Businessweek magazine has ranked the vertical farm as one of its top 20 businesses of the future

Pasted below is a great article about the conversion of a pld industrial plant into a thriving farm Enterprise.  The building looks like so many in the Greater Junction Area.

 

...and leading the charge is The Plant in Chicago, which opened this summer.

Created by entrepreneur John Edel, this former meatpacking factory is now home to a nascent fish and vegetable farm, along with several small food businesses. It’s an innovative solution, based on a principle known as aquaponics, where everything exists to work together. Tilapia fish waste is high in ammonia which nourishes the plants; the plants clean the water, which can then be returned to the fish. The businesses within the building work in symbiosis, too. So, waste from the brewery provides the perfect growing material for the mushroom farm.

All the building’s energy needs will come from an onsite biodigester, producing methane to fuel a combined heat and power plant. The digester will consume all the building’s food waste, as well as taking some from neighbouring food manufacturers. The Plant was recently awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity to develop the energy system.

Currently in phase one of development, The Plant plans to be fully operational, with a net income of $300,000 from food sales and business rents, by 2016.

The technology was developed with the aid of students at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and their professor, Blake Davis. He was particularly attracted to Edel’s entrepreneurial approach. “I agreed to work with John because he indicated that he wanted to build a profitable vertical farming business,” he said. “Representatives of The Plant have visited almost all of the vertical farming enterprises within 500 miles, and the vast majority of these do not have a sustainable business model. They are either n

 

The brainchild of local sustainability groups URBED and Creative Concern, it aims to produce lettuce, tomatoes, vegetables and even chickens, bees and fish in time for the city’s International Festival in 2013. T

 

link to Plant web site 

One of the most interesting Animal Architecture Awards for this year.

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Window Unit

by Crooked Works

from the sites text...

In 1943, more than 80 percent of American households harvested food from their own Victory Gardens.” Today, the food consumed in most American households follows a much more circuitous path, resulting in increased preservatives, transportation costs and cultural uniformity. This disconnect particularly penalizes the poor, who are both more likely to live in “food deserts” and can’t afford to pay the high price of imported perishables.

Animal-populated Window Units enable the resurrection of household-based urban food production. This bottom-up agricultural strategy enlists urban dwellers who elect to stock their window space with chickens, bees, or fish in creating a new urban food system. Working at a very small scale, with eminently replicable technologies, these wall projections have the potential to link on-site agricultural production to vast numbers of independent households.

Another Urban farming idea

A person by the name of Steve Turner, owner of Wangara Horticultural Supplies has invented these film grade poly very strong planter bags with handles, it seems primarily for tree farmers. yet they seem like a great idea for urban framing in backyards or condo balconies. Growing in some small yards in west Toronto yardsis daunting when attempting to plot out some space to grow, and have enough space to use the yard for child play, eating and entertaining.

These bags would allow the movement of plantings of veg and herbs around as needed.

These bags are from Australia and I do not think they are available in Canada, but they do not look difficult to cut and sew up.





Link to manufacture web site

Local resident has great and even more great urban farmer idea

Dear High Park/Junction Land-owner,

Do you have a portion of your property (25 ft x 25 ft or larger would be ideal, but I will consider any plot) that you would like to see revitalized by organic vegetable production?



Would you welcome regular visits by a respectful urban farmer throughout the season to sustain beautiful, healthy and productive vegetable beds?



Would you like to see more of your food grown locally using sustainable, organic methods?



If yes, I would love to hear from you!

I need to start preparing the beds for next spring, so please call soon.

download full pdf description

Erica - 416-320-5279

lemieux.erica@gmail.com