Hooray!

We did it!

Stay tuned for more information on how you can vote and help us spread the word.

Wish Us Luck

This is our second try at submitting our Pepsi refresh Project application, and we're on pins and needles trying to get through the jam. If we make, we'll let you know. And we'll add a little link to our blog so you can vote for our project (if you haven't already!)

Check back for more news...

Aqua-Wha?

During my last year at school I had the privilege of taking a class titled Prices, Property, and the Problem of the Commons: An analysis of water resources and fisheries economics. Throughout the course we covered topics ranging from the Three Gorges Dam in China to certain lobster harvesting methods in practice in Maine. It was a fantastic course that taught me a lot, but if I had to sum everything up in one sentence it breaks down to the fact that our oceans are severely strained and we drastically need to change the way we think about fishing if demand for seafood continues on its current path.

Don't get me wrong. I love a good Maine lobster every summer. And fish and chips? Yes please. But just as we need to give consideration to the ways we acquire our fruits and veggies, the same applies to that oh so delicate, behind-the-scenes process of how our seafood gets to our plate at home, the restaurant, or wherever.

To get an idea of the impact commercial fishing has had on our oceans, check out this cool video featuring Professor Martin Schreibman of Brooklyn College. His work on urban aquaculture, or the cultivated farming of fish in urban dwellings, is impressive. And the more one learns about the practice, the more apparent it becomes that this is one direction we need to go. Humans have been farming fish for years and years. But the recent advancements in fishing technology, along with our spurred demand from growing populations, has taken a drastic hit on our fishing waters. As noted in the video, 75% of the world's fish species is either fully exploited or depleted, which means serious change will need to come for how we get this food.



Fortunately, options do exist. One such method is aquaponics, which combines the hydroponic growing of fruits and veggies with aquaculture, as explained in Professor Schreibman's video. Essentially, waste from the fish is used as nutrients for the plants, which then return this filtered water back to the fish tanks, resulting in closed loop, organically fertilized water recycling system that requires only a fraction of the inputs needed in typical field agriculture.

At the moment, a San Francisco company called Cityscape Farms is hoping to have one such aquaponic greenhouse installed on a vacant rooftop in the city's southeastern region where the use of solar energy to power the systems can be maximized. With plans to supply its fruits, veggies, and fish to local restaurants and nearby distributors, while also holding farmers markets of its own, this enterprising company has caught some noted attention. One figure who sees the company reaching potential success is Dr. Dickson Despommier, Professor of Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University who is credited with developing the concept of vertical farming. Where does Cityscape Farm's potential success lie? Mainly in the fact that the growth cycles of the plants in these systems greatly outpaces those found in traditional agriculture.

As explained in this article over at GOOD, plants grown in traditional settings expend much energy growing roots downward to search for water and nutrients. Under these hydroponic systems where nutrients from the fish waste are constantly accessible, however, the plants can have shallower root systems and instead use more of this energy on actual vegetative growth. This ultimately results in a system that, according to Cityscape, will allow for the annual production of over 100 tons of food in a 20,000 sq. ft. area.

Considering this breaks down to a yield of 10 lbs of food per sq ft, one can only be impressed by the level for potential success. Production numbers like these, coupled with the fact that the greenhouses are planned to be run almost entirely off the grid, makes it tough to find much that's fishy about a process like this.

Capitolizing on Rooftops

Could rooftop farming be Washington D.C.'s future? A new school lunch bill introduced by D.C. Council woman Mary Cheh would encourage district schools to purchase organic produce grown on farms with "sustainable practices." Eventually, according to the bill, schools would partner with local farms in a "farm-to-school" program so that students could learn first hand about growing sustainable food.

The proposal also recommends that D.C. schools develop their own schoolyard gardens. But what if schools killed two birds with one stone by building a rooftop garden on each school? That way the "farm-to-school" program could be right upstairs from the classroom--an accessible and convenient way for kids to learn about how sustainable food can be grown.

With large, flat and unused roofs, schools are ideal candidates for rooftop farms. School cafeterias ship in frozen and freeze dried food from around the country, feeding children unhealthy food grown on industrial farms. Instead of packing into a bus to take a field trip to a farm, students could walk upstairs to the school roof and take part in the growing process. The best way to affect the future of food is to begin with kids.

Vancouver Abuzz with Rooftop Farming

Who said rooftop farming was limited solely to the cultivation of fruits and vegetables? Vancouver surely didn't. As part of its stride to be the greenest city in the world Vancouver is moving ahead with the demonstration of two beehives on the roof of its City Hall. More than 60,000 bees already call the city's Convention Center home, which boasts four beehives on its 2.4 hectare green roof. Numerous other hives have also been established for some time at the University of British Columbia, Science World, and VanDusen Botanical Garden. This most recent introduction, however, comes as part of the city's plan to increase local food production by way of an increase in urban gardens. And of course, no pollinators are more prominent in Canada than the honeybee.

The same can be said for numerous other regions across the world. More than 84% of crop species in Europe, for instance, depend directly on insect pollinators. Unfortunately, bee colonies have been disappearing at alarming rates all across the world the past few years, a phenomenon now termed the Colony Collapse Disorder. Seeing that one-third of the human diet is made up of plants that require pollination from honeybees, this disorder has quickly grabbed the attention of the scientific community across the world. Many attribute the devastation to the use of systemic pesticides, which spread throughout all parts of a plant and consequently get transported back to a honeybee's hive via its pollen. For more on this crisis check out the most recent article in this past week's NY Times article.

Whichever the cause, one thing is certain. Bees raised in urban settings have found much more success than their countryside counterparts over the past few years, mainly due to the absence of pesticides and consistent rotation of flowers and plants within the city. In Paris, bee hives have been sprouting up all over the city's rooftops, gardens, balconies, and parks in an effort to preserve the precious pollinator, with more than 300 registered hives now in the city. The Opéra Garnier is home to more than 140,000 bees alone. Additionally, these city dwellers could produce up to five times the output of those limited to single crops in rural areas, while also losing less than 5% of their colonies on a year over year basis compared to the 50% colony losses experienced in the countryside.

With a requirement for hives to be at least 25 meters from hospitals and schools and with a two meter screen if not established on a high roof, it appears that the cities have found an appropriate balance for incorporating these busy workers into city life. There's no question that highly effective urban farming techniques like these are here to stay. It's simply a matter of how we view them and embrace them for the best. In the words of Andrea Reimer, a member of Vancouver's Green Action Team who is allergic to bee stings herself, "Now we know if we don't have pollinators, we don't have tomatoes or cherry blossoms."

Paris photo by Franco Zecchin

Slicing and Dicing

Over here at RS we rooftoppers have been working on perfecting our salsa recipe, slicing and dicing up a storm to make sure we deliver the best product on the market. Too many salsas out there are thin and watery, almost like a tomato sauce. We want to be sure that our sauce holds its own, striking the perfect balance between spice and flavor, texture and consistancy. Most importantly, every single one of our ingredients need to be grown hydroponically. Tomatoes, garlic, jalapenos, onions, and cilantro can all be grown in our hydroponic roof garden.

Check out these photos of our fireroasted garlic and chili peppers, fresh ingredients, and finished product. We're well on our way to putting the final touches on our delicious sky high salsa. Now all we need is the funding for our rooftop greenhouses. Stay tuned for ways in which you can help support Rooftop Salsa!

San Fran's Urban Plan

Earlier this week Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco broke ground for a new urban garden at the Department of Public Works steam powerhouse used to heat the city's Civic Center. This move is a result of Mayor Newsom's plan, rolled out last July, to transform the way San Francisco utilizes its unused spaces and ultimately connect its residents and neighborhoods with healthier eating and living habits.

As part of the initiative, all city departments conducted audits of unused real estate around the city that could be converted into gardens. These included windowsills, empty lots, median strips, and our favorite, rooftops. The city may also see the use of some favored concepts and designs promoted at the urban agriculture innovation competition it held last fall. Such implementations would include Mobile Markets, or carts stocked with produce from these gardens that can be taken to school pick-up zones and other destinations, as well as Chicken Cribs, which have been termed "the quick and easy, self-assembly urban chicken coop."

These innovations, coupled with the programs rolled out by the library for teaching teens how to cultivate these gardens, and those of numerous city health departments for hosting cooking classes at local farmer's markets and teaching people how to plant fruit trees will certainly bring the city in the direction desired by Mayor Newsom. It will be great to see how some of these innovations take hold as the years go on, but at the least they should be an example for all municipalities to follow. Every city has unused rooftops. Every city has barren lots. These vacant pieces of real estate are ready and waiting, it's simply up to us to tell our leaders how we want them used. And here at Rooftop we think one of the best ways is through the development of productive, urban gardens that will involve and teach all residents, young and old, how to both eat and live healthy.

To read the full article recently published in the San Francisco Chronicle click here.
Photo by Scott Chernis, Slow Food Nation

Window Gardens for Victory!

One of the best urban farming ideas I've seen this year is Window Farms, a project by Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray, two artists living in New York City. The idea is to fit a little bit of farm inside your home or office (or restaurant...now there's an idea!)

They're working right now on developing a kit to sell for under $100, a nice price tag for cash-strapped twenty-somethings, or anyone, really.

The whole idea is incredibly simple. You have a water reservoir on the bottom of the window sill, one on the top of the frame, and with a little engineering work with water bottles, vinyl tubing, duct tape and a stock water pump (available at Pet Co for under $20), you can grow a nice crop of produce right in your bedroom.

Rooftops and windows: the future of farming is...all around us!

Turning Soda Into Salsa

For many in New York, the unveiling of green grasses in Central Park and cleared sidewalks previously covered by months of snow is a welcomed sight. Sunny days and warm weather will be fast approaching. But as important as it is to catch those much needed rays, this change also happens to mark the beginning of another growing season. You've never laid a hand on a trowel or had the privilege of picking your own veggies and fruits you say? Well, no worries, for we're about to introduce you to a simple, yet wonderfully effective growing technique for you to implement right at home.

Though we here at Rooftop Salsa are sincere advocates of greenhouse-enclosed hydroponic farming, due to its year round production ability, we realize that not everyone has the opportunity to engage in such activity. However, there are still numerous steps people can take to reduce the number of food miles logged everyday
across this globe. Whether you have a small outdoor balcony off your apartment or a sprawling (by NYC standards) backyard patio, when you're in the city you simply have to maximize your space. There's no getting around it.

Yet thanks to Willem Van Cotthem, Honorary professor at the University of Ghent in Belgium and founder of the Seeds for Food project , there's an ingenious way to grow your fruits and veggies on your patio or balcony while still preserving this precious space. How? By building your own low-tech vertical farm. If you've never picked up a hammer, no need to worry, we're not talking about the true waste-to-energy recapturing, multi-story systems featured at The Vertical Farm Blog. For these all you will need is a wooden board, eye screws, square screw hooks, piece of rope, and prepared plastic bottles. It can literally be put together in an afternoon, yet you'll reap benefits for years to come. Plus it's extremely cheap, it's efficient, and it's a ton of fun once up and running.

These systems are currently being used, for instance, in places like the Tindouf region of Algeria. Able to rely on simple materials like shopping bags and plastic bottles, it has proven highly effective at eliminating some of the hunger and vitamin deficiencies endemic to refugee camps and schools of the region.

Additionally, your own vertical farm will

• Help conserve irrigation water
• Yield multiple times more produce per sq ft
  
• Avoid a lot of hosting and weeding
• Prevent soil run-off
• Provide for easy mobility of plants
• Allow for easier control of soil
• Offer the joy of growing vegetables and fruits where traditionally impossible
• Provide a windbreaker or screen for privacy
• Allow for easier pest control
• Create an aesthetically pleasing backdrop for your patio or balcony
• And of course give you the freshest tasting fruits and veggies you'll have all summer long
  

These are just some of the benefits offered by this type of low-tech system. So don't delay in building one, odds are half the materials are already sitting around your house somewhere. To get step-by-step instructions for building your own though, check out professor Van Cotthem's full tutorial on his container gardening website. But do it quick, the earlier you start the more salsa you can make!

An Hour of Darkness

The third annual Earth Hour is coming up tomorrow, March 27, at 8:30pm. Started by the World Wildlife Fund, Earth Hour encourages everyone to turn off their lights for one hour to send a message to our governments that it's time to take action to address issues of climate change and dependency on foreign oil. Last year over 4,000 cities across the world--including Sydney, Las Vegas, Seattle, Athens, Giza, Hong Kong, and Rio de Janeiro--participated in the collective effort to draw attention to the world's energy crisis.

So set your clock, turn off your lights, and get cozy in the dark. What can you do with this hour of darkness? The GOOD Blog published some creative ideas for Earth Hour activities. Last year two of us rooftoppers stood (appropriately) on the rooftop of a New York City building overlooking the Hudson River. At exactly 8:30 we watched the Empire State Building turn off it's iconic lights, and a few seconds later, the George Washington Bridge followed suit, disappearing into the dark in honor of Earth Hour.

Check out this sweet Earth Hour video and remember to turn your lights off tomorrow night!

Tomato Tales

Both of these photos were taken last summer. One, of a tomato grown on a soil farm on the east coast, the other of tomatos growing hydroponically in New York. Those of us living in the north east and mid-atlantic states know about the tomato blight of 2009 where a highly contagious fungus--the same fungus that caused the Irish potato famine--ruined most of our local tomato crops, leaving them looking more like sickly prunes than something you'd want to toss into your salsa.

Or maybe east coasters don't know about the blight, because their supermarkets stocked up on west coast produce and they never had to witness the fungi-riddles tomatoes shriveling up on farms nearby. It's easy to pile a bag of red tomatoes into our supermarket carts without thinking about how far the tomato had to travel. Just think, if we started growing our own tomatoes in hydroponic farms on our very own rooftops, we'd never have to turn to the west coast to buy frozen veggies chock full o' food miles.

One thing's for sure. If you enjoyed a juicy ripe tomato on the east coast last summer, chances are it was shipped thousands of miles. We can do better than that.

Save Some Water, Save the World

Big River Trailer from Wicked Delicate Films on Vimeo.

Back with another indicting documentary about big agriculture in America are "King Corn" filmmakers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, this time telling the story of what happens downstream.

Water. The lifeblood of...well, life. It's such an invaluable resource, and yet most of us have been so slow to appreciate it. It's easy to forget that there's any "water crisis" at all, what with a seemingly unlimited supply of it in our showers, toilets and faucets. But there is a serious crisis looming, and for some parts of the world, it's already arrived.

This map, from the BBC, shows, in darker colors, the areas of the world that will be experiencing what is known as water stress by 2050. What can we do about it? First of all, conserving water at home is important, as is spreading the message. Secondly, and this is the tougher part, we need to enact economy-wide changes in our modus operandi, especially in areas where we're currently using up most of the water: agriculture. But how? I say to tell your representatives in government that conserving water matters to you, and pursuing alternative, local, and more efficient methods of producing food is an issue you care about. Tell him or her that your vote depends on it.

It's a widely documented fact that agricultural uses account for 70% of the available fresh water on the planet. If we could cut that number, then we'd be doing our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world a favor not only by increasing the amount available to them, but by setting an example of restraint and respect towards the natural world that we've been born into.

Obviously, we here at RTS think one way to help cut the amount of water we use is to grow food locally, on city rooftops. It may be a small step, but it's a small step in the right direction.
(Image from here...check it out!)

Water Water Everywhere, Not a Drop to Drink

This Monday, March 22, marked the 17th anniversary of the annual World Water Day (WWD). Celebrated in countries across the world, WWD aims to draw attention to issues surrounding access to clean fresh water under the slogan "Clean Water for a Healthy World":

"Worldwide water quality is declining mainly due to human activities. Increasing population growth, rapid urbanization, discharge of new pathogens and new chemicals from industries and invasive species are key factors that contribute to the deterioration of water quality. In addition, climate change will further affect water quality. Major risks are the lack of water quality data and monitoring worldwide as well as lack of knowledge about the potential impact of natural and anthropogenic pollutants on the environment and on water quality. The lack of prioritization of water quality in many countries has resulted in decreased allocation of resources, weak institutions and lack of coordination in addressing water quality challenges."

There are significant steps we can take to increase the amounts of fresh water available to people across the world. Today, industrial agriculture is the number one source of water pollution. Soil runoff fills oceans, streams, and rivers with toxic chemicals and pesticides, clouding potential drinking water. If we can shift towards a system of hydroponic food production, soil runoff will no longer pollute our global water resources. Even better, hydroponic farming uses 80% less water than traditional soil-based farming which means countries like India--where water is extremely scarce--could reallocated vast quantities of water to people instead of pouring it into soil.

In countries where Poland Springs bottles and Britta filters fill our refrigerators, it's hard to imagine that people in other parts of the world have to walk sometimes half a day to a clean water source. WWD reminds us that the fight for access to clean drinking water is a daily struggle people all over the world.

World Water Day 2010 from water.org on Vimeo.

The Billion Dollar City

Every year New York City imports more than $1 billion in vegetables to feed its population. A population that, as we all know, will only propagate as time goes on. But what if we taught the ecological and economical benefits inherent in the rooftop gardening technologies that exist today to our farmers of tomorrow? That's precisely what some educational institutions and teachers have been trying to do for the past decade.

Imagine a group of Manhattan 6th graders heading up to the roof of their school every morning to check on the progress of their tomatoes and peppers for the start of their class - in the middle of a January snowstorm. Similar to the aspirations of intermediate science teacher Gioya Fennelly, featured in this Reuters article on rooftop farms in New York, this is a concept that we hope will see greater and greater implementation as the years go on. Luckily some groups, such as ABC's Echo Park Rooftop Reconstruction Project, are taking great strides to make this a reality. With its own sprinkler, rain collection and filtration system, and solar energy generated heating, the 500 sq ft greenhouse will be able to hold an entire classroom of children. Giving much needed access to green space for children of East Harlem, this may be the only chance some children have at planting fresh vegetables and learning the invaluable benefits of preparing and eating healthy meals. Coupled with its approval for piloting the CookShop curriculum, which promotes awareness and consumption of plant-based foods in NYC's low-income communities, we can't wait for more operations like this to come online for the nutrition deprived families who truly need these resources.

Seeing that many of the environmental and economic problems present in our lives today, such as how to efficiently feed a constantly growing city, will be even more pressing for our future populations, why not start with those who will be on the forefront of this fight in less than a decade or two?

As the famous Chinese proverb goes, "If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people."

Moving on up

Traveling through cities in India and Nepal, you see rooftop gardens wherever you go. More often than not, people living in urban areas there don't have the luxury of purchasing food that's been shipped in from distant countries. Instead, they eat locally, often growing plants and herbs in small plots next to their homes or on the roofs of their building--not because it's the trendy, green thing to do but because it's the cheapest way to feed a family.

The current industrial agriculture system is a system of waste. Water waste, energy waste, financial waste, and food waste. Why should we continue to support a system that ships food thousands of miles when we could grow the very same products just a few feet from our dinner tables? Our empty city roofs offer us hundreds of thousands of acres of uncultivated opportunity. When it comes to rethinking our inefficient agriculture system, let's take a clue from those who never had the luxury of creating a system of waste.

Singapore's Rooftop Spaces

With an annual consumption of fresh vegetables approaching 400,000 tons per year and less than 1,500 hectares of potential farm land remaining, the Republic of Singapore will need to start making some revolutionary changes with the way it gets its food in the near future. That is, if it wants to meet the government's objective for displacing 20% of its annual vegetable consumption with local production, which currently stands at 5%.

Fortunately, Gregory Chow, an expert on hydroponic farming from the Department of Biotechnology at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, has shown that this is more than feasible via rooftop farming with his award-winning studies and projects inside the city. For instance, at the 800-bed Changi General Hospital Chow assisted with the installation of a hydroponic farm on the concrete roof atrium that grows cherry tomatoes and herbs. Not only does this provide fresh food for those within the hospital, but the plants also dramatically reduce the temperature inside the naturally ventilated wards by absorbing heat that would otherwise pass through the roof. To read more about how the Changi General Hospital has been "improving patient care through improving the environment" check out its website and environmental awards here.



With the assistance of his students, Dr. Chow also developed a survey to analyze the potential of urban, rooftop food production among four suburban areas in norther Singapore. Chow and his students discovered that these suburban areas provided roughly 212 hectares of rooftop that, through hydroponic production, could yield close to 38,000 tons of vegetables each year. As for all apartment and commercial rooftop space available for food production, the number stands closer to 1,000 hectares. After looking at the math it's no wonder that some, such as Geoff Wilson of the Urban Agriculture Network, believe Singapore holds the potential to produce more than a third of its fresh vegetable needs from its rooftops alone.

As more rooftop hydroponic units come online in Singapore, such as the bok choy growing operations on top of some high-rise apartments, one can only wonder when we might see the first "sky farm" cat walk between buildings. Or, for that matter, a vertical farm of cherry tomatoes and other veggies sprawling down the sides of apartment buildings, harvested and consumed by the tenants themselves. Whether on the roof of a hospital, apartment, school or business, there's no question that urban agriculture will play a vital role in our ability to keep up with the growing number of mouths to feed as we see the level of our globe's farmland diminish. How long will this exactly take, no one knows for sure. The sooner the better. But what's important is it's already here, and more importantly, it's here to stay.

Deserts In The City

That's right, deserts in the city. Sounds crazy, but according to the Mayor's Food Policy Taskforce, set up by the New York City Department of Health and City Planning and the New York City Economic Development Corp., more than 750,000 New Yorkers live in neighborhoods across the city that lack access to both nutritious and affordable fresh food. As a result, these deprived regions have earned the term "food deserts."

Unfortunately, these areas aren't marked by captivated tourists mounted upon camels snapping photos of every scene that meets the eye. Rather, these are areas haunted by obesity rates surpassing 25%. Neighborhoods plagued by a high need for supermarkets serving fresh food, where the only local food source consists of bodegas that often charge anywhere from 13% to 76% more for food. Regions inhabiting families who, whether due to a lack of a car, time, or other factors, must restrict their shopping and "food dollars" to nearby convenience stores carrying food products inferior in nutritional quality yet superior in price. With difficulties like these, it's no wonder 1 in 4 children in New York City are going hungry.

This study, which has resulted in the establishment of the Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) Food Stores program, is a significant milestone in the fight against the rates of obesity and diabetes that have dramatically increased in New York City during years past. Regretably, the DOH found that within New York City over 700,000 people are affected by diabetes, over 1.1 million are obese, and another 2 million are overweight. Yet, as discovered in 2006 by the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, just the presence alone of a supermarket within a Census tract can lead to lower prevalence ratios of obesity and overweight residents.

Given that rooftop, hydroponic farms can:

• yield between 10 and 20 lbs of vegetables per sq ft per year in temperate climates
• save as much as 25,000 tons of fresh water per year
• and free up 20 acres of rural land otherwise used for agriculture for every acre of rooftop utilized

we rooftoppers plan to join in on and lead the fight for every child and adult's right to a healthy diet. And more importantly, one that every family can afford.