Urban farming – a food crisis solution?

Transporting food from one country to another, or from one tiny village to a big city across the globe, adds to the growing food crisis we’re seeing around the world. The financial and environmental cost of getting oranges from South America to a grocery store in France the next day are huge, and the problem is only getting bigger as food prices climb.

One of our environmental writers at Deutsche Welle wrote an interesting article about urban farming, which is considered by many to be a solution to the food problem. The idea is to have cities feed themselves, and they can do so by using space and resources that already exist. Like large server rooms in offices that produce heat, or rooftops on industrial installations that would make a good home for a greenhouse. Even sewage can be used as fertilizer.

All those innovative options would help cities become more independent, relying less on food outside and more on local, home-grown and often organic produce.