Welcome the zero-mile diet
Although there are critics of smaller-scale, local food production, more folks seem to think it’s only logical to eat food grown close by.
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It’s one of the great food debates of the 21st century. Should we rely primarily on huge agri-businesses, capable of vast economies of scale, and dependent on vast amounts of chemicals, or does a regional production system that ties farmers to nearby communities make better economic and environmental sense?
Although there are critics of smaller-scale, local food production, more and more folks seem to think it’s only logical to eat food grown close by whenever possible.
The locavore movement may be fuelled by a limbic brain memory of our ancient ancestors, who around 9,000 BCE discovered agriculture and the effect it had on community. Or by the many of us with personal experience of how drastically the route from field to table has changed in just a few decades.
My mother, for example, used to buy eggs, lettuce, spinach, asparagus and strawberries from a farm within spitting distance of Bathurst St. and Finch Ave. W. Later, and further north in King City, we’d buy food from small farms along Keele, Jane and Bathurst Sts., where there now exist vast tracts of subdivisions. That was just 50 years ago.
Agricultural history has been transformed many times by game-changing technologies; the wheel, the sickle, the Rotherham plough. Now, Tarren Wolfe, one of the inventors of the Urban Cultivator (urbancultivator.net) is betting it will change the way society, especially urban society, accesses food.
The Urban Cultivator is a dishwasher-sized appliance with interior grow lights. Inside are racks that hold flats designed to contain one of three growing mediums — a Sure to Grow mat (suretogrow.com), sterilized soil or landscape fabric. In these, users can grow 50-some greens — including beet-tops, baby broccoli, wheat grass, pea sprouts, radishes, mustard greens, lentils, nasturtiums — as well as any number of herbs.
The unit maintains optimal light and water conditions for growing vegetables and herbs. Often, says Wolfe, a user can get two to four “flushes” from one layer of medium, after which it can be recycled, depending on municipal guidelines. New seeds can be purchased from the company (between $5 and $10 for a flat’s worth), or bought from a local garden centre.
Made in Surrey, B.C., with custom finishes that include butcher’s block in maple, ash, lyptus, oak, walnut and mixed wood, with glass doors that can be clear or frosted, the unit can be built in or stand alone.
So a small family might, for example, pair one side by side with a compact fridge and cover it to create a work surface.
The residential model sells for $2,200. A commercial model is available for $8,000. Not surprisingly, activist chefs, such as the two Jamie’s (Kennedy and Oliver) are fans, and they’re in use in restaurants in Four Seasons Hotels in Whistler, Vancouver, Burnaby and San Francisco.
Because it’s basically a box of green things in various stages of bloom under pretty lighting, the Urban Cultivator is actually quite attractive and could even be used in the living room of a very small space that doesn’t have a contained kitchen.
Wolfe began working on the machine 12 years ago because his wife suffered extreme food allergies. There have been different incarnations and prototypes, but it was the current model that he, along with partners David MacGregor and Miles Omand, trotted out to the Dragon’s Den (you can watch the video on the website).
The Urban Cultivator was clearly a winner. After the Dragons displayed a few minutes of formulaic bluster and bombast, Wolfe’s team chose to make a deal with Arlene Dickinson. That meant, among other things, that the product was launched to Toronto media in the kitchen of Dickinson’s downtown apartment, which is, by the way, very beautifully designed and decorated.
Wolfe believes that eating home-grown food is one way to help right a flawed food system that relies on problematic mass production and unsustainable transportation models. “It hits on so many issues people are concerned about — local food, healthy eating, our carbon footprint,” he says.
For that market, the Urban Cultivator offers fresh, pesticide-free greens year-round, with no travel time; Wolfe calls it the “zero-mile diet.”
Energy consumption of the unit is low, about one amp when fully powered. Regional electricity rates will vary, but in B.C. it will cost about $24 a year. “That’s way less than a microwave,” says Wolfe.
Using city water, the unit can be connected to an existing water line and automated to top-up the reservoir. It uses about three gallons of water a week, far less than a dishwasher.
The Urban Cultivator can be purchased directly from the company by calling 1-877-352-0490. But you may well be seeing them in Home Depot soon. And don’t be surprised if they start turning up as an “extra” in a toney condo development. We’ll keep you posted.
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