Nourishing Hub loves urban farming because we re-use urban spaces and in turn save big on pollution.
Some of the big issues large cities face are providing the masses with food, which requires extensive transportation networks while keeping air pollution in check and getting the maximum benefit from unused space. The available space often needs to go through extensive and expensive renovation to make those spaces fit for offices.
It is with these challenges in mind that we at Nourishing Hub spent a lot of time to come up with a solution how we can re-use urban space, regardless of the size while being able to supply local produce to greatly reduce (almost eliminate) the need for extensive transportation infrastructure.
We grow local to cut back on transportation pollution and to reuse precious space that would be wasted otherwise.
What is urban farming?
Urban farming is growing or producing food in a city or heavily populated town or municipality.
Pollution associated with our food
Today we are importing a lot of our food from abroad, these goods need to to be transported over great distances (commonly referred to as Food Miles) and to move goods over these distances introduces a lot of pollution.
What are food miles?
Simply put, food miles is the distance food travels before being consumed.
Some interesting food mile facts
In the UK, half the vegetables are imported
30% of all goods transported by lorry in the UK are foodstuffs.
25% of all journeys made in the UK will be taking food from destination to destination until it’s stacked on a supermarket shelf near you. These journeys account for 25% of CO2 emissions.
In the USA it is estimated that meals travel a staggering 2400 kilometres from field-to-fork.
Airfreight generates 50 times more CO2 than sea shipping.
Wasted space
According to https://www.centreforlondon.org/, the total vacant floorspace is the equivalent of 27 times that of Westfield London.
Wasted space in perspective:
Westfield London has a total retail area of 177,000 square meters
177,000 square meters = 43 acres
This is a staggering 1161 acres of available space
The average farm size in the UK is 54 acres
Conclusion: Wasted space in London equates to 21 UK farms. This is a lot of available agriculture space.
Nourishing Hub to the rescue
While we matured our approach to precision hydro farming we realised that we have to consider grow capability and options that will allow us to operate and use any available space in cities.
City office space typically does not have very high ceilings and rooms are usually in the order of 2 square meters and above.
Being able to operate and utilise these very confined spaces sets us apart from other hydro farming operations due to the fact that they need warehouse-size spaces (high ceilings and wide spaces) to set up their farming operations.
We grow, at a minimum, 9 times more lettuces per square metre than conventional farming. This is due to the fact that we are able to grow 100 lettuces in 1.8 square metres of space with a height of 2 metres, this is 55 heads of lettuce per square metre compared to 6 heads of lettuce per square metre in conventional farming.
Agri-opportunity with our grow configuration
If we consider that there is the equivalent wasted space of 21 farms in London and Nourishing Hub's grow configuration is (at minimum) 9 times more space-efficient we can recover the space of, at a minimum, 180 farms in London alone.
Pollution saving opportunity
Because we grow all our crops close to the community where we sell we do not need extensive transportation (pollution) networks.
Since we can grow all our crops year-round we have eliminated the seasonality of crops, also eliminating the need to import seasonal goods.
LOCAL - we grow local so you get the benefit of great food all year round while also reducing all pollution associated with food miles.
Together we can make huge a difference by eliminating food miles and all associated pollution and by supporting Nourishing Hub we can turn empty space into agriculture space.
The food industry is changing, Nourishing Hub is leading the way.
We grow sustainably and do business responsibly so you can support positive change when you buy from us.
Join us on this journey of positive change - support the drive to sensible, sustainable, and responsible agriculture and business.
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