Farming On Top of the City
In a lot of urban cities around the world, space is consistently an issue. It’s even truer when people are looking for some greenery to just hike boat or just lie down barefoot in the grass.
For instance, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania only has 14.37 square miles of greenery within its city limits. That may sound like a lot, but considering the city is over 135 square miles in total area, that makes it only approximately ten percent of the city. So only ten percent of the city has trees and shrubs that produce clean air for its residents or provide fresh vegetables to feed millions of people? That’s why a lot of people are looking to the skies to get some fresh produce and some cleaner air.
From an experiment out of Hong Kong, many people are taking advantage of the unused space atop the city for inspiration to lead healthier lives for themselves. Many of the city’s rooftops are being left vacant except for some stagnant rainwater. So many residents are taking advantage of that to create their very own rooftop gardens and farms.
Many people feel pride in growing their own food in comparison to what they can buy in the supermarkets within the concrete jungle. There are no official records of how many rooftop farming sites there are within Hong Kong, but there are about 400 growing boxes on the 10,000-square foot roof known as “City Farm.” This rooftop community farm rents out these growing boxes for 20-25 American dollars per month.
People also feel the need to make this part of their own home as well. After the rooftop farms started in the early 2000s, many farmers personalize their growing boxes with fun paintings of what they grow, and sometimes, little reminders of the homes where the fruits and vegetables may soon see the inside of a refrigerator a human stomach.
Whether you’re growing turnips, potatoes or rutabagas on top of a rooftop in one of the world’s most populated cities: it doesn’t matter. What matters is that people are taking part in a once-in-a-lifetime experience to ensure that they’re getting the healthy food that their bodies need.
Rooftop Farm via Shutterstock