Should Louisville grow up? I have been reading about vertical farming and I think this is something that Louisville could implement, on a small scale. For those who don't know, vertical farming is basically farming in a skyscraper. There are many reasons to consider vertical farming. One of those is that by some estimates crop yields will be down 20% because of global warming. By the year 2050 the world will have at least another 3 billion people to feed. We just don't have enough land to do it.
Those are fine stats, but is this something Louisville should even consider? Afterall we aren't exactly a huge city with millions of people we have to feed. Most vertical farming buildings I've seen are 30 story skyscrapers with all sorts of super cool ego tech built in. Solar panels, rain water catch basins, wind turbines, and the best of hydroponics. I'm not sure Louisville is ready for that. A 30 story building would be one of the tallest buildings in the city.
If Louisville was to take on a project of this nature I would suggest we go in one of 2 directions. The first is ti build a 15 story tower like the one pictured above. This building will not only have the hydroponic farms, but it would included housing as well as retail. It would have to be a true multi-purpose building. I'm sure there would be no shortage of places to sell the food that was grown. I just wonder if we could make it economically feasible. I think we could make it feasible if we had a physical location to hold a year round farmers market. I think there is also a market for some of our local restaurants and home grown organic food stores.
The second possibility would be to offer tax breaks for people to install rooftop gardens, and to coordinate a series of urban gardens . The food raised here would follow the same economic model of the vertical farm.
If these models could produce cheaper produce prices I would like the city to set up a fund to entice our local organic grocery stores to open up stores in Western and Southwestern Louisville. These wouldn't have to be full fledge grocery stores, they could be small neighborhood stores or bodegas. They would use/buy the produce produced from the vertical farms. This should prove cheaper especially in the winter months.
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A cheaper and more-ready alternative is encouraging citizens to keep gardens instead of maintain lawns. We don't need farms to cultivate food. A small plot of land can produce more than enough for one family.
ReplyDeleteHere's a family in Pasadena, CA (with an admittedly better year-round climate condition than we have) that keeps a garden on 1/10th an acre city lot to feed their family and sell extra produce to local restaurants: http://www.dervaesgardens.com/about/thegarden.shtml
And there's a great chapter considering why we mow lawns in Michael Pollan's book Second Nature: http://books.google.com/books?id=3zUqfDxvl48C