
Urban farms thrive under COVID-19
From community vegie gardens to vast vertical farms, city-based cropping ventures are proliferating as the coronavirus pandemic up-ends food supply chains and heightens food-security fears.
UNSW Sydney, Hilmer Building E10,
High Street, Kensington, NSW 2052
From community vegie gardens to vast vertical farms, city-based cropping ventures are proliferating as the coronavirus pandemic up-ends food supply chains and heightens food-security fears.
The ACT’s first vertical farm installation has landed at Canberra’s Ginninderry development, a 6-star Green Star Community west of Belconnen.
This video highlights some of the high-tech commercial vertical-farming operations supplying fresh greens to cities across the world – and some of the big-name investors backing them.
The supply-chain disruption precipitated by the pandemic shutdown may provide the motivation needed to reinvigorate urban agriculture, contends protected cropping expert Oula Ghannoum.
Sprout Stack runs Australia’s only commercial-scale vertical farm, growing fresh salad greens in the Sydney metro area. And with COVID-19 disrupting supply chains worldwide, the company’s low-food-miles position is proving advantageous.
The COVID-19 pandemic illustrates how critical it is for major centres of population to have localised agri-food production sites, contends Joel Cuello, Professor of Biosystems Engineering at The University of Arizona.
In the quest to cut food miles, cover less costly acreage and leave ever-smaller carbon footprints, food businesses are innovating like there’s no tomorrow.