Micro-organisms (algae and phytoplankton) and micro-livestock (insects) for urban food production

Third Millennium Farming - Farmers have returned to the city transformed – a mix between biowaste engineers, biologists, and botanists – managing high tech farms integrated into our buildings’ systems and city infrastructures.

By Jakub Dzamba
Masters of Architecture Studies
University of Toronto
Dec. 2010

This project proposes an idea named third millennium farming (3MF) that is about harnessing the abilities of micro-organisms (algae and phytoplankton) and micro-livestock (insects) to rapidly reproduce, for the purpose of food production. A detailed research project that resulted in the publication of a research paper indicates that 3MF food production strategies have a significantly SMALLER FOODPRINT than current crop farming and livestock rearing methods. Additionally, these new farming operations could be fed with certain types of city bio-wastes creating a new, and more sustainable, type of food chain.

In this vision of the year 2050, the 3MF revolution has swept away the antagonism between city, agriculture, and wilderness: grafting farming onto built form, while simultaneously allowing nature to creep back into our metropolises and daily lives. Farmers have returned to the city transformed a mix between biowaste engineers, biologists, and botanists – managing high tech farms integrated into our buildings’ systems and city infrastructures. Toronto is leading the way in the world’s 3MF revolution – its multi-cultural population pumps out the world’s most diverse culinary solutions for utilizing insects, insect flour, and 3MF micro-crops in new and innovative ways.

The city glows green at night as building’s photo-bioreactors grow algae 24 hours a day – thriving off the nutrients found in city wastewater, eating the CO2 and re-oxygenating the city’s polluted air, all while producing feed for the micro-livestock farming operations. In the suburbs, farmers work to maintaining chemical-free lawns and parks, using the vegetation’s overgrowth to feed micro-livestock. The CITY IS A FULLY SUSTAINABLE, FOOD-PRODUCING, ECOSYSTEM. The Ontario Place Experimental Community stands at the center of Toronto’s 3MF revolution serving as a radical test bed for decreasing the city’s foodprint, utilizing city wastes in farming operations, and creating a popular image for this new lifestyle.

See the thesis website here.