EAT UPstanding room only
The packed audience sat in anticipation as I introduced three panelists at the international CitiesAlive conference on Friday.
The conference, held this year in Philadelphia, is organized annually by the Toronto-based Green Roof Professional (GRP) accreditation organization Green Roofs for Healthy Cities. Unlike other international trade conferences, CitiesAlive is unique in its ability to attract a multidisciplinary audience. The three-day event acted as a magnet for designers, policy makers, scientists, material vendors, rooftop farmers, green roof enthusiasts, and industry leaders. The diversity was moving, as was each presenter’s ability to capture the interest of these audiences simultaneously.
Out of the conference’s 12 panel discussions, two focused on rooftop agriculture. The discussion that I was asked to moderate, Design for Food Production and Biodiversity, highlighted built projects that promote either rooftop farming or green roof biodiversity. While other sessions on green roof policy and key international projects were moderately attended, this panel discussion was filled to the brim, with standing room only. Rooftop agriculture is one hot topic.
Scott Torrance, Founding Principal of Scott Torrance Landscape Architect Inc, discussed his process of ecological green roof design. He developed a biodiversity checklist for these rooftop environments, which considers species diversity, nesting habitat, water sources, and other elements that promote wildlife occupation. Scott’s talk posed interesting questions with regard to the development of pollinator habitat and pollinator corridors on rooftop farms.
Next, Keith Agoada, President of Urban-Ag, energetically described a demonstration greenhouse that he built on top of a nightclub in California. The structure was designed and erected with a “guerrilla” approach, without the assistance of an architect or waterproofing consultant. The small greenhouse is visible from an adjacent elevated highway, and is visited regularly by guests and performers from the nightclub below.
Lastly, Anna Suardini, a Technical Sales Coordinator for American Hydrotech, Inc., discussed the Gary Comer Youth Center in Chicago. This community center houses a 7,400 sf rooftop row farm that is completely enclosed by higher levels of the surrounding building. The farm is shielded from the elements, and provides children from the surrounding compromised neighborhood with a chance to work with plants and soil in a safe environment. The rooftop farm’s success quickly lead to the development of a larger, at-grade farm near the building. These community agricultural nodes are effectively fostering a positive food production ethic, whereby children and adults alike become reconnected with their food.
rooftop beekeeping video
Trey Flemming from Urban Apiaries || photo by Lauren Mandel
This is an outstanding WHYY video on Urban Apiaries; Philadelphia’s most popular urban honey producer.
open table
This post is all about you. Previous blog posts have revolved around interviews with industry leaders, large-scale viability issues, the path to publication, and general musings about rooftop food production. This post, in contrast, will ideally act as a discussion.
What questions do you have about rooftop agriculture? What’s on your mind? Why are you interested in this topic and how does it affect your life or aspirations? Please feel free to post any thoughts or questions that you may have, and don’t hesitate to chime in in response to other people’s comments.
Some of these conversation points may be included in the book, or will help to inform the existing topics of discussion. Now is your chance to let it flow. The table is open for discussion.
the shortest tomato plant
Let’s talk stature. Many tomato plant varieties grow tall, large, and wild. When conditions are right, these plants seem to grow overnight in a manic effort to reach the sun. Tomato plants can be tamed with various contraptions (including stakes, cages, and trellises), whereby poorly located shoots are pruned in order to “train” the plant to grow in the right direction.
Training tomato plants on the ground plane is difficult enough for many gardeners. Farmers often develop their own tried and true methods for supporting this crop in the fields, but what about on rooftops? Having performed green roof construction oversight around the country, I can attest to the fact that rooftops present very different growing conditions than their at-grade counterparts. A plant species that thrives in a ground landscape may fail on a roof due to the high winds, rapidly drying soil, and extreme temperature fluctuations. This added exposure presents a challenge for rooftop farmers, and so here are a few tips that might help:
1| Mindfully site your farm (use taller buildings as wind blocks while maximizing solar orientation)
2| Select hardy crops (there’s no room for finicky crops)
3| Plant low-growing varieties (in the case of tomatoes, plant determinate varieties and train them to grow wide and low)
4| Plant densely (encourage plants to block the wind for each other, much like the trees in a forest)
5| Build hoop houses (secure them so that they don’t blow away!)
6| Mulch (one of our readers pointed out that leaf mulch works well on roofs)
7| Experiment (the world is your playground; go for it)
Singapore: food localization poster child
Urban food production in North Philadelphia, SHARE Food Program || (photo by Lauren Mandel)
We are an overweight, undernourished nation. Plain and simple. The condition of public health in the U.S. does not need to be sugar coated, and in fact, a little less sugar would do us well. Singapore, on the other hand, serves as a role model for establishing a national commitment to local food production, which can benefit public health by providing access to fresh, nutritious food.
Singapore’s government elected to promote food localization in a major way. The goal: to produce 20% (380,000 tons) of the city-state’s vegetable consumption needs locally, within the bounds of the city itself. This decision followed on the heels of years of food import dependence. The government’s commitment to grow food locally stimulated a new way of thinking about urban agriculture. Food in Singapore is now grown throughout the city-state, in ground-level plots, on balconies, and across rooftops.
This deliberate governmental decision to move Singapore’s food system toward local production is inspiring. While the primary intent of this food system shift was likely not to improve public health, the consequential nutritional impacts represent an undeniable benefit.
In sharp contrast to Singapore, the American food system and its current distribution of agricultural subsidies favor highly processed foods that are centrally produced and shipped long distances to reach our plates. For years the federal government has subsidized king crops like corn and soybeans, which are overwhelmingly grown by industrial farmers in massive monoculture plantations. This nonsensical distribution of agricultural subsidies has enabled these ubiquitous crops to worm their way into almost every processed food on the supermarket shelves.
Authors like Michael Pollan eloquently articulate these issues in detail, but the takeaway message here is that food localization is instrumental to public health, and it must be pursued with vigor. The government has the money to assist small organic farmers. Redistributing agricultural subsidies to benefit these local growers is essential in furthering the government’s support of local food production. A paradigm shift is necessary to gives these small organic farmers the boost they need to thrive, particularly when their farms are in, just outside of, or high above the streets of a city.
Singapore’s government understands and embraces this paradigm shift. The country proves that redistributing efforts and government funding can enable urban agriculture, both on the ground and on roofs, to flourish. It worked.
the woman behind the farm
Annie Novak from Eagle Street Rooftop Farm || (photo by Lauren Mandel)
Annie Novak is an absolute gem. As the co-founder and farmer of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Brooklyn, NY, Annie gracefully juggles the responsibilities of food production, managing volunteers, answering to the media, marketing, and of course, what crops to plant next. She masters all of these tasks, always with a smile on her face. The rooftop farm was designed and installed by a local green roof company called Goode Green, atop a warehouse that is occupied by Broadway Stages.
I had the pleasure of visiting Annie’s farm on Sunday, and witnessed for myself what all the fuss is about. The roof was busily occupied by an Australian film crew (shooting a documentary segment on Annie), a German journalist (writing a story on the farm), a Jamaican insect farmer (who raises insects as international chicken feed), an aquaponics practitioner (from Growing Power in the Midwest), volunteers, casual onlookers, and myself (the aspiring author).
When speaking with Annie on the roof, she explained how the goals of the farm are multifaceted: “Food connects everything and all issues to everyone. There’s nothing we do here that doesn’t have to do with food education, nutrition, and the environment.” When asked about the desire to expand to other rooftops around the city, Annie responded that “the need [for rooftop farming] is unbelievable. It’s just a matter of finding the right chemistry between building owner and farmer… There should be one million Eagle Street Rooftop Farms in New York City. They should be functional green roofs. They should provide nutritious food. They should be filled with passionate people.”
With her poise, generosity, articulate nature, and ability to connect people to one another, it is no wonder that Annie is a leader in the rooftop agriculture movement. This is one farmer to keep an eye on.
For more information on Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, please visit rooftopfarms.org.
we can’t afford NOT to do this
The bottom line is that cities can’t afford not to invest in rooftop agriculture. The societal and environmental benefits of rooftop food production far outweigh the practice’s costs, particularly when expanded across a skyline. Without targeted policy changes and financial incentives, however, rooftop agriculture will remain unaffordable to most people. It is through this governmental action that rooftop farms and gardens can become a reality for individuals and communities.
There are currently no commercial rooftop farms in the U.S. that support themselves exclusively through sales. Many depend on grants or funding from external beneficiaries, as well as significant amounts of volunteer labor. Some farms have been successful in attracting investors, which is a wise strategy for gaining startup capital. Gotham Greens in Brooklyn, NY (gothamgreens.com) is a commercial rooftop farm worth keeping an eye on. The 15,000 sf hydroponic greenhouse facility is headed by a savvy CEO who hopes that Gotham Greens will become the first commercially viable rooftop farm in the country.
The diagram above weighs the costs of urban rooftop agriculture (left) against the benefits (right). The comparison ranks factors in terms of significance, where the largest text represents the most significant cost or benefit.
a li’l market research
At first glance, rooftop agriculture seems like a hyper-specific topic – a niche within a niche. When you dig down into the subject matter, however, the topic’s vastness unfolds. Some of the major talking points that fall within the rooftop agriculture discussion include:
– Food justice + equity
– Public health + organics
– Local food
– Policy
– How to build rooftop farms + gardens
– Economic viability
In order to act as the definitive resource on rooftop agriculture, my manuscript, Eat Up, currently discusses all of these talking points. I wonder, however, if these points are too broad to capture a literary audience. Does the manuscript currently contain a “liberal arts education,” when it should in fact have a more specialized degree? Should the first book on a subject matter broadly discuss the new topic? A little market research may help to shed some light on these questions.
This is where you, the reader, comes in. The question that I pose to you, is what are you interested in reading? I plan on conducting a few manuscript readings / market research groups around the Philadelphia area in order to collect more in-depth data, but for now, I want to hear what you have to say. So don’t be shy, post a comment about what interests you.