According to the Agriculture Department, the average food item travels at least 1,500 miles before it hits supermarket shelves and studies have indicated transportation can account for up to half the price of a head of lettuce or a pound of tomatoes.
Hoping to minimize their carbon footprints and get the goods closer to customers in large metropolitan areas, some entrepreneurs are deploying innovative methods of production.
In the Big Apple, for example, two urban farmers are capitalizing on the wide open "plains" atop New York City skyscrapers and as producer Laurel Bower Burgmaier discovered last year, the unlikely agrarians are shouting their success from the rooftops.
Ben Flanner is head farmer and co-founder of Brooklyn Grange Farm, a 40,000 square foot, soil-based rooftop farm –that’s one acre --located above a former manufacturing plant in Long Island City. Developed in 2010, Brooklyn Grange is considered to be the largest rooftop farm in the world.
Ben Flanner, Brooklyn Grange Farm: “It just makes sense to do something practical on these rooftop spaces. We have all these empty roofs that have the sun bearing down on them all day long. It makes something with them that is productive.” [snip]
More text PLUS a video at link. This was a fascinating Market to Market repot I saw on Public TV this AM. They cover 2 methods of farming -- soil and hydroponic. Brooklyn Grange arm uses soil, while Bright Star Farms is hydroponic. Both operations supply resturants and individuals with fresh vegetables. This was an excellent report, and I thought you folks would enjoy it.
See #80. This program ran on PBS this morning. This is quite an operation. Video at link.
With gas going up to $5 this summer, imagine what that's going to do to the price of groceries and everything else.
What GREAT ideas. We’re still working with the lot next to the Sr Center for a community garden. The green house can be the hydroponic area...great ideas.