Dig for Victory

One month following the outbreak of WWII Britain's Ministry of Agriculture launched the "Dig for Victory" campaign in an effort to provide essential crops to families and neighborhoods while also freeing up space on shipping convoys for war materials. By 1943, roughly 1.4 million allotments around the UK were producing 1.3 million tons of food, enough to sustain half the nation's food and vegetable needs.

Today, however, the UK gets more than 80% of its food from abroad. A quarter of all its imported lettuce, for instance, comes from Spain. Oranges? From California. Strawberries? Mexico. And so on. So what does any of this have to do with you, us, or anyone? After calculating the average personal carbon footprint in Britain, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) found that food production and its transport accounted for 23 percent of each person's total, resulting in our greatest use. That's significant considering other factors include such aspects as personal transport and home energy use. (If you'd like to calculate your own footprint, give their calculator a try).

At the moment, more than 80% of the UK's inhabitants live in urban areas. And with an abundance of flat, unused, asphalt rooftops equivalent to the size of 24 Richmond Parks, some estimate that London could produce as much as 25% of its own food needs. Will we ever see wheat fields and livestock production in the cities that rivals that seen in the rural areas of the country? Likely not. But who's to say? All we know is here at Rooftop Salsa we're looking forward to the day when signs no longer read "Save The Forests," but rather "Save The Asphalt."

A Barge That Doesn't Just Float

If ever in the area, or if you would like to take advantage of their public education program with your school, the Hudson River Science Barge is well worth a stop. More info here

A few facts from the barge, all food grown

• Produces no carbon emissions
• Produces no waste stream
• Requires seven times less space
• Requires five to ten times less water
• Use zero chemical pesticides
  
• Plus much, much more

Given that more than half the world's population now lives in cities, we're happy to see the development of such projects. However, with more than 5,000 hectares of unused, unshaded rooftop space in New York City it should stop at just one barge.

Food Miles? What Do You Mean Food Miles?

Any idea how far that apple you're munching on had to travel to reach it's final destination, otherwise known as your mouth? If it was the middle of October and you happened to reside in New England the answer would, hopefully, be not very far. But given the ever changing dynamics of these things called seasons we can't always rely on local sources for our peppers, lettuce, tomatoes, and everything else we love to consume on a daily basis; that is, unless we had rooftop gardens.

Rooftop gardens that, with the aid of hydroponic technology, use as little as 10% of the water as traditional soil gardens. Gardens that can produce the same yield as soil gardens using 1/5 the space. Gardens that trap and recycle water already falling from the sky, helping to reduce rather than contribute to sewage overflows and their ill effects that result in the sickness of more than 20 million people each year. Gardens that produce yields multiple times per year rather than during specified growing seasons. Gardens that omit the use of pesticides and herbicides due to their unique isolation from such pests. And most importantly, rooftop gardens that help you, your community, your city, and your planet.

Sounds great doesn't it? We think so too. But where does all that food you currently purchase from the supermarket down the street come from? The answer, unfortunately, is nowhere close to home. Odds are that tomato you sliced earlier today for your BLT was picked when it was green, treated with ethylene gas to control its ripening process (hope you washed it), then put on a truck where it traveled close to 1,600 food miles before being unloaded and laid out ever so nicely on its stand in the store. (If you live in California and would like to know how far your tomatoes, rice, garlic, grapes and even wine traveled, check out these cool facts put out by the National Resource Defense Council).

So, food miles. What on earth are food miles? Using a Weighted Average Source Distance (WASD), the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture came up with a neat formula for determining the distance food travels from where it is grown to where it is ultimately purchased or consumed by the end user, otherwise known as these things we've been calling food miles. If you'd like to get into the nitty gritty, give their articles a good look, well worth it. Just look at how many times the distance conventional broccoli travels compared to locally sourced broccoli in order to reach its destination: 90 times the distance!




Given that the transportation sector tends to account for more than 25% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions every year, why not think global and grow local?

With more than 14,000 unused and unshaded acres of rooftops in New York city, and millions more across the globe, the potential is endless. If every one of those rooftops in NYC had a rooftop, hydroponic garden enough yield could be harvested to feed 20 million people every year. Not a bad gig. So think about it the next time you're cruising the grocery aisles trying to figure out what to make for dinner. Whether you simply check the "Product of" stickers or decide to convert your entire backyard or patio into raised garden beds, all we ask is that you remain open to and aware of the possibilities out there. We're a group of motivated people who believe in this cause and the way businesses can be changed for the better. But we don't want it to be a change forced upon anyone. Rather, we'd prefer it to be a change embraced by everyone on the planet for the planet.

-The Rooftoppers

Rooftop Salsa Is Here for Good!

In an attempt to do our little part in the battle to save the planet from heat exhaustion, we are here to make a positive impact in our community. Here's how we'll do it:

• 1. We will reduce the "heat-island" effect endemic of big cities by capturing and reusing the heat released by buildings.
• 2. We will grow, dice and can delicious, healthy salsas for sale in local markets and for donations to McDonald's-stricken parts of our area.
• 3. Our primary method of growing crops, hydroponics, will use 80% less of the water that would be required to grow the same amount of food outdoors in the ground, thus contributing to the sollution and not the problem of the water crisis.
• 4. Our salsas and the ingredients grown on their behalf will not contribute one drop to the agricultural runoff which leads the world as a source of water pollution.
• 5. We will lower the energy required to regulate the temperature of the building on which our greenhouses rest by acting as the building's insulator, both cooling in the summer and heating in the winter.
• 6. We will help stimulate the local economy by hiring local labor and buying our needed equipment and supplies from local vendors.
• 7. Through strategic partnerships, we will increase the visibility of the viability of urban agriculture-related industry, which we hope will spark a massive movement in our country towards sustainable food systems.

Rooftop farming is nothing new, and it's nothing fancy. It's thoughtful, though. And it's remarkable that rooftop farms don't crown the tops of all buildings by this date, in February of 2010. How slowly we've progressed.

Rooftop Salsa isn't some half-baked scheme to capitalize on the green movement. We are true believers. We've had just as much eco-Kool Aid as you, thank you, and we'd like another cup please. Because we don't think that "being green" is any better or worse than "being tall" or "being big-footed": to us, caring about our planet--rescuing forests from the saw, or rivers from the sludge--is just part of who we are. If we can leave nature alone, just stop encroaching into the few wild places left on earth, and still feed ourselves, then we think nature will be so much sweeter. By supporting us, you're suporting our vision for a better world.

If we ever stray from that promise, we hope you'll let us know; Rooftop Salsa is here for good!

!!Gracias!!

-Rachel, Ian and Jake