What Happened?
City officials in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, have rented out the rooftop of one of its city parking lots to a rooftop farming company that plans to grow more than 153,000 pounds of leafy greens a year and sell them to local restaurants and distributors.
So What?
With vegetables traveling more than 1,000 miles on average to get from the farm to the plate, urban areas are trying to reduce that distance and at the same time, reduce the costs associated with transporting the food. Since urban areas have little to no traditional farmland available that isn’t already developed for residential or commercial purposes, rooftop farming has become a viable alternative.
The Goals and Process
Local Garden, a subsidiary of Alterrus Systems, is a Vancouver-based company that has developed a “vertical growing” system that, according to its website, “grows fresh, nutritious leafy green vegetables in urban environments where they are to be consumed.” It uses less resources than traditional farming, but generates a higher yield than conventional farming.Other cities -- New York, Milwaukee, Philadelphia -- also have jumped into rooftop farming trend.
The Findings
Vancouver restaurants aren’t the only ones making out on the deal. The city has rented the rooftop to Alterrus at market value, which won’t be a problem since the parking garage wasn’t at capacity anyway. Essentially, Alterrus will pay paying for its rooftop farm to park at the garage.
Next steps
The veggies will be grown, but someone has to buy them. Not a problem. Local chefs are already lining up to back the project, because as one chef put it, “people want to know where their food came from, from purveyor, to chef, to table.”
The mayor’s office in Vancouver has a lengthy description on the project, and Alterrus has a timeline of the project from its planning stages a year ago through the construction that started in August to the project’s opening earlier this month.