Investigating Urban Agriculture – panel discussion in New York

Virag Puri from Gotham Greens poses on the roof.

Investigating Urban Agriculture

Date: Thursday, April 8, 2010,
Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Knoll Showroom,
76 Ninth Avenue, 11th Floor,
New York, NY 10001

Please join Urban Green Council for a lively panel discussion of the issues surrounding urban agriculture and its potential applications in New York City.

Locating the production of food in our cities and on the buildings within the city (Building Integrated Agriculture) offers a valuable response to two major challenges of modern urban living: the need to reduce the distance food travels before arriving on the plate of urban consumers and the need to reduce the environmental impact of buildings.  Cultivation of food crops within the built environment can reduce our environmental footprint, cut transportation costs, enhance food security, save energy, and enrich the physical surroundings of building occupants.

In dense urban areas, sites for commercial agriculture are few.  Locating greenhouses on rooftops or south facing facades opens up opportunities for synergies between plants and humans.  Despite a unique set of design and operational issues, there are many potential benefits.  Hydroponic food production can yield high quality fruit and vegetables using 10 to 20 times less land and 5 to 10 times less water than soil-based systems and is more easily integreted into buildings; it also avoids the pollution created by modern field agriculture.  Many buildings can use the produce directly in their cafeterias, cutting storage, travel and packaging and allowing food to go directly from greenhouse to table in the same building.  Education opportunities are multifold and in-house vegetable growing encourages healthy eating.

The panelists have a broad range of expertise.  The presentation will include rooftop greenhouses on schools and commercial buildings, proposals for vertically integrated greenhouses for high rises and discussion of the engineering considerations necessary for interior food production.

Panelists:
Clare Miflin, Associate, Kiss+Cathcart, Architects
Ted Caplow, Senior Partner, BrightFarm Systems LLC
Viraj Puri, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Gotham Greens
Camille Bowman, Senior Mechanical Engineer, Arup Engineers
Anthony Borelli, Director of Land Use, Manhattan Borough President’s Office

See schedule here.