young lad growing them at home.

JupiterKid

Urban farming in the USA in shipping containers...

https://www.facebook.com/Mysticvean/posts/10154669844858992

Sam Kade

JupiterKid wrote: »

Urban farming in the USA in shipping containers...

https://www.facebook.com/Mysticvean/posts/10154669844858992

That link doesn't work. We already grow enough food to feed 10 billion people every year in a world populated with 7 billion so why would anyone even consider this option?

einn32

Lots of people don't even want a lawn and garden now. They're too busy commuting, working etc. during the week and the weekend is for relaxing.

Timmaay

Sam Kade wrote: »

That link doesn't work. We already grow enough food to feed 10 billion people every year in a world populated with 7 billion so why would anyone even consider this option?

We dump the food for the other 3 billion in the bin? Or 3billion people are getting fat ha? Or fed as animal feed?

_Brian

Timmaay wrote: »

We dump the food for the other 3 billion in the bin? Or 3billion people are getting fat ha? Or fed as animal feed?

Vast quantities of wasted food, some fit for human consumption goes as animal feed like odd shaped Veg, also households waste allot of food each week.

Sam Kade

_Brian wrote: »

Vast quantities of wasted food, some fit for human consumption goes as animal feed like odd shaped Veg, also households waste allot of food each week.

Thanks to the supermarket and plastic wrapping. Back in the 70's there was hardly any plastic and meat was wrapped in brown paper and you had to ask the shopkeeper for what you wanted because everything was behind the counter. People only got what they really wanted with that system, probably less overweight people around back then also. Nowadays everything is shoved in their faces to browse around and pick up.

Harry Palmr

About 30% of what is pulled out of the ground is wasted one way or another. "Wrong colour/shape/size/texture" so discarded (though some of this does at least become animal food), lost/damaged during transit and finally never eaten so thrown in the bin.