In recent months, I have come across a few popular media
articles detailing disparate urban agriculture programs. What stood out to me
in each of these articles is the combination of innovation in both a) the use
of these emerging technologies in unusual spaces, and b) the use of technology
to achieve production yields necessary for economic viability in those usual
spaces. The spaces used for these production practices might be considered “found”
or “created” spaces, as without recent innovations these spaces could not be
used for food production (see Rivlin (2006) Found
Space. in Franck and Stevens (2006) Loose
Space: Possibility and diversity
in urban life. for more details on found spaces).
The Township of Robbinsville, New Jersey purchased a Leafy
Green Machine, a 340 square foot shipping container commercially converted into
a hydroponic growing space. The township placed the container on municipally
owned land, adjacent to the town’s senior center. Harvested vegetables
supplement the senior center’s cafeteria and Meals on Wheels program. Under the
mayor’s direction, the township hired a farm manager under the Parks Department
to utilize the space. I randomly encountered the Robbinsville mayor back in
2018 and we discussed this space briefly. At the time, he indicated the growing
operating was developing according to plan. Sadly, I never got the chance to
conduct a site visit during my time in Jersey. (Article
Link)
Urby, a residential development on the eastern side of
Staten Island, maintains a 5000 square foot urban farm on its campus. A
farm-in-residence actively farms the site. Produce is sold at the on-site
bodega. Residents appear to have access to recreational spaces near the farm
space, but cannot access space at the farm to grow for themselves. The article
also indicates the presence of an on-campus beehive, but I did not see evidence
in any picture. (Article
Link)
Growing Underground is a 7000 square foot hydroponic growing
operating roughly 100 feet below the surface of London in a former World War 2
air-raid shelter designed to accommodate 8000 people. According to the article,
the farm grows a variety of vegetables, including: “pea shoots, rocket, red
mustard, pink stem radish, garlic chives, fennel and coriander”. Growing
Underground’s founder gave a TedTalk
about this adaptation of space. (Article
Link)
Square Roots, a hydroponic farming company that operates a
farm composed of a number of converted shipping crates in Brooklyn recently
partnered with Gordon Food Services (GFS) to develop a similar production site
co-located at the GFS Headquarters in Wyoming, Michigan. Produce grow at the
roughly two-acre facility is then added to the GFS produce distribution
pipeline. This pilot partnership tests the potential to co-locate similar
production sites adjacent to other GFS distribution facilities across the
country. Given the challenges of distribution reported to me by surface-level
urban farmers, this pilot program seems to have some potential to connect
micro-scale, local production into broader distribution channels. (Article
Link)
Finally, Studio NAB, an architecture firm, published designs
for a six-story building that would be constructed over water. The structure’s
design scheme would allow for the integrated use of a number of intensive food
production techniques including, “open soil and soilless cropping techniques,
seaweed, insects, fish from aquaponics, berries, honey from hives”. To my
knowledge, a building similar to this has yet to be constructed, but the idea
of placing such a structure on a body of water is another example of found
space. (Article
Link)