Food From the Sky – A supermarket in North London grows food on the roof and sells it

Our first salad leaves, red mountain spinach, rocket, edible flowers, herbs, peas, radishes and courgettes are on sale since 4th July 2010.

Supermarket Farms Yield Produce for Shoppers, Environment

By Matt Fuchs
Fuchs Foodie Journal
Aug. 24, 2010

Excerpt:

According to Andrew Thornton of Budgens supermarket in the Crouch End area of North London. “Because of the cost of an acre of land in an urban environment, field-to-farm is not something that is viable,” Thornton says.

So, instead of food from the backyard, he opted for Food from the Sky – the name of his project to convert the roof of his supermarket into an organic vegetable garden. Thornton and business partner Azul Thome, head of Positive Earth Project, needed only six weeks to complete construction.

Since the garden opened in June, Thornton says customers are showing up in increasing numbers for the fresh produce and one-stop shopping convenience. “There’s a distance of literally only a few meters from growing the food to selling it,” he says.

Budgens’ solution also stands to reduce annual emissions from the typical passenger vehicle, which the EPA estimates at 5.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Collocation of farm with supermarket eliminates the need for trucks to transport produce from large commercial farms hundreds of miles away. Plus, consumers don’t burn as much fossil fuels because they’re no longer forced to ping-pong ball their vehicles from farmers market to supermarket.

In fact, at least in theory, shoppers could scratch the farmers market altogether.

Despite the advantages of supermarket rooftop farms over farmers markets, Thome is adamant that no rivalry exists between the two sources of locally-raised food. With the increase in so-called “food deserts” in metropolitan areas underscoring the need for cities to access more produce, “It’s not either – or,” she says. “It’s and, and, and.”

Read the complete article here.

See the Food From the Sky website here.