Archive for August, 2009
Vertical Farms?
August 26th, 2009
I recently read “A Farm on Every Floor,” an opinion piece in the NY Times by Dickson Despommier. In the letter, the author attempts to make the case for what he calls urban “vertical farms.” The idea is that we’re running out of farmable land, farmer-applied chemicals are rendering our soil unusable, and the world population is booming so we need a new, soil-less way to farm. In particular, he suggests we can build these vertical farms in buildings in the middle of large cities.
Having a read a few things about growing food (e.g., Wendell Berry, Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver (in progress), etc.), I’m really skeptical. In particular, the author mentions growing plants not in soil, but in “nutrient solutions.” Is it just in my head, or do significant nutritional and developmental benefits come from the subtleties of a cultured soil, developed over a long time of care and processes of recycling biomass? I believe this is one of Pollan’s arguments in In Defense of Food. I am familiar with the notion of hydroponic farming, but do we really know enough about the complex nutrient balance in soils and plants to fully simulate good topsoil?
Despommier says that vertical farming will also “finally put an end to agricultural runoff.” From what I understand, this polluting runoff is actually due to poor farming techniques in land unsuitable for row cropping. Furthermore, he suggests these farms should be run by “private sources, including groups controlling venture-capital funds.” Haven’t we suffered enough from handing over our food sources to corporations fed by disconnected shareholders? This funding model may be appropriate for Google, GE, and Ford, but not for food, again.
For the time being, I’d much rather see more urban buildings adopt rooftop gardens.
m
Fences
August 9th, 2009
In response to a growing number of attacks by local wildlife (i.e., rabbits), Whitney and I constructed fences around the most important vegetable patches in the garden. (In particular, the bunnies were devouring innocent green beans we planted two weeks ago.)
While we went into the project rather blindly, with some help from various unreliable sources on the web, I think it turned out quite nicely. We used chicken wire with one-inch openings and secured it to 36-inch stakes. For the patch on the ground, we used fencing 36 inches wide, and buried it about 6 inches into the ground, folding it outward a few inches to prevent the rabbits from burrowing. Because we didn’t have to worry about burrowing under the beds, we were able to use shorter fencing (24 inches wide) and stapled it the base of the beds, using a few stakes to add stability.
So far there’s no evidence that any hungry mammals (other than us) have been able to get into the fenced-off areas. We hope it stays that way—if only we had done this a week ago!
I’ve uploaded a set of photos of this experiment for your viewing pleasure.
m
