Did you know that over 20% of the food in the world is produced by urban farms? If this number sounds INSANELY high. That's because well ... it is. How did urban farming pick up so much steam, so fast? How is it possible the commercial vertical farming market is expected to grow over 380% by 2022? If these stats convince you urban farming is a good idea, great. If you're not convinced...If you're still asking yourself: Why should I learn more about urban farming??
The
answer is simple.
There
are incredible amount of advantage urban farmers have over conventional
agriculture. Curious to know about the many benefits of urban farming?
Read
on...
1.
Learn a very rare skill ... the ability to farm
According
to the United States Farm Bureau, only 1 in 50 American citizens have any
farming experience (2%). That means the average person on the street is
far more likely to have other interesting skills like speaking a foreign
language (over 15% of Americans are bilingual, and over 50% of Europeans
are). By learning urban farming, you are developing a very unique skill.
2.
Conserve Space
Urban
farming utilizes space incredibly efficiently. This is especially true in the
case of vertical farming. For example, Vertical Harvest, one of the
largest commercial vertical farms in the US, grows the same amount of produce
on 1/10 of an acre that traditional agriculture would need 5 acres to produce.
3.
Extremely healthy food source
The
output of most urban farms are vegetables, typically loose-leaf lettuces,
herbs, or brassicas. According to Choosemyplate.gov, health benefits of
produce are almost unbeatable, including:
1. vegetables
do not have cholesterol
2. vegetables
are high in fiber
3. vegetables
are sources of many nutrients including: potassium, folate, Vitamin A &
Vitamin C.
4.
Helps Prevent Food Insecurity
According
to the USDA, 1 in 7 Americans suffers from food insecurity, and this figure
includes over 6 million children. Urban farming can help alleviate some of the
pressures of food insecurity. For example, urban farms set up in food
deserts can be a source of nutritious food for nearby urban residents.
5.
Easier to eat organic produce
According
to helpguide.org, organic produce:
-
contains less pesticides than conventional
-
contain less fertilizer than conventional
-
are more fresh than conventional
Growing
in your own home in some ways is the most organic way to grow - in some urban
farming set ups you may need almost no pesticides or fertilizer, and the
produce could not be fresher.
6.
Less Greenhouse Gas Emissions
According
to ACS.org, "Some analysts have suggested that bringing agriculture
into cities has lowered food-related greenhouse gas emissions". That being
said, the same study linked above *does* emphasize that the greenhouse gas
emission savings provided by urban farming are often overestimated, especially
in high density urban farming areas in the Northeastern United States (New
York, Boston, etc).
7.
Cheaper Than Buying Produce from Normal Supply Chain
On
a common sense level, putting in the time to grow your own fresh fruits and
vegetables is going to have a cheaper unit cost than going to buy at the
grocery store. The reason for this is simple:
Grocery store produce is heavily marked up. According to the article from
Chron, grocery stores mark up the cost of their produce by up to 75%, that's
almost a 2x increase that you pay.
Beyond that, a lot of the original cost of the produce comes from
transportation. The result? Growing yourself is way cheaper on average.
8.
Decreases "Food Miles" (Even compared to "local produce")
Food
miles are defined as the distance from where your food is grown or produced to
where you eat it. Food miles for local produce that is produced from an urban
garden or farm can be less than .001% the distance that grocery store (and even
restaurant) produce travels from "farm to fork". Think about it
this way, if you're growing in your own home, we're not even talking about food
"miles" anymore, we're talking about food "feet"!
9.
Improves State of Mind
According
to a Psychology Today article titled "Plants Make You Feel
Better", presence of plants indoors or in your garden:
-
Lowers systolic blood pressure
-
Lowers levels of anxiety
-
Increases job satisfaction
So...if
you hate your job...you need to start urban farming!
10.
Less Packaging Required
If
you are harvesting your food from an urban farm, you may be able to completely
do away with packaging. Why is this a HUGE benefit?
Packaging
is one of the most harmful environmental pollutants that exist in the planet.
According to this article on Livestrong, titled "The Advantages and
Disadvantages of Food Packaging", while packaging has benefits like
increasing shelf-life, there are also huge disadvantages:
"According
to Duke University researchers Patrick Reaves and Michael Nolan, consumer
packaging accounts for the largest amount of plastic and paper waste, which
forms 20 % of all landfills"
Urban Farming = packaging not necessary = benefit.
11.
High Food Safety
Large
scale outbreaks of salmonella or other contaminants is largely a bi-product of
the overwhelming distance and processing food undergoes. According to the World
Health Organization (WHO), "Foodborne illnesses are usually infectious or
toxic in nature and caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical
substances entering the body through contaminated food or water". With
increasing supply chain length comes higher risk of contamination.
12.
Higher Food Quality
When
urban farming, you have ultimate control over things like:
-
growing conditions
-
harvesting time
-
light exposure
When
you go to the grocery store, it's a "take it or leave it" situation
that you have very little control over. If you really want a carrot but all the
carrots are heavily bruised, you either buy a bruised carrot or don't get any
carrot.
13.
Less Food Waste
Because
you can "harvest and eat" with urban farming, there is no disconnect
between your produce supply and the amount you eat. The majority of food waste
at the consumer level occurs because produce that is already purchased goes
bad. If you only harvest what you are about to eat, you will waste far less.
14.
Water Conservation
Many
styles of growing that are popular in urban agriculture are far more efficient
with water than general agriculture. For example, according to Lucky Roots,
hydroponic systems can use 2/3 less water than what would normally be
needed for the same amount of output.
15.
Air Purification and Breathing Benefits
Based
off data from this article on Bayeradvanced.com, titled "The 5
Benefits of House Plants", having any type of plant in your house will aid
in air purification. In fact, this phenomenon has been studied so deeply that
we know certain types of plants purify air better than others.
16.
May Increase Your Focus
According
to an article from Scientific American titled "Houseplants Make You
Smarter", large sets of data show that plants increase focus and attention
span.
The
reasoning?
Humans
evolved in settings with far more plants than the computer screens most people
are glued to in today's day and age. While too much screen exposure is
typically harmful for attention span and focus capacity over, presence of plants
results in the opposite effects. Listen up kids, if you didn't do so well on
that last test, you may need to do a little urban farming!
17.
Prevent Illness
According
to a recent article from Treehugger, the presence of plants in your house
or garden does play a role in preventing onset of illness. This does not take
into account the fact that simply eating more produce is proven to prevent
illness in multiple studies.
Conclusion
If
you got to the end of this article, you probably liked something about it. If
you liked something about this video... you will probably like something about
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Also,
if you haven't gotten enough benefits of urban farming, check out more helpful
resources in the section below.
