Urban farming promises to slash food miles
Urban farms could put a substantial amount of fresh produce on our tables without the long journeys.
By Fabian Schmidt
DW-World.De
14.11.2011
Excerpt:
Volkmar Keuter of the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology in the German town of Oberhausen says cities are full of unused potential to grow food.
“You might have some kind of production going on underneath a roof. Certain industrial installations that produce heat could be used as a greenhouse in winter,” he told Deutsche Welle.
“Or you might have office buildings. Offices often have large server rooms that produce heat as they cool the computers. That heat could be used as well.”
Keuter is an advocate for urban farming. Especially when it comes to using the spaces – and outputs – that we frequently consider ‘waste.’
Take sewage. Treated properly, this could be used to fertilize rooftop farming operations.
1 comment
The time is long over-due where we started planning cities as self sustainable entities rather than resource hogs that spew forth great waste. I like the ideas Keuter raises.
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