so many cities face the same challenge
of aging infrastructure and rooftop
farming is a terrific way of making use
of these industrial buildings and then
of course they really have such a
tremendous environmental benefit to the
ecosystem at the small scale which it’s
practiced in cities around the world you
know it’s a drop in the bucket but if we
can gain some momentum we can really
create a title shift this is a slight
beautification project I grew up in
Wisconsin but I didn’t realize my
passion until I was out in New York City
and then looking around the city and
seeing thousands of open flat roofs with
full Sun on them with absolutely no
utilization it was a great opportunity
to just dive into it and to pioneer a
movement there’s lunch or breakfast we
have two and a half acres of rooftop
farm space in Brooklyn and Queens our
core business is vegetables but we’ve
also started New York City’s first urban
apiary we also have 22 chickens hi girls
they’re not a considerable revenue
stream for us but they are very valuable
in terms of completing the circle of
life up on the farm we have well over a
million pounds of soil in the roof this
roof took several weeks of pumping up
the soil with a blower truck essentially
a hopper with a pressurized tube that
pushes the soil up
it’s a compost from a mushroom
production in Pennsylvania blended with
a mixture of several different type of
stones that are very porous so they
weigh less than a typical rock and then
they can allow water to fill into the
pores they can also Harbor microbial
activity and they also allow for proper
drainage innervation of the soil meaning
that we don’t end up with one big
swimming pool up on the roof if we get a
lot of rain ready our rooftop farms each
manage about a million gallons of
stormwater per year we also reduce urban
heat island effect we clean the air
around us and decrease the amount of
HVAC of the upper floors of the
buildings beneath us but probably the
most unique benefit of our farm is to
the community around us so we have the
opportunity to link New Yorkers back
into their food production system it’s
something from which we’ve become so
alienated
utilizing even all of our total roofs
would not even produce a significant
fraction of the amount of food that New
York City needs to eat however that
definitely does not mean that something
like this should be happening
I was born and raised here in New York
City I want to live in a healthier city
in a more beautiful city and a more
delicious City
you
of aging infrastructure and rooftop
farming is a terrific way of making use
of these industrial buildings and then
of course they really have such a
tremendous environmental benefit to the
ecosystem at the small scale which it’s
practiced in cities around the world you
know it’s a drop in the bucket but if we
can gain some momentum we can really
create a title shift this is a slight
beautification project I grew up in
Wisconsin but I didn’t realize my
passion until I was out in New York City
and then looking around the city and
seeing thousands of open flat roofs with
full Sun on them with absolutely no
utilization it was a great opportunity
to just dive into it and to pioneer a
movement there’s lunch or breakfast we
have two and a half acres of rooftop
farm space in Brooklyn and Queens our
core business is vegetables but we’ve
also started New York City’s first urban
apiary we also have 22 chickens hi girls
they’re not a considerable revenue
stream for us but they are very valuable
in terms of completing the circle of
life up on the farm we have well over a
million pounds of soil in the roof this
roof took several weeks of pumping up
the soil with a blower truck essentially
a hopper with a pressurized tube that
pushes the soil up
it’s a compost from a mushroom
production in Pennsylvania blended with
a mixture of several different type of
stones that are very porous so they
weigh less than a typical rock and then
they can allow water to fill into the
pores they can also Harbor microbial
activity and they also allow for proper
drainage innervation of the soil meaning
that we don’t end up with one big
swimming pool up on the roof if we get a
lot of rain ready our rooftop farms each
manage about a million gallons of
stormwater per year we also reduce urban
heat island effect we clean the air
around us and decrease the amount of
HVAC of the upper floors of the
buildings beneath us but probably the
most unique benefit of our farm is to
the community around us so we have the
opportunity to link New Yorkers back
into their food production system it’s
something from which we’ve become so
alienated
utilizing even all of our total roofs
would not even produce a significant
fraction of the amount of food that New
York City needs to eat however that
definitely does not mean that something
like this should be happening
I was born and raised here in New York
City I want to live in a healthier city
in a more beautiful city and a more
delicious City
you
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