“We want to work with other restaurants, schools and institutions because it’s been our goal to provide access to quality food across Los Angeles and encourage the city to a more sustainable future.”

By Lauren Lloyd
Laist
January 31, 2012

Excerpt:

Farmscape, California’s largest urban farming operation, recently wrapped a first-of-its-kind project in Downtown Los Angeles, one that (literally) takes urban agriculture to new heights. Atop The Jonathan Club now sits a large rooftop garden installation designed to grow fresh, organic greens. Plucked by the hands of the private social club’s chefs, the produce will grace the plates of lucky club members.

Using a system of raised bed planters, the 200-square-foot custom organic garden will sprout the following tasty greens during the winter growing season: snap peas, snow peas, broccolini, Swiss chard, spinach, arugula, romaine lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce, red and yellow beets, baby carrots and a large variety of herbs. Fully completed in December, the garden has already produced romaine and buttercrunch lettuce, mesclun mix, Swiss chard and bok choy. What about fruit, you ask? They’ve got that covered, too. Farmscape is also maintaining a variety of fruit trees, including lemon, lime, orange and fig.

Cultivating and harvesting the garden is a collaborative effort, with Farmscape handling most of the weekly maintenance and chefs harvesting the food. Farmer Lowell visits the garden on a weekly basis to plant, weed, inspect for pests and diseases and ensure irrigation is working properly. At the beginning of each growing season, Executive Chef Jason McClain hands Lowell a list detailing his menu preferences for specialty and local options, putting Lowell’s green thumb to work.

Read the complete article here.

In planting the garden, the hotel also wishes to sow seeds of change, creating Montréal’s first downtown hotel rooftop garden.

By Quebecgetaways,
September 9, 2011

Excerpt:

It isn’t possible to visit this secret garden. But guests at the hotel can already taste the difference in their plates. Since the month of May, the garden has already provided different kinds of eggplant, plum tomatoes, beets, peppers, Swiss chard, endive, radishes, zucchini, Montréal melons and several kinds of mint and basil for amazing results!

This urban garden gets perfect sun for growing food. The hotel has opted for a container culture technique developed by experts from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Its drip system and water reserve provide optimal conditions that encourage plant growth.

Read the complete article here.

Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Looking Forward to Tasty Results with Organic

By Joanne Papineau
Hotel Press Release
27/04/2011

Montréal, Québec, April 27, 2011 — At the end of May 2011, Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth hotel will inaugurate its new rooftop garden on the hotel’s 22nd floor. This project spearheaded by the hotel’s Environmental Committee was inspired by the Executive Chef’s dedication to sourcing local ingredients and his efforts to serve guests the freshest products.

The hotel has previously experimented with indoor and outdoor gardening, starting as early as 1976, when Chef Albert Schnell introduced hydroponic culture in his kitchen to grow varieties of fine herbs that were not available year-round in Montréal. In 1994, Chef John Cordeaux decided to grow aromatic herbs outdoors, on a low roof, accessible only by a window on the 4th floor of the hotel.

In 2010, the hotel reactivated the project with an indoor experiment along the windowsill of the second level of Le Montréalais restaurant. Tended by the hotel’s gardener, this organic vegetable and fresh herb garden brought in surprising results.

Encouraged by this success, the Environmental Committee decided to take up urban gardening on the hotel’s main roof which benefits from all-day full sun exposure. The hotel decided to use an innovative concept in container horticulture that was developed by experts from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and intended for professional organic greenhouse vegetable producers. This low-maintenance system is self-sufficient, and the plants are watered and fertilised automatically with a drip system.

Executive Chef Alain Pignard is looking forward to growing his own produce and explains that “If we try to grow at least part of what we need, in a healthy, low-impact way, and source the rest from small local producers, we will all lower our carbon footprint and reap delicious rewards.”

In planting the garden, the hotel also wishes to sow seeds of change, creating Montréal’s first downtown hotel rooftop garden. The culinary team at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth wants to bring green to new heights with unique and colorful varieties of herbs, edible blooms, fruits, and vegetables that will be harvested daily for use in the hotel’s kitchens and outlets.

Naturally, where there are inspiring ingredients there are inspired chefs for the greatest pleasure of diners.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is committed to reducing its environmental footprint and Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth is staying true to company roots. The hotel will follow organic growing practices and compost leaves and plants at the end of the growing season.

Also see “Montreal’s Historic Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel Grows its Own Produce on an Edible Roof Garden” here.

The YWCA said the program will help empower local women.

By Jessica Rudis
Evanston Patch
Jan 27, 2012

Excerpt:

Colorado based CoBank recently announced that it will contribute $34,000 over the next three years to help the YWCA Evanston/North Shore to support an expansion of their urban farming initiative.

The urban farm started in the spring of 2009, when the YWCA built a small raised bed vegetable and herb garden to grow fresh produce for Mary Lou’s Place, their domestic violence shelter for women and children.

The Evanston-based urban garden is a helpful tool to empower women, according to YWCA Evanston/North Shore Communications Director Julie McBratney.

“The women tend the garden and harvest vegetables and herbs for their meals,” McBratney told Patch. “They cook their own meals each night, and once a week, the have a lesson in healthy cooking from a local caterer who volunteers her time. In the process, they are learning more about nutrition for themselves and their children and gaining self-sufficiency.”

Read the complete article here.

A Food project in Chicago, IL

Our vision is to show how rooftop farming is a vital part of the urban agriculture movement to create a sustainable and equitable food system. Join us by helping us grow fruits & vegetables, organically & sustainably on the roof. The rewards for your pledges include options to visit us for a tour, cool gear, fresh produce, and even come by to volunteer on the rooftop!

The funds of this Kickstarter campaign will be used to purchase most of the stuff needed to farm 3000 sq. feet of the rooftop. Specifically: water pumps, reservoirs, tubing, piping, air pumps, seeds, and so on…

We estimate that this rooftop farm will then produce about 2,700 pounds of lettuces, mustard greens, chards, kale, peppers, tomatoes, squash, and more!

See funding effort here.

See their web site here.

Viraj is a LEED® Accredited Professional and received a B.A. from Colgate University

Viraj Puri is co-founder and CEO of Gotham Greens, a New York City based company dedicated to growing the highest quality vegetables and culinary herbs for local restaurants and retailers. Gotham Greens’ premium quality produce is grown in sterile rooftop greenhouses in Brooklyn, NY, using clean, renewable energy. His written work has appeared in several books and publications including, “100% Renewable — Energy Autonomy in Action” and the un Academic Journal.

He has received fellowships from the TED conference and the Wild Gift, where he currently serves on the board of directors.

See Gotham Greens is a New York City here.

A look at the life-cycle of a rooftop vegetable farm for a Canadian restaurant—complete with hydroponic planters, a hoop house—including the harvest of beautiful vegetables.

By Victoria Taylor and Katie Mathieu
Garden Design
Jan 4, 2012

Excerpts:

In the spring of 2010, Parks & Rec, a rooftop vegetable garden, was established on the roof of downtown Toronto restaurant Parts & Labour. It was designed and operated as a for-profit roof farm by the two of us, landscape architect Victoria Taylor, OALA, and trained chef and permaculturalist Katie Mathieu.

The 1,800-square-foot farm, run free of chemicals, focused on growing produce for use by its primary client—the restaurant downstairs—and to study the feasibility of a for-profit, pop-up farm-restaurant relationship in an urban rooftop setting.

During the garden’s two-year run, from the beginning of 2010 to the end of 2011, we had lots of interaction and feedback from the restaurant and various other collaborators, and we both became acquainted with the challenges of this unique practice for landscape design and urban agriculture. We also learned a lot about how to build a rooftop garden for other businesses who might be interested in a similar venture for expansion, education, and public relations.

See the photos here.

An organic green restaurant that utilizes the roof to grow its own vegatables

By Paul Aryeh
309 E. 8th Street
Los Angeles California 90014

Who we are:
We are the owners of a mid-rise building in the heart of the Fashion District of downtown LA. The area is slowly transforming into a very “Green” conscious location. Our building has about 10,000 sq ft of roof top space perfect for an organic farm, and there will be about 1900 sq ft of retail space on the ground floor available soon for a restaurant. This space is terrific for a restaurant, and has the necessary infrastructure to support a kitchen. Our desire is to find the perfect operator that can grow their own vegetables and use the ground floor to prepare, cook and serve all organic products.

Really the restaurant should be the leader to the surrounding communities of the power and possibility of providing sustainability in an urban environment. If we can demonstrate this concept, it is my feeling that we can create a breakthrough to a whole new way of growing and feeding people.

The Residential Area:
There are over 425 condominiums/apartments next door to us, and there is definitely a need to put a restaurant/farm like this in our area. All the residence and businesses around us are very trendy, young and open minded. Within a 7-10 block area, the demographics of condominiums and apartments that are there is extraordinarily high and is growing at a rapid rate.

The heart of the Fashion District:
Within a 2 block radius, there is a high density Fashion District and their showrooms located in the California Mart, New Mart, Cooper Building, Liberty Building and Geary Building all within a 1-2 blocks of our location. Gallery row located between Main & Spring street from 2nd to 9th street, is within 1-2 blocks. The Flower Mart which wholesales to the industry and retail foot traffic is 1/2 block away. Retail foot traffic of Maple Street is also 1 block distance. and ample parking for customers is located on 3 major lots next to our building.

The Retail Food Area:
The area is growing with plenty of Starbucks, Macdonalds, smaller restaurants, and fast food joints, and chain grocery stores, but no self sustained-organically grown farms and restaurants. I feel they will come soon……..very soon. There in lies the business and community supported opportunity I am looking for. Since all it needs is a lot of experience, hard work and I think this concept will grow very quickly.

Thank you for the opportunity to share my vision, and helping to create a significant change to the overall wellbeing of our community.
Regards

Contact Paul here: paul.aryeh@gmail.com

Honolulu’s first urban rooftop farm

January 4, 2012

HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu’s first urban rooftop farm will be on top of a car dealership.

FarmRoof says the company, along with Kamehameha Schools and others, will begin installing a 38,000-square-foot USDA-certified organic farm on a roof in Kakaako on Wednesday.

The farm is part of landowner Kamehameha Schools’ vision to redevelop Kakaako into a healthy and sustainable urban community.

The farm on the roof of Auto Mart USA will supply the community, retailers and chefs with crops such as heirloom kale, arugula and mustard greens.

FarmRoof® founder Alan Joaquin, Kamehameha Schools representatives and other supporters begin installation of a 38,000 sq. ft. USDA-certified organic farm on the rooftop of Auto Mart USA (formerly CompUSA). It is the first commercial urban rooftop farm in Hawai‘i and FarmRoof’s largest.

The rooftop farm will supply community, retailers and chefs with an assortment of delicious, healthy, and nutrient-dense crops such as heirloom kale, arugula and mustard greens. The farm will grow in a proprietary ultra-lightweight soil infused with minerals, trace elements, nutrients, and billions of microorganisms.

The installation is part of landowner Kamehameha Schools’ vision to redevelop Kaka‘ako into a healthy and sustainable urban community.

Link to the news video here.

“Farming is a tough numbers game. It’s a tough sell, but educating children in cities about how food is grown is worth any size project.”

American Society of Landscape Architects
The Dirt
12/16/2011

Excerpt:

Mark Morrison, FASLA, Mark Morrison Landscape Architecture, who did his first green roof in Moscow in the 1970s and works on lots of diverse rooftop spaces (restaurants, hospitals, and community gardens), said the issues relate to policy. “We need policy changes.” He pointed to his Visionaire greenroof project in Battery Park City, where there’s a “strong authority” that didn’t want to see plants on roofs, so he had to make design changes to hide the roof produce. Keith Agoada, Urban-ag, agreed, adding that “commercial farming is often illegal.” Rooftop farmers often need “special use permits” to get around out-dated regulations meant to encourage densification by keeping farmers out of the city. There are also complications with adding greenhouses on roofs, which are “technically another floor,” so farmers need “legal and design workarounds.”

There are structural challenges as well: Brad Rowe, Michigan State University, says roofs can only grow so much in 5-inches of soil, largely because they can only handle so much weight. For Lisa Goode, Goode Green, who designed Eagle Street Farms in NYC, roof weight and waterproofing are major issues. Morrison said “structural engineers” are then very important to the process of evaluating a roof. Engineers can either evaluate roof load by finding the average load over a roof or just identifying a capped load for every square foot. The second option prevents designers from creating deeper 24-inch areas for fruit trees. ”If you find an engineer who won’t provide an average range over the roof, find a different engineer,” said Morrison, with a wink.

Read the complete article here.

Vegetables growing on the roof such as eggplant, okra, peas, butternut squash, cherry tomatoes, banana peppers and purple yard long beans.

Breaking Ground Contracting’s living roof is comprised of three main component ecosystems, including native wildflowers, shrubs and an intensive permaculture food and herb garden. The purpose of Breaking Ground’s living roof is an ongoing sustainability statement through support of wildlife biodiversity, affording economic development, offering educational opportunities to a broad range of people and providing a healthy, organic food alternative in the Urban Core.

See their website here.

Breaking Ground’s building now a Jacksonville example of green construction

Roof before garden is built.

By Kevin Turner
Florida Times
Apr 26, 2011

Excerpt:

For Mary Tappouni and the employees of Breaking Ground Contracting Co. a remodeling has transformed the company’s headquarters into a dream — a showcase of green construction.

On Monday, the centerpiece of the remodeling went into place in the form of 51 solar panels and a rooftop garden that will be watered only by rain and condensation from the building’s air conditioning units. The building, at 4218 Highway Ave., will be Northeast Florida’s only commercial business topped by solar panels and a rooftop garden, Tappouni said. She and her staff plan to move back into their newly-reinvented workplace on Friday.

“We call it a learning lab for the community,” said Catherine Burkee, Breaking Ground director of educational services. “We hope to reach out to children and educators.”

Read the complete article here.

Seeds to Feed Rooftop farm in Brooklyn, NY

Seeds to Feed Rooftop farm is a community rooftop garden located at 691 Prospect Place, Brooklyn, NY. The Crown Heights CSA teamed up with Georgia’s Place, a supportive housing facility for formerly homeless adults. Through the expansion of our current rooftop farm this spring we aim to teach residents of Georgia’s Place and the Crown Heights community the art of food cultivation – from seed to harvest.

From their website:

The Power of the Farm

Today two of our residents most devoted to tending the farm pursued Yemi and I during the day because they felt the urge to water, (see preceding picture). With all the glorious sunlight, there was a definite need. As we were heading up to the roof, I was stopped by another resident who wanted to complain about something. She accompanied us in the elevator to the roof, moaning about some perceived slight. Once we got to the roof, she followed us out to the farm, continuing to blither.

Mind you, this resident is an older woman, on crutches, long history of mental illness, drug use, and homelessness. She has asthma that is so severe that she cannot tolerate any strong smell, (perfume, detergent, grass clippings, etc.), And cannot walk even to the bodega across the street without taking a break.

Once on the roof, under the spectacular azure brooklyn skies, with a slight breeze easing the sun’s rays, she began watching the other resident water, and bravely made her way farther out onto the roof. She quickly forgot about her issues and spoke about a memory of her grandmother, with a watering can and a salt shaker (?), chasing her and her siblings out of her garden, chastising them for picking the fresh tomatoes before they were ready. In her eyes I could see her travel back in time.

She stayed on the roof for about a half hour and raved about the view and how her asthma was better for her time spent there. The resident watering invited her to come back. When she left she said, “thank you david, and have a blessed day.” Yemi encouraged her to make it a part of her day from now on. I imagine she will…

See their website here.

Unit to be installed on the roof levels of the EasyPark parking lot at 535 Richards Street in downtown Vancouver

By Terry Brodie
Globe and Mail
December 12, 2011

Excerpt:

Slated to be Valcent’s first ‘VertiCrop’ system in North America

Vancouver-based Valcent Products Inc. has signed a memorandum of understanding to install its first “VertiCrop” high-density vertical growing system in North America on the top level of a parkade in the city’s downtown core.

The vertical farming system allows leafy green vegetables to be grown all year round in urban environments in much smaller spaces, using much smaller amounts of energy and water while generating higher yields.

According to the VertiCrop site, using the system requires just 8 per cent of normal water consumption used to irrigate crops, can work in any climate, can grow more than 50 varieties of leafy green vegetables, and offers yields about 20 times higher than normal production of field crops.

Read the complete article here.

Valcent’s First VertiCrop(TM) Installation Slated for City of Vancouver

Vancouver, British Columbia,
Dec 12, 2011
Marketwire Via Comtex

Valcent Products Inc. announced today that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with PSWJ Holdings Ltd. (“PSWJ”) and EasyPark, a Corporation that manages and operates parkades and properties owned by the City of Vancouver, to install a VertiCrop(TM) high density vertical growing system on the top-level of a parkade in the heart of the city’s downtown core.

Named one of TIME Magazine’s 50 Best Inventions, VertiCrop(TM) allows leafy green vegetables to be grown in controlled environments such as greenhouses and underutilized urban warehouses. In addition to providing year-round access to fresh, healthy, local produce, VertiCrop(TM) requires a fraction of the land, energy, and water conventionally required to grow, prepare and distribute produce.

The MOU proposes that North America’s first VertiCrop(TM) unit be installed on the roof levels of the EasyPark parking lot at 535 Richards Street in downtown Vancouver, or a similar location. The business will be operated by a new joint venture between Valcent and PSWJ.

“We’re very excited about the possibility of having North America’s first VertiCrop(TM) operation installed in the progressive City of Vancouver,” said Stephen Fane, CEO of Valcent Products Inc. “The way we produce food today will not satisfy global demand in the future. VertiCrop(TM) is the paradigm shift that we need in agriculture.”

The City of Vancouver has set the goal of being the world’s greenest city 2020 and EasyPark will provide the opportunity to showcase the VertiCrop(TM) technology and demonstrate a sustainable local food production facility.

“The proposed VertiCrop(TM) installation in the City of Vancouver showcases our ability to adapt our urban assets to meet changing market demands and promote environmental leadership,” said General Manager Mel McKinney for EasyPark. “This long-term lease generates direct financial benefit to Vancouverites while showcasing Vancouver’s sustainability innovation.”

The MOU calls for the formal lease agreement to be completed within 90 days of today’s signing.

Link here.

Health messages include healthy eating, the importance of physical exercise and the dangers of smoking

By Adam Dwyer
Senior Project Officer – Primary Health Services
GP Plus Health Care Centre Marion

Description of the project:

The clients were involved in the planning of the building, through engagement with the landscape architect commissioned to design the roof garden. The building was designed to include the roof garden due to the success of a previous community health engagement/food garden development with these clients. The community engagement is based around healthy lifestyle choices (food, physical activity, stress/mental health, quit smoking/substance abuse), promoting access to free health services, empowerment and social inclusion. Actively growing food brings a lot of these together.

The building (GP Plus Health Care Centre – Marion) contains and integrates previous separately located health services into one location (inc. Primary health, mental health, dental service, child and adolescent health services, youth services, sexual health, pathology). The roof garden is predominantly used actively by people living in Supported Residential Facilities (SRFs) but benefits all health staff (with whom it is quite popular) and community and will be opened in future for use by other client groups (such as indigenous youth groups, who will grow bush tucker on the roof). We also have compost and worm farms for staff to capture and cycle green waste from the building (3 levels, ~200 staff).

Currently we’ve got watermelon, rockmelon, tomatoes, eggplant, pumpkin, garlic, kale, rocket, herbs, corn, blueberries, peaches, pear, apple, goji, rhubarb and more as well as a living wall of strawberry bushes. Many of the seeds of these were collected from the old garden and scattered into the roof garden soil – the style is a wild food garden/ecology where all niches and seasons are filled with edible or ‘useful’ plants. We use no artificial fertilisers or pesticides in the garden (we use our permaculture-ish principles and home grown roof worm juice for this!). Clients and health service staff are involved in all stages of the development from planning the garden to harvesting and eating the produce (yum). We’ve also got sunflowers, marigold, calendula and poppies in the open areas and extensive living walls of indigenous plants and some non-indigenous plants (ie strawberries).

See City Limits article, Dec 2011, here.

See Info Sheet about the roof here.

“This is a gap in the market and we want to close it.”

By Jess Smee
Spiegel Online
Dec 5, 2011

Excerpt:

It is hardly a logical spot for a farm, but three Berliners have earmarked a massive former factory roof for an unusual urban agriculture venture. The sustainable set-up will produce both vegetables and fish for local residents and could be a model for future city farms as the world continues to urbanize.

The Frisch vom Dach, or Fresh from the Roof project, plans to create a 7,000-square-meter roof garden, complete with a fish farm, to provide Berliners with sustainable, locally-grown food. They hope to sow the seeds of a new form of urban agriculture, arguing that traditional farming needs to evolve — and soon.
“Humankind is driving fast into a wall,” said Nicolas Leschke, a co-founder of Frisch vom Dach. “Global resources are running out. With so many people living in cities, we need to think locally.”

Currently, the expansive roof of the former malt factory in Berlin’s Schöneberg district is more grey than green. But in 2013 they plan to harvest lettuce, herbs and tomatoes, as well as raising different species of fish. Once their unorthodox farm is established, they expect to produce tons of vegetables and fish each month.

Read the complete article here.

FarmRoof in O’ahu

By Laura Poirier
Green
Nov/Dec 2011

Excerpt:

Since each farm is community based, two important factors need to be met to get started: there has to be a business or organization willing to use their roof to grow food, and their must be a community demand for the weekly crop. FarmRoof’s first CSA in Waimanalo, on top of Sweet Home Waimanalo market and cafe, was so well received that every membership available for that particular location was swept up almost immediately. Using roofs owned by Kamehmeha Schools, their next CSA location, Kaka’ako, sprouted this fall, growing a combination of high-nutrient lettuces, kales mustards and herbs. Memberships for 2012 are still available to become part of this CSA location. From there, FarmRoof has plans to spread into Kailua and Waikiki.

FarmRoof above Sweet Home Waimanalo Market Café.

“We made our first appearance at Ala Moana Farmers’ Market over Labor Day weekend and had over 125 people sign up for memberships, in only four hours,” says Joaquin, confident that the community is ready for a change in how they acquire their food. “All we did was let people taste what we are growing and the support was unbelievable. The fact that people were signing up on the spot for our CSA really reinforced what we are working toward.”

Read the complete article here.

FarmRoof website here.

Can Dickson Despommier’s radical vision for urban agriculture take root in the United States

By David J. Craig
Columbia Magazine
Fall 2011

Excerpts:

Planning officials from a dozen American cities, including Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Newark, and Jersey City, have asked Despommier to advise them on how to create vertical farms. But the only major U.S. projects to have moved past the discussion stage are the one in Seattle, which is operated by the young company Civesca, and the farm in Chicago, run by the start-up 312 Aquaponics.

“In the U.S., we have lots of farmland and cheap food,” says Despommier, who retired from teaching last year. “If vertical farming takes off in this country, it will be because people view it as a moral imperative. It will be because people care about the environmental damage caused by traditional farming and they want their communities to be part of the solution.”

And

On a recent trip to the farm in Suwon, Despommier’s face took on an eerie pink glow beneath the special LED lamps that illuminated a room full of lettuce. A gentle percolating sound emanated from the plants, as a broth of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, zinc, and many other nutrients circulated through their roots. The air was sultry, and the temperature nearly 85 degrees Fahrenheit. “Just right for lettuce,” observed Despommier, his knit shirt darkened with sweat. In adjacent rooms, other types of leafy greens sprouted in their own ideal climatic conditions. On the way out, before changing clothes in a clean room — the farm is hermetically sealed and sterilized to avoid the need for pesticides and herbicides — Despommier grabbed a moist lettuce leaf and folded it into his mouth.

“This place is going to lose money, just as all the first vertical farms will,” he remarked later. “These are experimental projects, and it’s going to take years for them to become commercially viable. They’re already getting annual crop yields that are six times larger than what you’d get from a plot of soil with the same square footage, but even that’s not enough to offset the costs of the operation. The lighting technology still needs to be made more efficient. And they need to figure out which crops will be most profitable.”

Read the complete article here.

Also see: Talking vertical farms: An interview with Dickson Despommier here.

Sky’s the limit for rooftop farming

By Barbara Cole
Sunday Tribune
November 21, 2011

Excerpt:

Durban, South Africa – Delegates to the massive Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17) in Durban are going to learn all about rooftop farming – and they will not have too far too travel either.

Just across the road from the International Convention Centre, where the global conference is being held, there are cabbages, onions and spinach growing next to the taxi rank in Monty Naicker (Pine) Street.

Photo by Charli Charles Denison.

Delegates, who are due to descend on Durban in their thousands at the weekend, will get to see how to grow food even though there might not be enough space. Even a wall can lend itself to growing tomatoes and granadillas.

An urban farm, which has taken only a few months to develop, is on the roof of the “Priority Zone” building – a former warehouse – at 77 Monty Naicker Street, where a pilot project has been running for three years.

Rooftop mural in progress.

Read the complete article here.

See more at Priority Zone’s Facebook page here.

“One day all AFHCO buildings will have rooftop gardens producing different vegies and herbs.”

Lebo Mashego
AFHCO
Urban Development Manager
Johannesburg, South Africa

Excerpt from AFCO website:

In 2009 Afhco approached the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) to partner in establishing a pilot Rooftop Vegetable Garden. Through their Community Social Initiative (CSI) programme, the grant was given and Afhco’s Urban Development Manager, Lebo Mashego went to work on the project. A concept design was developed for a sustainable garden constructed solely from recycled materials, in the form of old tyres for planters and wooden pallets for the planters to stand on. A worm garden was also planned, to ensure a constant supply of compost and fertiliser.

To further ensure the success of the project, Afhco enlisted the help of The Greenhouse Project, an established NGO that promotes sustainable construction and living strategies. Their input and advice, based on years of experience with food gardening, was immensely helpful in creating this first-of-a-kind project in Johannesburg. With the help of the JDA grant, Afhco was able to fund the waterproofing of the roof, installing paved pathways, securing the garden with fencing, and fitting an irrigation system.

Visit their website here.

Learn how to farm in Hong Kong on the rooftop of an old factory building

By Hiufu Wong
CNN Go
15 November, 2011

Excerpt:

Project Grow is a city garden located on the rooftop of a building in one of Hong Kong’s underdog neighborhoods — To Kwa Wan.

Before the 1960s, To Kwa Wan was mainly a light-industries area overshadowed by the adjacent neighborhoods of Hung Hom and Kowloon City. Today, the community is mainly made up of elderly and new immigrants living in affordable but fast deteriorating property.

“To Kwa Wan is an old neighborhood — the residents are attached to the place but it is losing its energy,” said environmentalist Pad Chu. “We are just making our tiniest effort to rejuvenate the community again.”

Chu established The Organic Farm 17 years ago and now also operates food store Simply Organic.

To set up Hong Kong’s first rooftop urban garden for the To Kwa Wan community, Chu teamed up with the Film Culture Club (HK) (HKFCC) and an up-cycling design group called re:ply Workshop.

Read the complete article here.

By Nathali Lehmann Schumann
Prepared for AgroTech. This report is the outcome of a 13-week internship, as part of the study ‘Bachelor’s Degree in Global Nutrition and Health’ – Metropolitan University College Copenhagen
August 2011

Excerpts from Abstract:

A literature review, four semi-structured interviews, meetings, and a single field visit were conducted in order to investigate the current situation of the phenomenon urban rooftop agriculture(URA) including benefits and challenges. How URA is and can be implemented in order to promote a sustainable food system were also examined.

Examples from Copenhagen, London, New York and Vancouver are included.

Based on the experience from the Copenhagen, London, New York, 18 recommendations were developed for Denmark in order to create a solid base and stepping stone for future desired development and visions, which should include URA.

DYRK Nørrebro – First rooftop garden in Copenhagen, Denmark. Photo by Nathali Lehmann Schumann.

DYRK Nørrebro is located on the roof of Blagardsgade School in Copenhagen.

“One square meter with soil – and it can even be on a balcony – should be sufficient enough to grow salad for two during the summer. And let’s say that 50% of the people in Copenhagen grow their own salad, then it is quite some trucks from Italy, which can be spared.” DYRK Nørrebro (Interview, 2011)

See the report(50 pages) here – large download.

Facebook page for DYRK Nørrebro.