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| Green Gotham. Photograph by Anthony Behar, Sipa Press/AP
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With seven billion mouths to feed, human agriculture exerts a tremendous toll on the planet, from water draws to pollution, and from energy use to habitat loss. But there is also a growing set of solutions, from
organic agriculture to
integrated pest management.
More people around the world are taking a look at urban farming, which offers to make our food as "local" as possible. By growing what we need near where we live, we decrease the "food miles" associated with long-distance transportation. We also get the freshest produce money can buy, and we are encouraged to eat in season.
Another benefit of urban farming is that it can add greenery to cities, reducing harmful runoff, increasing shading, and countering the unpleasant heat island effect. Garden plots can help people reconnect with the Earth, and gain a greater appreciation for where our food comes from (hint: not from plastic packages).
Rooftop and patio gardens create peaceful places for relaxation or contemplation, and they can attract tourists—consider the booming businesses that have sprung up around New York City's lush High Line Park. And urban farming can bring jobs to underserved and depressed urban areas.
Although planners have a long way to go, boosters envision soaring vertical farms that will eventually produce most of what we need within a short walk from home. Still, land in cities is often expensive, especially since gardens tend to contribute to gentrification and rising rents. Urban soils can be loaded with lead, arsenic, and other toxins, requiring remediation or replacement before planting can be done safely.
Cramped conditions can limit yields, and getting enough water and sunlight can be concerns.
Still, if the right combinations of new technology, community support, and economic incentives align, it's possible we may soon be munching on skyscraper scallions and avenue arugula.
An early example is the rooftop garden on the InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel, which includes an apiary. The Midtown bees produce honey used in the hotel's kitchen, and they fly to pollinate plants as far as five miles away.
—Brian Clark Howard
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| Photograph by Richard Levine, Alamy
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Across town, planters beautify a rooftop in Hell's Kitchen. Big cities like New York host acres of flat, sunny space, which can be put to use growing food or flowers.
Integrated "green roofs" are gradually catching on. In these, a thin layer of soil or other medium supports a dense mat of plants. Such features can be promoted as amenities to renters or buyers, and they win points toward green building certifications.
But it's also possible to start smaller, by setting out a pot or two, even if just on a balcony.
Farming the Future
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| Photograph by Michael Tercha, Chicago Tribune/MCT/Getty Images
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Ken Dunn clears snow from a hoop greenhouse at Chicago's City Farm. The nonprofit project sells fresh produce from a stand in the summer and fall and offers CSA (community-supported agriculture) shares to city residents, who pay to partake in nature's bounty.
City Farm transformed an acre of crumbling cement into an operation that produces 25,000 pounds of heirloom tomatoes, carrots, beets, arugula, and herbs a year. The farm provides economic opportunity and attracts throngs of volunteers and visitors in the Windy City.
Several area restaurants buy ingredients from City Farm, from Vie to Nightwood and North Pond. Bruce Sherman, chef and owner of North Pond, praised the farm's produce, telling the group, "The fact that City Farm grows exceptional produce the right way only makes it better."
Movable Farm
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| Photograph by Andy Kropa, Redux
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Chicago's City Farm, a project of the nonprofit Resource Center, is built on movable plates, so the entire operation can be relocated at the end of a growing season if leases change. The farm has occupied several different sites, including the edge of the former Cabrini-Green housing projects.
Rolling Greens
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| Photograph by Linda Rosier, NY Daily News/Getty Images
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Curt Ellis (pictured) and Ian Cheney won rave reviews for their 2007 documentary King Corn, about the drawbacks to industrial agriculture. They built on that success by filling up the back of a 1986 Dodge Ram with soil and planting tomatoes.
Over the past few years, the two friends have driven their Truck Farm from neighborhood to neighborhood, giving urban kids a chance to get their hands dirty, and see how food looks on the (moving) ground. They produced a film on the project in 2011, Truck Farm, and they've enlisted such singer/songwriters as Jack Johnson and Charlie Sutton to attract the crowds.
It's not likely we'll be sourcing the majority of our food from moving vehicles in the near future, but the Truck Farm project shows how thinking outside the garden box can introduce a new audience to natural foods.(Related: Organic Container Gardens)
The Office Farm
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| Photograph by Yuriko Nakao, Reuters
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An employee harvests veggies grown inside an office "urban farm" in Tokyo. The Pasona Group, an employment and staffing company, established the growing area to foster a work environment that "coexists with nature."
On their lunch breaks, workers tend vegetables, fruits, and rice.
Farming Caracas
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| Photograph by Carlos Garcia Rawlins, Reuters
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More than 20 different types of vegetables are grown in "Bolivar 1," an organic garden in the city of Caracas, Venezuela.
Historic Roots
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| Photograph from ClassicStock/Alamy
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In 1943, young people tend a victory garden in New York City. During World War II, Americans were encouraged to grow some of their own food, to offset shortages caused by the conflict.
During the past decades of plenty, many people forgot how to get their hands dirty. But a new crop of enterprising growers are rediscovering the many benefits of urban planting.
