Tight Squeeze

As more and more people pack into cities, urban farming could solve food challenges

- DAMIEN MARTIN

The trends are pretty clear. The world’s population is going to grow, perhaps reaching 10 billion by 2050. About two-thirds of those people will live in cities. As much as 80 percent of food consumption will take place in cities, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation — which champions the circular economy — estimates. So, we’re going to need more food, and we’re going to need it in cities. Enter urban farming.

INDOORS

Cities, you may have noticed, are crowded. There’s not exactly tons of room for the traditional acres of crops we’re used to viewing as traditional farming. To work around this, urban farming utilizes what cities tend to have in spades: warehouses. They make perfect homes for vertical farms that don’t require soil or sunlight. Plant roots are immersed in a nutrient-rich solution or sprayed with one, and lighting provides the ultraviolet rays the sun normally would.

Unsurprisingly, the New York City area is at the forefront of the urban farming industry, which Allied Market Research predicts to be worth $12.77 billion by 2026. Oishii strawberry farm in Kearny, N.J., recreated the conditions under which Japan’s most delicious berries thrive, and its omakase berries have found their way to some of New York’s best restaurants.

“The sweetness is completely different — I knew with my first bite I had found a berry on a different level,” Kazushige Suzuki of Sushi Ginza Onodera told Eater. “The texture, then the burst of sweetness are such a pleasure that I decided to serve the strawberry whole as a dessert, not even cut.”

Vertical farming’s key selling points are the ability to grow year-round, and the ability to deliver fresh produce quickly to concrete jungles.