How to grow food in a concrete jungle 4d352a

Guillaume Fourdinier has lived in Paris for six years, but he still misses the taste of the fresh cereal grains, beets, carrots and more that grow on his family's farm in Verton. There, in northern 's countryside, eating locally is a way of life – not simply a trend or a sticker on an apple at the grocery store. 

“Local food is everywhere when you are in the countryside. You get fruits and vegetables with better taste, more nutritional value,” he says. “When you are in Paris, what is local food? There is nothing coming from a local farm. I think for quality of life for people living in big cities this is a big problem.”

In 2015, Fourdinier co-founded Agricool, an urban farm that's now comprised of 11 recycled shipping containers on the north side of the city. Eight farmers plant, harvest, pack, and deliver the pesticide-free lettuces, herbs, and strawberries to 60 supermarkets (though Fourdinier expects that number to grow to at least 200 retailers by the end of 2021). 

Urban farms like Agricool are part of a broad collection of metropolitan agricultural efforts including everything from vertical farms to greenhouses to aquaponics to community gardens. The idea of cultivating food in or near cities is not new (see the victory gardens of both world wars, for example), but these ventures have become increasingly popular in recent years as the local food movement strengthens. After the rise of the supermarkets led many people to feel disconnected from food production, consumers are again paying more attention to how and where their food is grown, along with how far ingredients must travel between field and plate. 

From Brussels to Nigeria, entrepreneurs and farmers are reimagining what farms are and conceiving innovative technology to help grow food in smaller spaces and in more sustainable ways. They're attempting to fix existing food supply chain concerns, which we've all became intimately familiar with in the past year. Images of picked-over grocery shelves and farmers tossing out produce early in the Covid-19 pandemic broadcast the failures and fragility of our current systems.

To that end, 80 Acres is commercialising what it's learned through Infinite Acres – a partnership with Netherlands-based horticulture technology firm Priva Holding BV and the UK's online grocery giant Ocado. The project provides the technology, operations help and necessary infrastructure to help budding farmers and interested municipalities launch their own indoor farms. 80 Acres operates a reference design and demonstration farm in Hamilton, Ohio, that's capable of robotically planting, harvesting, and packaging around 1.5 million pounds (681 tonnes) of leafy greens annually. It proves the “economic feasibility of vertical farming indoors”, Livingston says. “We intend to build a farm like this farm all over the world.”

Which gets to the big question: Can a patchwork of metro area farms actually grow enough to feed future populations?

“To say that it is a solution to all of the ails? No, it's never going to be to me because we don't grow calorie crops in controlled spaces. I think it's a complement. It can provide resilience on a very local level in that you have multiple [food] sources and you're not relying on just one supply chain,” says Anu Rangarajan, director of the Cornell Small Farms Program, which works to advance the viability of small farms. “It becomes part of a whole platform of food supply.” 

In Paris, Agripolis recently opened Nature Urbain Farm on the seventh story of the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Five gardeners currently tend to the tomatoes, strawberries, eggplant and even butternut squash growing on the world's largest rooftop farm using a closed-circuit, aeroponics system. The facility is only one-third complete, but there will be room for 20 gardeners to harvest up to 1.1 tons (1,000kg) of 35 varieties of fruit and vegetables every day. This surprising farm on a central Paris rooftop is already bearing fruits, as you can see in the video below.

The health benefits extend beyond the physiological. Urban farms can provide jobs and educational opportunities, supply nutritious sustenance in food deserts, and improve air quality, among other environmental perks. They even influence property values. In New York's lowest-income neighborhoods the presence of a community garden within 1,000ft (304m) can increase property values up to 9.4%. 

Of course, they can't do it alone. Urban agriculture comprises just one piece of a sustainable and reliable food ecosystem. “This is not going to replace farming,” Agricool's Fourdinier says. “It's about what can we do better altogether so that the mix can be better for the planet and better for the consumers.”

And consumers have their own roles to play. Communities need to these efforts by choosing local produce and adapting their diets to include more of the sustenance that we are able to grow in or near urban areas. 

Currently, only 2% of global calories come from the oceans (the majority of which comes from fish, whose populations are heavily depleted), yet eight of the world's megacities are located on the coasts, including Sao Paolo, Shanghai and New York City. 

John Holmyard, a longtime mussel farmer in Brixham, England, wanted to find a sustainable protein option, so he turned to mussels. His company, Offshore Shellfish, grows the molluscs 18 miles from the port town, on long ropes that stretch out below the waves. The underwater farm can produce around 11,023 tons (10,000 tonnes) of mussels annually. “Mussel farming is as pure a form of farming as you can get,” he says. “The mussels are grazers. They graze on the natural wild planktons in the sea. All we do is give them somewhere to live.”

The catch? Though an average serving of mussels (around 100g, or 3.5 ounces) contains about 24g (0.8oz) of protein, mussels also ingest and concentrate everything in the water around them, including heavy metals and other pollutants, though the waters are tested regularly for safety. The waterways of the future will need to be clean enough to make the seafood a reliable and healthy option.

These various forms of urban agriculture will have to work in conjunction to create a food system that can sustain our growing world. The industry needs to be smart and creative, matching crops with the right type of farming method to be both cost-effective and yield the best product, says Topsoil's Hildreth. That may even mean continuing to produce certain foods farther from home. “The industrial food system is not going to be solved with one massive solution,” Hildreth says. “Urban agriculture is that opportunity to showcase that there are other options.”