Vertical Farming...not as crazy as I first thought?

For my urban politics class, Amy F.'s final speech surprised me. She talked about vertical farming as the wave of the future, and how we ought to start re-thinking our cities to make them more environmentally and socially more responsible. I had no idea where she had come up with this business about vertical farming, but it was an innovative idea, and her argument was coherent and articulate. And, it was compelling enough to make me investigate this vertical farming business a bit further.

Turns out, Amy's idea isn't totally out-of-the-blue: the Vertical Farm Project is already pioneering designs for urban food production to get into cities in a major way. No kidding.

One of the more influential books I read as a kid was called "Old MacDonald Had an Apartment House" and it was about the same sort of thing. Only in my childhood it was an apartment-house, and a children's book, and today, we're talking sky-scrapers Columbia University professors, and architectural drawings. I hope it won't be too long before I am eating my vegetables from a vertical farm near me! Perhaps it will even be on Lake Michigan, and look a lot like the drawing featured here... Also, be sure to check out the Essays and the Presentations links on the site.

PS... the first set of designs for the vertical farm posted on the site are a building in the middle of Lake Michigan... it would certainly be great for Chicago's aspirations for being the "greenest city in America" to take this on...

Chicago's Green Fest

Last weekend I was back home. In a city that purports, according to our mayor, to become the nation's "greenest" city.

Indeed, Chicago has done a bit to become green - but there is still a long way to go. The city's "Green Festival" - put on by a range of organizers, both governmental and non-, and organized by Global Exchange and Co-op America, showcased thousands of new eco-friendly businesses, products, and initiatives. Guest speakers from across the country, and even internationally, were there to spread the good word.  I got to say hi to the folks at Angelic Organics (Farmer John) and at the Center for Neighborhood Technology, who set me up with a car-sharing membership. Thousands of people flocked to the event, and the media coverage was pretty good.

But I still left Green Fest with some angst.  More often than not,  free samples of new protein powders and organic juices were given out in little single-use plastic cups; the message for many there seemed to be "buy green" rather than "think green" or "live green."  The tables with really cool initiatives, which weren't giving away free crap, unfortunately seemed to be getting very little response.  As I stepped back into being an observer there, I watched as time and again attendees spent between 30 and 60 seconds at each booth, getting a free sample and perhaps picking up a brochure, and then moving on.  The amount of waste produced was immense, and although it was awesome that some of the organic stuff was going into someone's compost bucket and that there were recycling bins there, my reaction is this: Wow, do we have a long way yet to go.

How much did event spark new connections within the environmental and fair trade world? Did it create buzz about environmental initiatives, beyond greenwashing in Chicago and just more green consumerism? I tend to think that on the balance, it did. It was especially important to see so many fair-trade businesses represented there, along side the organic ones... progress is being made on bringing the worlds of social justice and environmentalism closer together in the US, bit-by-bit. 

Maybe there is some instinctual drive in all of us for seeking free stuff when it's offered.  But let's remember that with all of the options out there, what we should be capitalizing on with these events is making good contacts, expanding our knowledge base, and strengthening community.  And that takes a lot more time and effort than picking up a free sample and a brochure and then moving on.

Fertilizers and the Food Crisis

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a good map like this one must be worth at least 10,000.

Fertilizer prices are up by 3 - 5 times; fertilizer use has also skyrocketed; meanwhile runoff from the fertilizer kills our oceans and rivers, forming "dead zones."  The food crisis ends up not being about food shortage - it's about the high prices of food, and the drivers behind those prices.  Isn't it ironic that fertilizers, which aim originally at addressing increased food production, have contributed to this very crisis we're now faced with? 

ps - special thanks to Leo S. for bringing this graphic to my attention!