The Point
Subscribe to The PointThe Vertical Farm: Making a Pledge Towards the Future
I just pledged $100 dollars to the development of a New York City-based “vertical farm.”
If you don’t know about the project, you can check out The Vertical Farm website here, an article on the concept in The New York Times, or this discussion in The Huffington Post on how we can use such a construction project as part of an advanced building block of our future (and national security).
From the campaign: The Vertical Farm is a urban indoor highrise farm that can grow food to feed urban populations in a sustainable way. It’s one of the most innovative solutions to the impending food and environmental crisises we’ll see in the next 50 years.
Benefits include:
- Year-round indoor farming produces 4-6 times more food
- All organic
- Dramatic reduction of fossil fuel use in farming: shipping, tractors, etc.
- Recycles water it uses
- Avoids weather-related crop failures
- New jobs
The best thing about the pledge is that it’s just that - a pledge. I have not yet been charged. I am supporting an idea and only when there is enough support to leverage it into a reality will my money be put to use.
Andrew Mason puts the project into context of The Point’s weekend upgrade:
“Hey there, We launched a major upgrade to The Point this weekend. I’m inviting you a “carrot” campaign — one of our new features. For these campaigns, there are no preset tipping points — people just pile on the money until someone agrees to do something. In this case, we’re trying to get a developer to agree to build a skyscraper farm in Manhattan. Please forward this to New Yorkers you know - I think it’s a really cool idea. You won’t pay a dime unless someone reputable steps up and agrees to build the farm. We’ll probably work something out where you’ll get a return on your investment, either in the form of equity or produce, but it’s too early to promise anything. Help spread the word!”
Please consider supporting the concept, be it by pledge or spreading the word about the campaign, and get behind bringing United States’ food production into the future.
Roxanne Christensen
Commercial urban agriculture is already happening throughout the U.S. and Canada, as more and more people are starting to practice SPIN-Farming. SPIN makes it possible to earn $50,000+ from a half acre by growing vegetables on land bases under an acre in size. SPIN farmers utilize relay cropping to increase yield and achieve good economic returns by growing only the most profitable food crops tailored to local markets. SPIN’s growing techniques are not, in themselves, breakthrough. What is novel is the way a SPIN farm business is run. SPIN provides everything you’d expect from a good franchise: a business plan, marketing advice, and a detailed day-to-day workflow. In standardizing the system and creating a reproducible process it really isn’t any different from McDonalds. So by offering a non-technical, easy-to-understand and inexpensive-to-implement farming system, it allows many more people to farm, wherever they live, as long as there are nearby markets to support them, and it removes the two big barriers to entry – sizeable acreage and significant start-up capital. By utilizing backyards and front lawns and neighborhood lots, SPIN farmers are recasting farming as a small business in cities and towns and “right sizing” agriculture for an urbanized century. While vertical farming will still take some time to get off the ground, sub-are farming is already showing how agriculture can be integrated into the built environment in an economically viable manner. You can see some SPIN farmers in action at http://www.spinfarming.com
July 25th, 2008 at 8:48 amSarah Hannity
Alex,
I talked to Abbie the other day and she told me that you and I are living in the same neighborhood. You’re by Andrew Sq? She also told me you’re writing a lot, but this is the only link she had on hand.
I like the site, and I especially like this whole vertical farm idea. I have been keeping up with it online for the past few weeks since I saw the thing in the Times. We should get Abbie in on drinks and talk about this more.
Maybe I’ll see you at the Tedeschi
-SH
July 28th, 2008 at 3:49 pm