Make Urban Farming Sustainable in London with Grow Up
Do you like ethical, sustainable food that’s produced locally? Sounds like you need to grow up…
Grow Up intend to convert a central London car park into a sustainable urban farm using just a shipping container and a greenhouse.
They claim they can grow vegetables without any soil, chemical fertilizer or pesticides using an innovative farming technique called aquaponics.
According to their pitch video, aquaponics uses fish poo to fertilize the plants, which then in turn purify the water that goes back into the fish tanks. The end result is fresh fish and fresh vegetables produced from a ‘recirculating’ system that gets the most out of the space using vertical growing towers.
Watch their Kickstarter campaign video:
Grow Up plan to dish up their fresh grub on site, meaning no packaging, transportation or refrigeration costs, and if funding is secured, Grow Up will open to the public as part of the Chelsea Fringe Festival in May.
Making Urban Farming ecologically sustainable
The Grow Up team want to demonstrate that food can be grown in cities in a way that is both ecologically sustainable and commercially scalable, and if they hit their £15,000 target they intend to expand and ‘transfarm’ other urban spaces.
Kate Hofman, one half of Grow Up, has worked with Swiss aquaponics company UrbanFarmers, and London based contemporary arts organisation 4749 is providing the space for the first Grow Up ‘box’ designed by Sam Cox.
If you’re into sustainable food, check out their Kickstarter page and help them to Grow Up!