Grist interview – Big Green Boxes

Gene Fredericks of Big Green Boxes imagines fish ponds, waterfalls, and racks and racks of edible greens and herbs in defunct spaces like this one. Photo by Bart Nagel.

Grist interviews Gene Fredericks of Big Green Boxes

By Bonnie Azab Powell
Grist
Sept 1, 2010

Excerpt:

Q. OK, so walk me through a Big Green Box.

A. We’ll take a freestanding vacant retail space or warehouse space, around 30,000 square feet, climate-control it, and set up some ponds and tanks for the fish — pleasant ones you can see, not unlike the goldfish and Koi ponds in an office-building lobby or a park. There’ll also be small waterfalls, which in addition to looking nice help aerate the water. The water from the ponds and tanks will go into settling tanks as well as a few bio-filtering tanks that will make sure no elements that might harm the plants or the fish get through. The nutrient-rich water then flows into the growing areas. The plants and growing area then filter the water, which gets recycled back to the fish.

There are few kinds of hydroponic growing methods, and we’ll use several, depending on the kind of plant. Some plants do better in one than another. We’ll also grow both horizontally and vertically to increase the planting surface area.

Q. And you’ll grow what, exactly?

A. Fresh greens and herbs, particularly ones that command a premium and that people want all year round. Take basil, for example; it’s a seasonal crop with a short shelf life. Trader Joe’s is selling organic basil from Mexico right now at $2.79 for 4 ounces. That’s $11.16 per pound! And it’s coming from Mexico. We’ll also grow fancy red and green lettuces, arugula, radicchio, sprouts, baby and micro greens, and several kinds of herbs, which sell for even higher prices. We’ll change the crops based on time of year, local tastes, and customer preferences.

Read the complete article here.