Influx

There have been a number of recent posts on various blog sites about non-traditional farming; farms cropping up in strange and unusual places.

the underground urban farm in Tokyo

the vertical farm urban concept

the children’s school farm in Berkeley

treehugger’s piece on organic farms in colleges

It’s obviously wrong to connect a few isolated cases and call it a trend. However, across many areas there seems to be an increasing desire to connect more closely with the food that we eat. We see it in the Slow Food movement or the trend of buying more local produce, from places like farmer’s markets.

The over-industrialization of farming and the growth of suburban sprawl has left people disconnected and isolated from the process. This is important if you are a food producer or in the grocery trade.

What can you do to close the gap?

Some ideas:

- Should grocery retailers develop their own urban farms?

- Should local produce be clearly marked in grocery stores?

- Could restaurants be incorporated into farms?

- Can food producers look at producing more local variants?

- Should strong local food growing areas be celebrated, like the Copia food center in Napa?