Farm Pod

“This is how you’re going to get people fed when we have no water,” said Mike Straight, chief executive officer of FarmPod LLC, who dreamed up the idea of putting a fully automated aquaponics system inside a shipping container. “This is how you get fed when you have no land.”

Straight and his fiancée, Siria Bonilla, see the pod, the Santa Fe startup’s first prototype, as a common-sense solution to food deserts. New Mexico, where many people live in remote communities far from grocery stores or farmers markets, has some of the nation’s most expansive food deserts. About 300,000 people in the state, or about 15 percent of the population, lack access to healthy foods, according to recent studies.

Inside the shipping container that makes up the FarmPod’s bottom level, fish grow in three large tanks. One tank holds koi and two hold barramundi, a mild-flavored fish, also known as Asian sea bass, that’s popular in Thai cuisine. Water containing the fish’s waste is pumped up to the greenhouse on the second floor, where it trickles down through the vertical towers, feeding the roots of young plants. The clean water circulates back to the fish.

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climate change = food issue

"The causality around food security and climate stressors runs in both directions—food insecurity can contribute to instability and violence, just as surely as instability and violence can lead to food insecurity. In Syria, both are true. Between 2006 and 2011, more than 60 percent of Syrian territory endured the worst long-term drought in recorded history. The country’s total water resources were cut in half, with disastrous implications for rural areas. The primary northeastern wheat-growing region suffered 75 percent crop failure and 85 percent losses in livestock. The United Nations estimated that 800,000 Syrians lost their livelihood as a result of these droughts: 1 million Syrians were declared food insecure, and 3 million were driven into extreme poverty. This profound climate and food crisis led to large-scale migration: In 2010 alone, 50,000 Syrian families moved to cities from rural areas and, in 2011, an estimated 200,000 rural Syrians left rural areas for cities. Syria’s urban centers were ill-equipped to deal with this influx, with poor infrastructure and their own endemic water shortages and high levels of unemployment.

The disaffection with the government—which was unable to respond effectively to the social and health needs of migrants—brought diverse ethnic and religious groups into close contact under trying circumstances and contributed to the protests which, following President Bashar al-Assad’s brutal repression, morphed into civil war. Climate change and food insecurity did not by themselves cause the rebellion, but they contributed to the circumstances that gave rise to it. And similar stressors will likely drive the next major upheaval, whether in the Middle East or elsewhere."

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NYC's food web

Over the past year, Open House New York’s The Final Mile has explored the architecture of New York City’s food system. From the markets of the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center to the food halls of Brooklyn, The Final Mile has explored how the spaces in which food is produced, distributed, and consumed have helped shape the city and our experiences of it.

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fantasy projects

reeHugger has had some trouble digesting vertical farms for a decade, as has Stan Cox of Alternet, who wrote in 2010 that “Although the concept has provided opportunities for architecture students and others to create innovative, sometimes beautiful building designs, it holds little practical potential for providing food.” Now he is at it again, refining his points in a new article in Alternet that was picked up and retitled in Salon as Enough with the vertical farming fantasies: There are still too many unanswered questions about the trendy practice.

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Food Tower

ABF-lab is a paris-based design collective founded in 2011 that specialize in creating projects that mix architecture, energy, climate, and engineering. for a building in romainville, france called ‘food-farm tower’, they aimed to optimize the volume to follow the sun’s path, making it as productive as possible and liberating it from the use of artificial light to supply power to the gardens. the project proposes both housing and gardening at the same time.

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Gete-okosomin

In 2008, on a dig in the First Nation’s Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin, archaeologists made a small but stunning discovery: a tiny clay pot.

Though it might not have seemed very impressive at first glimpse, this little piece of pottery was determined to be about 800 years old.

And inside that pot? Something that changes how we’re looking at extinction, preservation, and food storage, as well as how humans have influenced the planet in their time on it.

It’s amazing to think that a little clay pot buried in the ground 800 years ago would still be relevant today, but it’s true! It’s actually brought an extinct species of squash that was presumed to be lost forever. Thank our Indigenous Ancestors! Even they knew what preservation meant. They knew the importance of the future, Is it not amazing that they are affecting our walks of life even to this day?

Here it is! The pot was unearthed on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin, where it had laid buried for the past 800 years

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OAXIS

Most Gulf countries import up to 90 percent of their food, which neither bodes well for food security no climate change – since the food that is brought in from Europe and elsewhere has a lot of what are called “food miles.” True to their name, Forward Thinking Architecture proposes a solar-powered hydroponic food belt as a solution.

Acknowledging that they are not designing anything new – because there are already several projects throughout the Arabian peninsula that utilize the sun and hydroponics to deliver food in the desert. One project that comes to mind is the Sahara Forest Project which has received a great deal of international press.

The OAXIS system aims to fuse existing technology in a modular, linear arrangement. The growing medium will consist of prefabricated and recycled steel structures equipped with super efficient irrigation technology that uses roughly 80 percent less water than most farms require. Rooftop solar panels provide energy not only for the architecture itself, but also to power artificial LED lighting that will help promote greater crop growth.

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Expos end...

The towers are the heart of the Swiss Pavilion. Visitors will be invited to discover Switzerland – the diversity of products and values which underlie the success of the Swiss approach – by engaging in a fun exploration of the towers. Switzerland wishes to take part in Expo 2015 as  an active, caring and socially responsible stakeholder in the area of food and sustainable development. 

The journey through the towers is guided by this leitmotif, thus prompting visitors to reflect – on the basis of their own personal experience – on the global availability of food and sustainable development throughout the food value chain. Visitors will be free to take away or consume any amount of the products. How much will be left for later visitors – and for how long – will be determined by the consumer behaviour and level of awareness of each visitor.
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Fayetteville 2030: Food City Scenario

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Arkansas Community Design Center’s project Fayetteville 2030: Food City Scenario has won a 2015 Honor Award in the Analysis and Planning category from the American Society of Landscape Architects. The project seeks to build food sustainability by promoting local urban agriculture.

Food City Scenario is featured in the October issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine and will be exhibited at the ASLA Annual Meeting and Expo in Chicago in November. This is the Community Design Center’s seventh ASLA Honor Award.

The Community Design Center led an interdisciplinary team at the University of Arkansas for Food City Scenario, which speculates on what Fayetteville might look like if the city’s growth integrated local urban food production sustainable enough to create self-sufficiency. Fayetteville’s population of 75,000 is expected to double over the next 20 years. In addition, although the region is the most prosperous in the state, it also has one of the nation’s highest child hunger rates.

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mega food parks

42 mega food parks to start operations by 2019: Harsimrat Kaur Badal 

The Mega Food Park Scheme, based on the cluster approach, is modelled on hub-and-spoke architecture, which follows principles from the spoke-hub distribution paradigm.

It aims at facilitating the establishment of a strong food processing industry backed by an efficient supply chain, which includes collection centres, a central processing centre (CPC) and cold chain infrastructure. 

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Vertical Farming update

"If you follow architecture or design at all, you may have come across aggressively futuristic renderings of skyscrapers topped with rice paddies, or tree-shaped buildings, sprouting plant life from every orifice."

Check out the updates on what's happening with Vertical Farming here:

floating farms

...designed a solar-powered floating farm. What is unique about it is the fact that through its green technology, it produces 20 tons of vegetables every day.

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mega food parks

NEW DELHI: The government is likely to soon announce allocation of 17 mega food parks, entailing a total investment of Rs 2,100 crore, to various firms for development.

A mega food park provides various facilities to food processors, farmers, retailers and exporters, helping achieve faster growth of food processing industries.

According to sources, Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal is likely to announce next week the sanctioning of these 17 mega food parks in states including Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar.

The total investment in these mega food parks is estimated at Rs 2,100 crore, of which the government's contribution would be to the tune of Rs 850 crore, they added.

In these mega food parks, 50,000 people are expected to get employment while 80,000 farmers would also be benefitted.

Under the scheme (2008-09) of mega food parks, the Food Processing Ministry had sanctioned 42 projects throughout the country. Of these, 25 parks have already been allocated.

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retirement community + farming

TRFW News) A new retirement community, planned for the city of Singapore in the near future, will be combining senior living and urban farming. Homefarm, will not only support the aging population of Singapore, but will also help seniors continue living an active lifestyle in the comfort of their own residences.

SPARK, a global architecture studio with offices in Singapore, London, Beijing and Shanghai is responsible for this new endeavour and recently announced their plan for the new development to the public. (1,2,3)

Ninety Percent of Singapore’s Food is Imported
The new urban retirement housing will have a huge positive impact on Singapore’s food conditions. Currently, 90% of food is imported from over 70 different countries. In addition, twenty percent of Singapore’s population by 2030 will be older than 65.

Homefarm will not only provide local food to the population but the seniors, who will be living in the retirement community, will not be forced to work elsewhere. They will have the opportunity to contribute work towards their living expenses by farming. They will get a chance to plant, harvest, package, clean, sort and deliver produce. The gardens will be conveniently located in an assortment of various designs throughout the retirement community.(1,3)

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Genetic toolkits

Here, we get specialized on the topic of "architecture and food". Genetic Modification, or GMO crops are designed food. I am intrigued how they use "modified architectures" to describe the manipulation of plants. Plants have a structure, and technology has allowed us to see and understand that structure...and thus, we have been able to re-build our food - deconstruct and then reconstruct our dinner. 

"Ancient humans and early plant breeders recognized that selecting plants with modified architectures could have a major impact on the amount of fruit they produce. In general scientific terms, Lippman explains, "Plant architecture results from a delicate balance between vegetative growth – shoots and leaves – and flower production. To increase crop yields, we want plants to produce as many flowers and fruits as possible, but this requires energy – energy that is produced in leaves."

"Traditionally, plant breeders have relied on natural variation in plant genes to increase yield, but yield gains are plateauing," Lippman notes. "There is an immediate need to find new ways for plant breeders to produce more food." Worldwide more than 842 million people do not receive adequate nourishment, about 1 person in 8 alive today. The cost of food is expected to increase and hunger is likely to become more widespread as the global population expands to beyond 9 billion by 2050."

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Read more: Getting more out of nature: Genetic toolkit finds new maximum for crop yields http://www.nanowerk.com/news2/biotech/newsid=37951.php#ixzz3I79kyici 
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Food Storage

Organize Kitchen Pantry: ever since the Dust Bowl it seems generations of Americans are keen on hoarding food. The design for such a stockpile comes in a myriad of looks...and the technology to make it more efficient just keep coming.

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Floating Gardens

In a pilot project for the shores of Singapore, Barcelona-based firm JAPA has designed a network of looping towers floating on the shoreline to house crops for the increasingly land-poor nation.

"What we propose is not just a single tower but it's like a network of towers that will produce agriculture via hydroponics," said Javier Ponce, head architect and founder of Forward Thinking Architecture, the ideas lab for JAPA.

"All the crops will be produced inside the vertical structures that will be placed or located next to the cities and more dense areas.

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Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs

We are the UK government department responsible for policy and regulations on environmental, food and rural issues. Our priorities are to grow the rural economy, improve the environment and safeguard animal and plant health.
We are responsible for policy and regulations on:

the natural environment, biodiversity, plants and animals
sustainable development and the green economy
food, farming and fisheries
animal health and welfare
environmental protection and pollution control
rural communities and issues
Although Defra only works directly in England, it works closely with the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and generally leads on negotiations in the EU and internationally.

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Tree Farm like Building

"Our version of the vertical farm was intended to become an independent, open-to-air structure which would be purely focusing on farming activities and sustainable functions such as generating renewable energy and performing air, and water filtration," say architects Steve Lee and See Yoon Park.

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New Ark

"WORKac and MVRDV together provided films for “Pioneers of Change” on Governor’s Island in 2009. While MVRDV examined producing all of New York City’s food on rooftops (resulting in an average of 60-stories of farming on every roof) WORKac looked at producing the city’s food organically and sustainably within a 100-mile radius of the city.

Through diet changes, strategic reorganizing of rural and coastal areas, the elimination of suburban sprawl and the creation of a “mega-agropolis” by moving 6M people into “New Ark” – made by combining Newark and Jersey City - 20.5M people can be fed."

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