[00:04.680 --> 00:05.360]  Hello, hello.
[00:06.340 --> 00:07.340]  Thank you for coming.
[00:07.860 --> 00:09.900]  You know, Jacob Applebaum is speaking in another room.
[00:10.120 --> 00:11.780]  I might have been there if I wasn't here.
[00:12.000 --> 00:13.540]  So I appreciate you all being here.
[00:13.900 --> 00:15.300]  They call me Bicycle Mark.
[00:16.140 --> 00:18.320]  Some of you probably have never heard of me.
[00:19.100 --> 00:21.520]  Briefly, as you can hear, I'm American.
[00:21.840 --> 00:23.760]  I'm a Portuguese American and I live in Amsterdam.
[00:23.840 --> 00:31.500]  But more importantly, yes, more importantly, I do a podcast on underreported news and global concerns.
[00:31.500 --> 00:33.400]  And I've been doing it since 2004.
[00:33.400 --> 00:35.960]  And in podcasting years, that's old.
[00:36.840 --> 00:39.440]  It's a little bit like animal years or dog years or something.
[00:40.440 --> 00:42.680]  And I'm here today to speak to you.
[00:42.680 --> 00:44.480]  Oh, look, there's a coffin.
[00:45.120 --> 00:49.120]  I'm here today to speak to you about urban farming.
[00:49.220 --> 00:49.920]  Now, how did this happen?
[00:50.020 --> 00:52.380]  Well, first of all, I do have a background in farming.
[00:52.540 --> 00:53.340]  It's in my heritage.
[00:53.920 --> 00:56.980]  But I, myself, manage a small garden in Amsterdam.
[00:57.820 --> 01:00.020]  I do eat some of the stuff that comes out of it.
[01:00.020 --> 01:07.280]  But the hacking the price of food, urban farming renaissance talk, I'm doing because I've chosen different topics.
[01:07.480 --> 01:08.860]  In Berlin, I've spoken about the Arctic.
[01:09.060 --> 01:11.460]  I choose a topic and I sit on it for a number of months.
[01:11.460 --> 01:12.140]  I'm a journalist.
[01:12.200 --> 01:15.400]  Or at least I call myself that and hope that everybody believes me.
[01:16.880 --> 01:21.760]  And the urban farming scene was one that I had seen here and there, as many of you probably have.
[01:22.060 --> 01:29.640]  There are probably people sitting here who, as I speak, will say, that's not how it works on my urban farm or that's not how it is in Portland.
[01:30.240 --> 01:34.280]  And you probably do have unique information about your urban farm.
[01:34.340 --> 01:34.840]  And that's fine.
[01:34.980 --> 01:41.400]  As a matter of fact, I invite you at the end, I'll leave space so you can say something about maybe something you notice in my talk or something you want to add.
[01:41.500 --> 01:43.440]  I am not an urban farmer, but I'm a big fan.
[01:44.080 --> 01:57.820]  And so, uh, a couple months ago, I started on the journey of doing interviews, which is what I do for my podcast, doing my research, reading my PDFs and other types of documents, learning about how people are doing urban farming in different parts of the world.
[01:58.000 --> 02:12.800]  And the way it started was, I was, and we'll get to the slides and stuff in a second, I was doing a podcast or two on food security, or more specifically, the problems we have, in case you didn't notice in the world these days, we're having a slight problem with food,
[02:13.240 --> 02:17.660]  whether it be the price, access to it, crops are damaged.
[02:17.940 --> 02:19.560]  I mean, we'll go over all the problems in the world.
[02:19.620 --> 02:23.040]  And I noticed this, and I was trying to interview people about this.
[02:23.120 --> 02:25.980]  I was interviewing people at the UN about the problems with feeding the hungry.
[02:26.440 --> 02:36.540]  And, um, and I thought to myself, you know, it's, it's a bummer, more than a bummer, that people in the world are suffering because of a price of food on the market.
[02:36.540 --> 02:41.660]  And then, somehow, eventually, it translates to shortages in some places and, and extremely high prices in others.
[02:41.960 --> 02:46.380]  And I thought, but there are people I know, I've seen in Philly, and I've spent some time in Philly in my life.
[02:46.560 --> 02:50.180]  And I've seen people doing farming and raising their own food in cities.
[02:50.240 --> 02:51.960]  And I heard of it here in New York, too.
[02:52.140 --> 02:54.080]  Although I still haven't gone to an urban farm in New York.
[02:54.480 --> 02:56.080]  And I thought, no, I want to focus on this.
[02:56.180 --> 03:02.600]  I want to follow how people do urban farming in, not only in North America, I tried to do all around the world, but it was too much.
[03:02.600 --> 03:04.500]  So let's just talk in general.
[03:04.700 --> 03:07.760]  But I was trying to follow urban farms in Australia and in Israel.
[03:08.040 --> 03:09.920]  And, well, let's stick to North America.
[03:10.040 --> 03:15.100]  So off we go, hacking the price of food, urban farming renaissance in North America.
[03:17.080 --> 03:19.340]  First of all, I want to make sure I define an urban farm.
[03:19.460 --> 03:21.280]  People always say to me, what is that?
[03:21.300 --> 03:22.000]  I have a garden.
[03:22.000 --> 03:22.740]  I live in a city.
[03:22.820 --> 03:23.820]  Am I an urban farmer?
[03:24.160 --> 03:27.440]  I mean, to me, if you want to be an urban farmer, you are.
[03:27.440 --> 03:32.200]  My focus here starts in your backyard, but it gets higher.
[03:32.620 --> 03:34.880]  It goes beyond what you do in your backyard.
[03:35.180 --> 03:36.780]  Some people do it in many backyards.
[03:36.960 --> 03:38.500]  Some people do it in a large plot of land.
[03:38.520 --> 03:41.720]  And we'll get into those different types of sizes of urban farms.
[03:41.840 --> 03:49.960]  So I'll start with a general vague definition that lets everybody fit in, which is growing food in an urban setting.
[03:49.960 --> 03:53.020]  So if you're growing food in your backyard, yes, you're an urban farmer.
[03:53.300 --> 03:57.220]  Maybe you can apply for a license to be in some club or you're there.
[03:57.400 --> 03:58.380]  You're an urban farmer.
[03:58.420 --> 03:59.360]  You just didn't know it.
[03:59.960 --> 04:03.420]  But, of course, there are people that are doing it in a much more organized and professional manner.
[04:03.580 --> 04:05.740]  And those are the people I've been trying to focus on.
[04:06.880 --> 04:08.200]  So we have your backyards.
[04:08.320 --> 04:08.980]  You have your empty lots.
[04:09.020 --> 04:09.820]  You have your rooftops.
[04:09.920 --> 04:10.940]  We are on the top floor.
[04:11.100 --> 04:12.840]  I'm not sure if you went up to the roof already.
[04:12.840 --> 04:14.660]  I heard you're not allowed anymore, so don't do that.
[04:14.660 --> 04:22.680]  But if you did, you may find that some employee of the Hotel Penn is running a small-scale farm with which he feeds the entire building.
[04:22.780 --> 04:23.540]  This would be very interesting.
[04:23.780 --> 04:24.940]  I don't think he's doing that.
[04:25.100 --> 04:25.700]  But you could.
[04:26.300 --> 04:29.300]  And there are people that are trying to do this in different cities all around the world.
[04:30.240 --> 04:30.920]  Balconies, I don't know.
[04:30.960 --> 04:33.500]  That would be something more for Amsterdam or my backyard.
[04:34.160 --> 04:35.240]  And larger buildings.
[04:36.040 --> 04:37.400]  So I said that already.
[04:37.420 --> 04:38.540]  Small scale to the larger scale.
[04:38.680 --> 04:41.720]  So there's also urban farms that don't want any money.
[04:41.720 --> 04:46.100]  I've encountered quite a number of those that say, let me just remind you, we're not trying to make money.
[04:46.360 --> 04:46.640]  Okay.
[04:46.940 --> 04:47.440]  That's fine.
[04:47.620 --> 04:48.920]  But some urban farms do make money.
[04:49.040 --> 04:51.940]  They do sell their food on a market in your city.
[04:52.060 --> 04:54.780]  Maybe whatever city you come from has a farmer's market.
[04:55.020 --> 04:57.680]  And that is where some urban farmers might sell their food.
[04:58.140 --> 05:00.860]  So those are included in my research.
[05:01.160 --> 05:02.640]  I feel like a scientist when I say research.
[05:03.000 --> 05:03.480]  They're doing research.
[05:04.620 --> 05:06.920]  So let's go over the state of global food.
[05:07.580 --> 05:10.460]  People have been having some trouble with this.
[05:10.460 --> 05:14.180]  And one of the reasons in some parts of the world are food shortages.
[05:14.400 --> 05:17.840]  Now, some of you are experts in why are there food shortages.
[05:18.000 --> 05:20.920]  I'll give you the quick or the crass rundown of why.
[05:21.520 --> 05:23.500]  Sometimes we have extreme weather.
[05:23.640 --> 05:24.260]  Global warming.
[05:24.500 --> 05:25.300]  There are floods.
[05:25.820 --> 05:30.100]  There are unusually extreme temperatures, including maybe here.
[05:30.240 --> 05:31.580]  Obviously, we have floods in the Midwest.
[05:31.880 --> 05:33.760]  In Europe, we have extreme heat every summer.
[05:34.620 --> 05:35.700]  It damages crops.
[05:36.340 --> 05:38.260]  And that means less food to go around.
[05:38.720 --> 05:42.220]  And, well, that is one of the many causes of a lot of food shortages.
[05:42.400 --> 05:44.380]  Then, of course, we have more on my list.
[05:44.460 --> 05:45.140]  Extreme conditions.
[05:45.320 --> 05:45.660]  Prices.
[05:47.100 --> 05:50.520]  Some people can't afford with the price of food the way it is.
[05:50.600 --> 05:52.120]  We're getting as high as it is in some places.
[05:52.280 --> 05:54.300]  They can't afford to eat the way they used to.
[05:55.840 --> 05:56.560]  So, more.
[05:56.920 --> 05:58.160]  Farmers and citizens protesting.
[05:58.160 --> 05:59.260]  I don't know if you've noticed this.
[05:59.820 --> 06:00.740]  Everywhere in the world.
[06:00.980 --> 06:02.200]  I can barely think of a place.
[06:02.400 --> 06:02.760]  I don't know.
[06:02.840 --> 06:04.120]  Are the farmers in the Midwest of the U.S. protesting?
[06:04.960 --> 06:06.360]  Well, the farmers in Spain are.
[06:06.480 --> 06:08.380]  They're upset about fuel prices.
[06:10.220 --> 06:14.800]  And the farmers in Argentina are upset about high export taxes.
[06:15.040 --> 06:15.620]  They're protesting.
[06:15.760 --> 06:17.580]  They've been protesting for months and months.
[06:19.320 --> 06:20.060]  They're upset.
[06:20.060 --> 06:21.740]  They don't want to farm until they fix things.
[06:23.080 --> 06:28.140]  In Egypt, you have, well, I'll get to that in a moment, riots over food shortages.
[06:28.140 --> 06:29.200]  Shortages of grain.
[06:31.000 --> 06:32.500]  You have this biofuels thing.
[06:32.660 --> 06:37.580]  There's probably somebody here, somewhere, giving an interesting talk on how you can power your bike with...
[06:37.580 --> 06:37.840]  Oh, no.
[06:38.120 --> 06:38.620]  Your car.
[06:39.020 --> 06:40.160]  I'll power my bike with myself.
[06:41.440 --> 06:44.040]  Powering your car with different kinds of biofuels.
[06:44.140 --> 06:47.440]  That is a very big deal in the United States and, well, all over the world.
[06:47.900 --> 06:50.000]  And indeed, this has an effect on the price of food.
[06:50.100 --> 06:54.440]  And then there we go again with the problems with how much is my food and I can't afford to eat this anymore.
[06:55.300 --> 06:57.360]  So biofuels are in this big mix.
[07:00.480 --> 07:01.320]  I threw in a graph.
[07:01.320 --> 07:02.240]  I'm not going to read it to you.
[07:02.260 --> 07:03.820]  You can look at it if you don't want to look at me.
[07:04.680 --> 07:12.460]  It's a little bit about the price of grain, oils probably, cooking oils, and also milk, which have all, as you can imagine, skyrocketed.
[07:12.580 --> 07:13.800]  I'm not going to give you the statistics.
[07:13.820 --> 07:14.620]  You can look them up.
[07:14.680 --> 07:16.780]  I'll provide a link on my blog if you want.
[07:16.780 --> 07:21.740]  But the basic fact is since 2006, this has been going on for about two years.
[07:21.900 --> 07:25.400]  I think it's made major media in the last year.
[07:25.400 --> 07:26.240]  It's become a big deal.
[07:26.380 --> 07:27.800]  You've probably seen an article.
[07:27.940 --> 07:36.760]  The one thing I noticed in my research on urban farming is in the last month to six months, everything is on big websites like CNN and BBC.
[07:36.760 --> 07:43.620]  And it used to be only on obscure.orgs where someone was reporting from their urban farm or from their part of the world.
[07:43.720 --> 07:48.680]  Now, the shortage of food, the problem with the food price has become a very mainstream issue.
[07:49.060 --> 07:50.180]  That might be a good thing.
[07:50.300 --> 07:52.860]  Of course, then we have to question how they report about it.
[07:52.900 --> 07:54.340]  But that's another session altogether.
[07:56.420 --> 07:59.720]  The biggest grain exporters in the world have halted exports.
[08:00.020 --> 08:00.780]  Kind of weird.
[08:01.080 --> 08:04.280]  I know that there's a lot of conditions on these halting of exports.
[08:04.720 --> 08:07.000]  Kazakhstan, a lot of the world's grain comes from there.
[08:07.100 --> 08:07.900]  They've halted exports.
[08:07.920 --> 08:08.960]  I think that was in April.
[08:09.980 --> 08:11.120]  Ukraine followed suit.
[08:11.300 --> 08:13.260]  I don't know how much of Ukraine's grain we are eating.
[08:13.500 --> 08:17.800]  But in that part of the world, in Eastern Europe, definitely it's an important grain producer.
[08:17.960 --> 08:21.500]  Russia has also placed a lot of limits on grain exports.
[08:23.180 --> 08:28.360]  Argentina, India, besides grain, I think you can also get into other types of grains.
[08:29.340 --> 08:34.640]  I was just in Asia and I was in Southeast Asia and I was looking around for how much rice was.
[08:35.800 --> 08:38.940]  I couldn't barely understand what was going on with my rice.
[08:39.860 --> 08:43.980]  But Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, I know Egypt isn't in Southeast Asia.
[08:44.220 --> 08:48.300]  They have all placed caps or restrictions on their exporting.
[08:48.300 --> 08:54.160]  And in a place, in a part of the world where especially rice exports are so important, this is a huge deal.
[08:54.920 --> 09:05.080]  In Egypt, I mentioned Egypt in there because, well, I wanted to make sure I pointed out that there have been a whole lot of conflicts on the streets between, you know, people who want bread and can't get bread.
[09:05.540 --> 09:08.940]  And it's not the only country, but it's the one I put on the list.
[09:10.920 --> 09:23.300]  The UN estimated, and this has already blown up since I wrote it, that this year they would need 500 million dollars in addition to their normal budget just to avoid a famine in the world.
[09:23.440 --> 09:30.560]  You may or may not know that the UN is responsible for feeding a lot of the world's starving populations through food aid.
[09:30.560 --> 09:32.500]  And they estimated 500 million.
[09:32.640 --> 09:34.100]  This was like four months ago.
[09:34.400 --> 09:39.340]  So I think that it has gotten much worse than they thought, even though they were already planning for a bad year.
[09:39.540 --> 09:41.300]  And it's going to cost a lot more.
[09:41.540 --> 09:43.100]  And there's no telling if they're going to get it.
[09:43.180 --> 09:48.400]  They've announced that actually they don't think they're going to be able to handle the food situation in the world this year.
[09:48.480 --> 09:49.840]  There will be a lot more hungry.
[09:50.740 --> 09:55.820]  Now that I've painted such a sad, sad picture, let's go to the exciting world of urban farming.
[09:58.360 --> 10:01.480]  Oh, there's going to be music, but there was no music.
[10:02.820 --> 10:03.620]  That's an urban farm.
[10:03.640 --> 10:06.080]  I think it's next to a railroad somewhere in New Jersey.
[10:07.960 --> 10:08.480]  Better health.
[10:08.600 --> 10:10.000]  Okay, I want to list some of the advantages.
[10:10.220 --> 10:14.060]  You're probably sitting there thinking, well, who is this?
[10:14.200 --> 10:16.700]  And then you're thinking, why would I want an urban farm?
[10:16.840 --> 10:18.020]  I mean, what is the big deal?
[10:18.580 --> 10:19.640]  Why is it so good for me?
[10:19.720 --> 10:20.760]  So I'm going to list a bunch of them.
[10:20.940 --> 10:22.220]  Some of them are probably old news.
[10:22.340 --> 10:23.560]  Maybe some are new news.
[10:23.560 --> 10:25.660]  First of all, better health.
[10:25.780 --> 10:27.520]  Now this is, I'm talking about in cities.
[10:27.660 --> 10:35.040]  In a lot of cities, in the city I was born in, Newark, it's, depending on where you live, it's hard to get access to good food.
[10:35.280 --> 10:40.560]  The, you know, we have, if you like, whole food supermarkets, or trade, I love Trader Joe's.
[10:40.640 --> 10:42.600]  When I come back to the U.S., I go right to Trader Joe's.
[10:42.780 --> 10:45.940]  Maybe you like smaller little supermarkets that have healthy food.
[10:46.040 --> 10:51.980]  But the fact is, in the inner city, it is hard to get access to good, healthy food.
[10:51.980 --> 10:54.400]  I'm talking about fresh vegetables, fresh fruit.
[10:54.580 --> 10:56.300]  You have to go to a tiny little bodega.
[10:56.460 --> 10:59.780]  I'm sorry, bodega is a bad word, actually, because it's just a little tiny shack.
[11:00.340 --> 11:06.100]  And they sell whatever, probably fast, faster food, convenient snacks and all that sort of thing.
[11:06.400 --> 11:12.580]  So in an urban farm situation, you have much healthier food because you're growing it, and it's fresh in an urban setting.
[11:13.400 --> 11:14.920]  Food security, that's a big deal.
[11:15.020 --> 11:16.280]  Sounds very government, food security.
[11:16.280 --> 11:19.120]  I'm not talking about terrorism or blowing up your eggplants.
[11:20.540 --> 11:23.620]  Although, if the government gets their hand on this, that'll probably be a big issue.
[11:23.940 --> 11:26.220]  And they'll have additional security in urban farms.
[11:27.340 --> 11:34.400]  But food security and quality, you know, securing access, like I said, to good food, is a concern at this point.
[11:34.500 --> 11:45.180]  We don't know how it's gonna go with the price of, you know, with the cost of fuel, with the extreme weather, see how everything ties in, if we're gonna have access to and secure access to good food.
[11:45.340 --> 11:48.720]  So urban farming provides that, or ideally does provide that.
[11:48.900 --> 11:50.380]  And it's in your neighborhood, hopefully.
[11:51.700 --> 11:53.400]  Employment, it depends on the urban farm.
[11:53.540 --> 11:56.600]  Some are all volunteer, but some do have staff.
[11:56.760 --> 12:00.580]  And some envision, since they're doing so well nowadays, that they will have staff.
[12:00.760 --> 12:02.960]  So urban farming could be a good source of a job.
[12:03.060 --> 12:10.100]  Maybe you're bored with your tech computer job, and you've been thinking about quitting and becoming a farmer, but you're not sure if you can go and live in Nebraska.
[12:10.100 --> 12:11.340]  No offense to Nebraskans.
[12:11.680 --> 12:15.220]  So maybe you could work on an urban farm in your local neighborhood.
[12:15.460 --> 12:17.620]  And that's a job, and you see how that works.
[12:18.820 --> 12:19.520]  Social life.
[12:19.680 --> 12:22.540]  I know there are people at this conference that have social life issues.
[12:24.100 --> 12:27.840]  And an urban farm is a very social and communal activity.
[12:28.040 --> 12:30.320]  You go there, you will speak to other people, perhaps.
[12:31.160 --> 12:35.300]  And they may speak back to you, and you might learn things about your community and yourself.
[12:35.620 --> 12:37.960]  And that is a... I'm listing that as an advantage.
[12:40.420 --> 12:41.540]  You have the environment.
[12:41.540 --> 12:46.660]  We're all very concerned about it in our different ways, in our different times in our day.
[12:47.420 --> 12:49.600]  An urban farm is very kind for the environment.
[12:49.600 --> 12:50.940]  I'll get more into why.
[12:50.940 --> 12:54.980]  But they are very big into recycling, composting, these sort of terms.
[12:55.160 --> 12:56.940]  Maybe you compost in your house.
[12:57.040 --> 12:59.200]  Well, urban farms are definitely into composting.
[12:59.340 --> 13:00.360]  And it's more than that.
[13:00.460 --> 13:02.860]  You know, it's the cost of transport to get you your milk.
[13:02.860 --> 13:08.100]  I noticed I was driving on the, whatever, Route 2001 in New Jersey.
[13:08.580 --> 13:12.980]  And there used to be a dairy not too far from my house, my parents' house.
[13:13.120 --> 13:14.680]  Which is just here, like 20 minutes away.
[13:14.860 --> 13:15.680]  The dairy is gone.
[13:15.940 --> 13:17.880]  Now they get their milk from even further away.
[13:18.300 --> 13:19.360]  Because you can, I guess.
[13:19.520 --> 13:20.520]  Because fuel was cheap.
[13:21.640 --> 13:32.540]  With, you know, when we talk about emissions, especially in the world of emissions, the less distance our food has to go, well, the less we have to make more emissions and more CO2.
[13:32.680 --> 13:33.640]  And you see where I'm going with this.
[13:35.180 --> 13:35.500]  Energy.
[13:35.660 --> 13:37.200]  Again, that's directly connected to the environment.
[13:37.340 --> 13:40.000]  The amount of energy that is used to get you your food.
[13:41.100 --> 13:44.200]  Well, that is reduced when you get it from your neighborhood.
[13:45.040 --> 13:45.460]  All right.
[13:45.520 --> 13:46.800]  Let's go to some details of...
[13:46.800 --> 13:46.900]  Oh!
[13:47.140 --> 13:48.000]  There's a bad side.
[13:48.740 --> 13:51.360]  And some people mentioned this to me in the world of urban farming.
[13:51.520 --> 13:52.500]  They were very honest with me.
[13:52.580 --> 13:55.360]  They said, well, it's not, you know, the answer to everything.
[13:55.360 --> 14:01.380]  So, I felt it necessary to list some of the problems that I see with urban farming and that urban farmers have.
[14:03.680 --> 14:05.120]  One is pollution.
[14:05.440 --> 14:06.400]  I was just in Bangkok.
[14:06.940 --> 14:08.820]  Bangkok has urban farms.
[14:09.120 --> 14:10.260]  I'm really worried.
[14:11.140 --> 14:15.800]  Because there are people raising fruits and the trees are using the oxygen.
[14:15.960 --> 14:17.800]  And that oxygen in Bangkok is terrible.
[14:18.780 --> 14:20.020]  So, I'm a little concerned.
[14:20.180 --> 14:20.700]  There's pollution.
[14:20.840 --> 14:21.920]  Pollution is definitely an issue.
[14:21.920 --> 14:23.960]  Not only in the air, but also in the soil.
[14:23.960 --> 14:25.580]  That is where your food is being grown.
[14:25.840 --> 14:28.460]  Obviously, there are steps you can take to improve the situation.
[14:28.460 --> 14:30.480]  But it is definitely the number one criticism.
[14:31.120 --> 14:38.520]  When you talk about urban farms, people go, I'm not too sure about the neighborhood or where I'm raising the plants or the air quality, the traffic and the...
[14:38.520 --> 14:39.520]  Definitely an issue.
[14:40.720 --> 14:43.280]  Space and scale is probably the largest issue.
[14:43.280 --> 14:47.800]  You cannot beat in terms of amount of people that can be fed.
[14:48.040 --> 14:51.280]  You can't beat a huge ass farm in Iowa.
[14:51.980 --> 14:52.640]  Now, I'm going to pick on Iowa.
[14:53.400 --> 14:59.060]  You can't beat the size of the farming that's going on in Brazil with an urban farm in...
[14:59.720 --> 15:00.960]  Where are they doing it in New York?
[15:01.040 --> 15:01.740]  East New York somewhere.
[15:01.860 --> 15:03.060]  Eastern half of...
[15:03.060 --> 15:04.020]  Oh, on a boat.
[15:04.180 --> 15:05.920]  They're farming on a boat now on the Hudson River.
[15:07.400 --> 15:08.020]  Yeah, they are.
[15:09.260 --> 15:13.380]  So you can't be... you can't compete with the size and scale of larger farms.
[15:13.460 --> 15:14.960]  This is a concern for urban farmers.
[15:15.120 --> 15:17.960]  It's small scale, so it serves a limited amount of people.
[15:18.420 --> 15:20.540]  But I have maybe an answer for that.
[15:21.400 --> 15:22.720]  And then there's a question of capital.
[15:23.500 --> 15:25.620]  Who's going to get the money to start one of these?
[15:25.800 --> 15:27.300]  If you want to settle... settle?
[15:27.660 --> 15:31.880]  If you want to start an urban farm in a certain neighborhood, perhaps there used to be a factory there.
[15:31.880 --> 15:35.700]  Again, my hometown of Newark has plenty of room.
[15:36.400 --> 15:37.160]  Abandoned factories.
[15:37.360 --> 15:42.120]  We could definitely have gotten rid of those ages ago if we had the money and started an urban farm.
[15:42.240 --> 15:44.060]  So there's a question of where you're going to get the capital.
[15:44.640 --> 15:46.500]  And yeah, well, that's an issue.
[15:47.700 --> 15:48.380]  Property value.
[15:48.520 --> 15:52.300]  I always thought that in the... and this was confirmed in some of my interviews in the 90s.
[15:52.400 --> 15:56.980]  It was a rough time in some instances for urban farming because, well, the neighborhood was hot.
[15:56.980 --> 16:02.240]  It's probably hard to afford an urban farm in Brooklyn, in any part of Brooklyn now.
[16:02.420 --> 16:07.820]  But back in the day, I guess, some of the trendier parts of Brooklyn, you know, that they want to build something there.
[16:07.940 --> 16:08.640]  A new condo.
[16:08.840 --> 16:11.020]  And maybe they can out-price you.
[16:11.240 --> 16:14.320]  Or, you know, it's an issue in terms of property value.
[16:14.420 --> 16:17.160]  Especially with starting a new urban farm in the middle of a city.
[16:17.520 --> 16:19.780]  Thankfully, there's a real estate collapse.
[16:19.980 --> 16:22.360]  So this is our big chance to plant things.
[16:22.500 --> 16:23.600]  But still, disadvantage.
[16:25.880 --> 16:28.380]  So let me give you some types of urban farms that I've seen.
[16:28.680 --> 16:31.380]  You're probably sitting in your seat thinking, I know another type.
[16:31.680 --> 16:33.000]  I'll add it to the list tomorrow.
[16:34.580 --> 16:35.420]  Your backyard.
[16:36.280 --> 16:39.000]  And I don't just list this to be basic.
[16:39.040 --> 16:48.480]  But in fact, in my interviews with urban farmers, especially in Western Canada, they always reminded me that the most important urban farm is always the backyard.
[16:48.480 --> 16:54.140]  And that if everyone were planting their food in the backyard, well, that would make a hell of a difference in where people get their food.
[16:54.240 --> 16:58.080]  So we must acknowledge backyards are still a very important part of urban farming.
[16:58.160 --> 16:59.220]  But let's get to the cooler stuff.
[17:01.700 --> 17:03.560]  CSAs, Community Supported Agriculture.
[17:04.380 --> 17:08.180]  I'm going to further develop on how this is and what this is.
[17:08.280 --> 17:12.480]  But it, as it sounds, engages the community in the urban farming process.
[17:12.660 --> 17:13.320]  You have a role.
[17:13.860 --> 17:16.120]  And there are different kinds of roles that I'll explain.
[17:17.580 --> 17:18.360]  Spin farming.
[17:18.480 --> 17:19.240]  Sounds very exciting.
[17:19.240 --> 17:20.560]  I pictured a lot of machines.
[17:21.700 --> 17:25.280]  And spin farming is a type of urban farming that I will, of course, explain.
[17:25.840 --> 17:28.460]  And it started in Winnipeg, I believe.
[17:29.280 --> 17:31.400]  And it now is going on in Philly and other places.
[17:31.560 --> 17:32.000]  We'll get into that.
[17:32.820 --> 17:36.520]  Vertical farming is the most exciting, especially for a tech conference.
[17:37.140 --> 17:38.460]  So we will get into that as well.
[17:38.560 --> 17:40.120]  These are my types that I'm dealing with today.
[17:42.580 --> 17:43.180]  Time check.
[17:43.760 --> 17:44.380]  All right.
[17:46.660 --> 17:47.060]  Backyards.
[17:47.240 --> 17:47.380]  All right.
[17:47.500 --> 17:47.900]  I said that.
[17:48.120 --> 17:48.420]  Move on.
[17:49.400 --> 17:49.700]  Yes.
[17:49.800 --> 17:50.020]  Yes.
[17:50.100 --> 17:50.720]  I noticed this.
[17:51.980 --> 17:52.980]  In terms of...
[17:52.980 --> 18:01.200]  There are urban farming organizations, especially in North America, who actually get subsidies from city governments, in some cases, to promote composting.
[18:01.320 --> 18:04.320]  And not only promote it, but you have to actually teach people how to compost.
[18:04.640 --> 18:06.020]  I, myself, have a lot of trouble.
[18:06.220 --> 18:08.020]  My compost doesn't seem to compost.
[18:08.320 --> 18:09.520]  It's a giant mountain.
[18:09.520 --> 18:11.340]  And I add to it.
[18:11.400 --> 18:11.980]  And I stir it.
[18:12.020 --> 18:12.680]  And I water it.
[18:13.100 --> 18:14.460]  And animals enjoy it.
[18:14.760 --> 18:17.280]  But composting is not easy.
[18:17.340 --> 18:24.480]  And in many cases, you could use a good community organization, or a tutor, to come over and explain how to compost.
[18:24.660 --> 18:30.180]  And in many cases, urban farming organizations are either composting on their property or providing courses on how to do it.
[18:30.300 --> 18:36.320]  And this is definitely a big part of the old, old-fashioned style, in your backyard, or in a bunch of backyards, urban farming.
[18:37.420 --> 18:39.520]  And that brings me to multiple-site urban farming.
[18:39.680 --> 18:40.080]  Very cool.
[18:40.660 --> 18:45.140]  Let's just imagine, and this exists, that you have a yard, and you're a very busy person.
[18:45.340 --> 18:46.580]  But there is room for farming.
[18:46.660 --> 18:47.360]  And you're interested.
[18:47.680 --> 18:50.100]  And maybe there are a bunch of people like you in your town.
[18:50.320 --> 18:53.760]  Let's say you live in Victoria, in British Columbia, again with Canada.
[18:54.600 --> 19:01.680]  And there are multiple-site urban farm organizations that will come to your house and farm your backyard.
[19:01.920 --> 19:03.840]  And then you're part of the whole process.
[19:03.980 --> 19:04.920]  You reap the benefits.
[19:04.920 --> 19:08.120]  You will get some of the eggplants from this here.
[19:09.760 --> 19:11.180]  They use your yard for you.
[19:11.260 --> 19:11.980]  I made that slogan.
[19:12.200 --> 19:13.280]  I might share that with them.
[19:14.580 --> 19:15.060]  All right.
[19:15.120 --> 19:16.040]  Here we go with CSAs.
[19:16.060 --> 19:20.920]  I think this is by far the most common type of urban farm, especially in the Northeast, I've noticed.
[19:22.120 --> 19:26.080]  It is a community-supported agriculture, so you're a shareholder.
[19:26.300 --> 19:26.940]  Very corporate.
[19:28.540 --> 19:32.720]  You could be a patron, which, you know, you give a certain amount of money every year.
[19:32.920 --> 19:33.760]  And there are other types.
[19:33.860 --> 19:34.480]  I call it regular.
[19:34.760 --> 19:36.040]  You could be a half-share person.
[19:36.160 --> 19:36.660]  We'll get into that.
[19:37.020 --> 19:39.960]  Half-share, maybe you don't have a lot of money, nor do you want a lot of food.
[19:40.020 --> 19:40.840]  You're only one person.
[19:40.860 --> 19:41.800]  You're skinny as I am.
[19:42.160 --> 19:44.860]  And you maybe just pay for half a share for now.
[19:44.860 --> 19:49.840]  And as part of paying for that half a share, you get a certain amount of food every year.
[19:50.200 --> 19:55.300]  This is practiced in many cities all over the country, in fact, not just the Northeast.
[19:56.340 --> 19:57.180]  Working shares.
[19:57.560 --> 19:58.500]  This is pretty cool.
[19:58.640 --> 19:59.240]  I would do this.
[19:59.680 --> 20:04.480]  You can be part of an urban farm and once a week go and till the land.
[20:04.740 --> 20:06.660]  And yes, you get to reap the benefits.
[20:06.760 --> 20:11.800]  You get a certain percentage of food every month or whatever period you want.
[20:12.620 --> 20:13.440]  Specialty shares.
[20:13.440 --> 20:17.180]  Maybe you're really into the goat cheese and your urban farm has goats.
[20:18.040 --> 20:23.120]  You can pay specifically to be getting the goat cheese or maybe the milk if you're into milk.
[20:23.280 --> 20:23.880]  Maybe not.
[20:24.740 --> 20:28.580]  So that's different types of community-supported urban farms.
[20:29.400 --> 20:30.160]  Spin farming.
[20:30.320 --> 20:30.820]  This is crazy.
[20:30.940 --> 20:36.120]  I myself have trouble with this, but I did speak to the founder of Spin Farming and he's very excited.
[20:36.320 --> 20:37.860]  He just started a new one in Philadelphia.
[20:38.080 --> 20:38.200]  All right.
[20:38.380 --> 20:39.320]  Let me see if I can explain it.
[20:39.320 --> 20:42.220]  The farmers in the room will nod and go, hmm.
[20:44.280 --> 20:45.440]  Small plot intensive.
[20:45.820 --> 20:46.960]  I don't know what happened to the end.
[20:47.320 --> 20:47.460]  Sp.
[20:48.280 --> 20:49.440]  And then there's an end somewhere.
[20:49.640 --> 20:50.220]  Spin farming.
[20:50.380 --> 20:51.100]  Small plot intensive.
[20:52.800 --> 20:55.460]  First of all, they're all about space and time saving techniques.
[20:55.620 --> 21:01.780]  You may have a small piece of land, but they are working on strategies so that you will get a whole lot from it in a short time.
[21:02.000 --> 21:03.280]  And you're wondering, how?
[21:03.560 --> 21:04.140]  I'll show you.
[21:06.160 --> 21:07.820]  First of all, you use vertical space.
[21:07.980 --> 21:08.900]  You know when you tie the...
[21:08.900 --> 21:13.580]  I think you have shelving perhaps or you can pull them up by a string or you can use trellises.
[21:13.800 --> 21:17.100]  That's using vertical space and you can save a lot of room instead of having the cucumbers.
[21:17.540 --> 21:18.040]  You know.
[21:18.200 --> 21:18.580]  You've been there.
[21:20.600 --> 21:21.320]  Successive planting.
[21:22.080 --> 21:22.560]  All right.
[21:22.560 --> 21:23.820]  When one season...
[21:23.820 --> 21:24.300]  I'm not a farmer.
[21:24.520 --> 21:32.560]  When one season is over, so if one plant has already given its cycle or its fruit, you immediately plant the next one that will plant in the next season.
[21:33.420 --> 21:36.960]  So you sort of keep the land being used properly instead of letting it sit.
[21:37.180 --> 21:39.520]  And if you're confused by that, well, you're going to have to follow the link.
[21:41.500 --> 21:41.900]  Interplanting.
[21:42.000 --> 21:42.640]  This is crazy.
[21:42.860 --> 21:44.340]  Slow and fast maturing plants.
[21:45.080 --> 21:48.200]  So when one is more quickly giving fruit...
[21:48.200 --> 21:48.960]  Well, interplanting.
[21:50.600 --> 21:51.640]  Wide row planting.
[21:51.880 --> 21:54.380]  Instead of in one little straight line, you could do wider rows.
[21:54.500 --> 22:01.120]  And apparently, in their experience at spin farming, it yields a lot more in terms of fruit.
[22:02.480 --> 22:03.580]  And bush varieties.
[22:03.720 --> 22:04.020]  I know.
[22:04.100 --> 22:04.480]  I know.
[22:05.140 --> 22:06.180]  We don't like bush.
[22:06.480 --> 22:06.920]  But...
[22:07.700 --> 22:08.140]  But...
[22:09.380 --> 22:11.600]  Apparently, one of the great ways that spin...
[22:11.600 --> 22:19.380]  One of the big aspects of spin farming is that you should get fruits and vegetables that grow in bushes rather than in long vines.
[22:20.020 --> 22:22.620]  And apparently, they will do this for you if you want their help.
[22:23.660 --> 22:28.000]  So spin farming is one of those growing movements in urban farming, especially in North America.
[22:28.420 --> 22:28.760]  All right.
[22:28.900 --> 22:30.380]  Vertical farming is what you've been waiting for.
[22:30.520 --> 22:31.000]  There's robots.
[22:31.180 --> 22:31.660]  There's machines.
[22:31.840 --> 22:32.340]  There's lasers.
[22:34.020 --> 22:34.900]  Look at that.
[22:35.380 --> 22:36.380]  That doesn't exist.
[22:37.680 --> 22:39.320]  Well, it exists in someone's mind.
[22:41.100 --> 22:41.500]  All right.
[22:41.560 --> 22:41.800]  Hold on.
[22:41.840 --> 22:42.360]  I'll give you another one.
[22:44.980 --> 22:45.620]  It's nice.
[22:45.780 --> 22:46.280]  I think it's nice.
[22:46.900 --> 22:47.680]  Looks better there.
[22:48.480 --> 22:48.880]  Okay.
[22:49.140 --> 22:50.080]  Let me try to explain.
[22:50.320 --> 22:51.660]  I don't work for vertical farming.
[22:52.420 --> 22:53.260]  Take it or leave it.
[22:53.360 --> 22:56.900]  But it is one of the most innovative things I've heard of in the world of urban farming.
[22:57.080 --> 23:03.700]  The idea is that instead of just farming your little plot of land, we build entire buildings.
[23:03.840 --> 23:09.120]  They could be skyscrapers as grand as that, competing with the city group building and that sort of thing.
[23:10.140 --> 23:12.920]  But they could also be less floors, obviously.
[23:13.140 --> 23:17.480]  But the idea is that in a large building, you farm in large scale.
[23:17.920 --> 23:19.180]  And you do it...
[23:20.500 --> 23:21.660]  My secretary will get that.
[23:23.520 --> 23:24.420]  Oh, I said that.
[23:25.820 --> 23:26.220]  Dude.
[23:27.840 --> 23:29.380]  The idea is you do it without soil.
[23:30.100 --> 23:30.500]  Hydroponics.
[23:30.580 --> 23:31.580]  A lot of us are into it.
[23:34.700 --> 23:35.100]  Yes.
[23:36.120 --> 23:36.440]  Yes.
[23:36.440 --> 23:37.220]  I'm gonna let that hang.
[23:38.240 --> 23:38.440]  That's right.
[23:38.600 --> 23:38.720]  Amsterdam.
[23:39.200 --> 23:40.580]  You grow things in hydroponics.
[23:40.680 --> 23:40.740]  What?
[23:41.500 --> 23:45.740]  But the idea is they don't use soil and they use the space vertically that they have.
[23:45.920 --> 23:47.720]  And look, we're on the 18th floor.
[23:47.880 --> 23:52.020]  We could do a whole lot of farming in this building if it wasn't for lights and some other conditions.
[23:52.160 --> 23:52.380]  But still.
[23:53.260 --> 23:56.740]  The idea is that you use the vertical space to raise large scale.
[23:56.900 --> 24:05.800]  I mean, they are talking about, and by they I mean, researchers at Columbia University, researchers in the Netherlands, at Wageningen University, and a couple of other universities that I don't know about.
[24:07.280 --> 24:11.080]  Their plan is that this could compete with large scale commercial farms.
[24:11.240 --> 24:18.140]  Not only that, they insist that it needs to compete with large scale urban farms because of the problems that come with large scale urban farming.
[24:18.960 --> 24:20.900]  Maybe I'll develop on that in a second.
[24:21.900 --> 24:26.400]  One of the big advantages of vertical farming that they believe is better is that the growing season is all year.
[24:27.220 --> 24:42.580]  Because of the way that they do it in the building, in a controlled environment, let's say, let's say, let's say that normally you would have a flood, like in the Midwest, and oh, boom, the crop is damaged.
[24:42.740 --> 24:43.640]  It's going to be a bad year.
[24:43.740 --> 24:48.840]  Well, if, and it's very difficult to have a flood in a large building, although I've seen the bathroom.
[24:49.520 --> 24:55.720]  But if that were to happen, you could just fix the problem, you know, stop the leak, whatever the problem was.
[24:55.800 --> 25:01.040]  Yes, you've lost some crops, but you can immediately get back to growing because the growing season is always.
[25:01.840 --> 25:02.960]  That's one of their advantages.
[25:03.680 --> 25:05.500]  It's more efficient when it comes to water.
[25:05.580 --> 25:10.400]  Now, they do need water, but one of their insistence, and I'll show you a nice diagram where you'll believe it.
[25:10.480 --> 25:11.380]  You'll jump out of your chair.
[25:11.380 --> 25:12.120]  You'll be so excited.
[25:13.380 --> 25:16.060]  That they recycle the water that they use within the building.
[25:16.160 --> 25:17.780]  They make use of the dirty water.
[25:18.100 --> 25:20.820]  They make extremely efficient use of the clean water.
[25:20.980 --> 25:23.060]  They clean the water in recycling, right?
[25:23.880 --> 25:26.500]  They make good use of the space, obviously.
[25:26.500 --> 25:28.940]  And in terms of energy, any designs...
[25:28.940 --> 25:30.480]  Well, those two didn't really have it, did they?
[25:31.380 --> 25:32.120]  Oh, never mind.
[25:32.340 --> 25:43.360]  The designs that you'll see of a vertical farm building, the plan is that they'll have solar energy facilities on top, panels, or wind.
[25:43.700 --> 25:52.580]  Or, as one thing they'd like to do, is grow plants that they can use for energy production.
[25:53.160 --> 25:54.560]  So, they'll use the entire plant.
[25:54.700 --> 25:59.420]  And their plant, some of them will be used for biofuels and also biomass, was the word I was not getting.
[26:00.040 --> 26:01.620]  Let me fix my presentation.
[26:02.840 --> 26:03.200]  Okay.
[26:03.560 --> 26:03.900]  Good.
[26:04.120 --> 26:04.360]  Great.
[26:05.120 --> 26:05.980]  Growing season all year.
[26:06.540 --> 26:06.800]  Mm-hmm.
[26:07.460 --> 26:07.580]  Yeah.
[26:07.880 --> 26:12.820]  And so, one of the big advantages, we hear now about what's going on in the Midwest, what's gone on in the Midwest of the United States.
[26:13.860 --> 26:17.880]  You're not at risk for flooding in a large building.
[26:17.880 --> 26:22.720]  You're not at risk of drought, especially because you use far less water.
[26:22.940 --> 26:30.800]  Many of you are aware that for large scale commercial farming, a whole lot of water is used and then, of course, never reused.
[26:30.880 --> 26:31.580]  It just goes away.
[26:31.700 --> 26:32.660]  It goes into your groundwater.
[26:32.680 --> 26:33.520]  It doesn't just go away.
[26:33.940 --> 26:38.260]  And it goes nice and polluted, of course, with pesticides, high levels of metals.
[26:38.560 --> 26:45.840]  And, you know, one of the old problems of New York City water was the farms in upstate New York that were using, who knows, all kinds of pesticides.
[26:45.840 --> 26:49.100]  And the water, once it got down here, the lovely mountain water was polluted.
[26:49.320 --> 26:50.780]  Now, I know someone who fixed that.
[26:50.960 --> 26:51.460]  Nice man.
[26:51.600 --> 26:52.720]  He was in my podcast recently.
[26:54.020 --> 26:57.100]  But that is one of those concerns that vertical farming deals with.
[27:00.020 --> 27:01.720]  So, some of the downsides.
[27:02.060 --> 27:04.420]  Those nice buildings that we saw, they don't exist.
[27:05.040 --> 27:12.500]  When I asked the kind people researching and working on urban vertical farms, there is still none in functioning.
[27:12.500 --> 27:17.120]  And that is a, of course, big bummer for those of us who want to see vertical farms in action.
[27:17.660 --> 27:19.460]  Now, apparently the money is being allocated.
[27:19.860 --> 27:25.060]  The Chinese government is very interested in urban farms as they have large cities with a lot of people that need a lot of food.
[27:25.240 --> 27:32.660]  And, I don't have the stat with me, but actually China, the amount of space that you can actually farm in China is very small compared to that huge amount of country.
[27:34.660 --> 27:35.680]  So, it's still unproven.
[27:35.820 --> 27:36.280]  That is a bummer.
[27:36.280 --> 27:39.560]  Now, also, and this is just me actually.
[27:39.680 --> 27:41.100]  None of my interviewees talked about this.
[27:41.540 --> 27:47.940]  I don't see how farm lobbies, especially in this country, but in other parts of the world as well, are going to let this happen.
[27:48.240 --> 27:51.440]  I mean, this would be a major shakeup in how farming is done.
[27:51.840 --> 27:55.960]  When I asked them, what do you do with the old large-scale farms in middle America?
[27:56.320 --> 27:57.480]  What do you do with these places?
[27:57.540 --> 27:58.040]  What are you going to do?
[27:58.260 --> 27:58.980]  Just nothing?
[27:58.980 --> 28:09.300]  And he said, no, we return them to being, if you want, carbon sinks or forests or space to do other things with, hopefully to let natural spaces be.
[28:10.180 --> 28:12.560]  So, this is also involved in their plan.
[28:13.820 --> 28:14.920]  Look, I threw in diagrams.
[28:15.980 --> 28:16.840]  Is that interesting?
[28:18.060 --> 28:18.820]  That's crazy.
[28:19.080 --> 28:24.340]  You can, I'll link to those on my website and I'll have some links perhaps that we can share somehow.
[28:25.080 --> 28:28.100]  But yeah, they've got this all planned out, but none is in existence.
[28:28.100 --> 28:31.360]  And of course, major downside to the vertical farm movement.
[28:32.140 --> 28:35.020]  When I asked about this, hey, there's none of these in existence.
[28:35.080 --> 28:36.840]  They said, well, look, it's happening now.
[28:36.960 --> 28:37.600]  They're going to be built.
[28:37.820 --> 28:38.560]  There's a plan.
[28:38.900 --> 28:40.320]  This is the green revolution now.
[28:40.420 --> 28:41.500]  This is the time to build them.
[28:41.680 --> 28:43.080]  So, it's not the end of the world.
[28:43.180 --> 28:43.800]  They haven't been built.
[28:43.960 --> 28:44.580]  They're going to be built.
[28:45.480 --> 28:46.540]  Decent answer, I guess.
[28:46.960 --> 28:48.740]  But I was disappointed because I wanted to go visit.
[28:50.360 --> 28:52.760]  I figured I'd show you a little video from an urban farm.
[28:52.760 --> 28:53.800]  I won't let it run all the way.
[28:53.960 --> 28:54.960]  Just run a minute or two.
[28:55.180 --> 28:57.480]  A little taste from my good friends at Ryan is Hungry.
[28:58.060 --> 29:01.420]  It's a regular urban farm in San Francisco that I like.
[29:01.620 --> 29:03.060]  So, let's watch a film.
[29:03.160 --> 29:03.280]  Ready?
[29:03.660 --> 29:04.180]  Set.
[29:05.360 --> 29:05.880]  Go.
[29:05.920 --> 29:07.520]  I'm Antonio Roman Alcala.
[29:07.800 --> 29:09.800]  And we're at the Alamini Farm in San Francisco.
[29:10.060 --> 29:11.520]  It's a four and a half acre site.
[29:11.860 --> 29:13.180]  And we grow food.
[29:19.660 --> 29:23.920]  The Alamini Farm is located basically right in the middle of San Francisco.
[29:24.140 --> 29:25.500]  It's on the southern side of the city.
[29:26.120 --> 29:27.700]  Right next to the 280.
[29:27.980 --> 29:34.340]  We're lucky in that the space is so large that we have a big buffer zone between the freeway and where we grow.
[29:34.340 --> 29:37.400]  So, this space was basically an illegal dump.
[29:37.700 --> 29:44.600]  And people from all over the city would drive down Alamini Boulevard, pull off and dump their refrigerators or whatever it was they didn't want.
[29:44.780 --> 29:50.080]  And so, people in the Alamini housing community decided they didn't want a dump in their neighborhood.
[29:50.080 --> 29:57.360]  And so, they worked with a group called the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners to establish this site as an urban farm.
[29:57.540 --> 30:02.420]  They basically created a farm and then Slug, unfortunately, fell apart.
[30:02.780 --> 30:04.500]  The site was abandoned for about two years.
[30:04.760 --> 30:08.740]  It was in early 2005 that I started coming here with a couple of friends.
[30:09.000 --> 30:16.280]  It was through that that we started organizing with the Alamini community to see what it was that they wanted to see out of the space.
[30:16.740 --> 30:19.120]  Because there was history there that we didn't want to ignore.
[30:19.120 --> 30:20.840]  This is the main garden.
[30:21.780 --> 30:28.240]  We've basically grown our growing area by double every year since we started.
[30:28.820 --> 30:32.820]  So, the first time these probably was only about the first five rows that we actually grew.
[30:33.080 --> 30:39.600]  Then we doubled that and now we've got the whole flat area over here and now we're expanding over to the West Garden.
[30:39.820 --> 30:44.140]  The food gets mainly distributed among the volunteers that come on the weekends.
[30:44.140 --> 30:50.520]  At 4 o'clock, you know, we'll harvest whatever is available and you can take home a grocery bag of produce for free.
[30:50.680 --> 30:52.920]  Some of the youth workers, they've been taking food home.
[30:53.040 --> 30:54.100]  Mostly the girls.
[30:54.240 --> 30:56.680]  The guys don't care at all, but the girls will take some home.
[30:56.880 --> 30:57.900]  Some of them have families.
[30:58.040 --> 30:59.200]  They cook for their families.
[30:59.740 --> 31:06.540]  And then this year was the first year we actually started selling produce at very, very low rates at the Bayview Farmers Market.
[31:06.540 --> 31:11.700]  This is still the main garden area, but just beyond that is the compost bins that we have.
[31:11.980 --> 31:18.660]  So, even though we import a lot of fertility, we still are trying to show the process of how food becomes food once again.
[31:18.940 --> 31:26.180]  Eventually, we'd like to have chickens, possibly goats, to showcase how animals are an integral part of food production too.
[31:26.700 --> 31:34.400]  Even if you're a vegetarian, you still need fertility, which often comes from animals that can eat things that we won't eat.
[31:34.400 --> 31:41.300]  And then down here, the original individual community garden plots, I think that's what they were envisioned for.
[31:41.400 --> 31:43.680]  Right now, we're farming them as well.
[31:43.900 --> 31:51.040]  But yeah, this is a really good way to kind of show the community that we have a presence here, that it's not just an abandoned piece of land.
[31:51.320 --> 31:53.940]  So this is the orchard area.
[31:53.940 --> 31:58.380]  We have, I think, about 70-something trees.
[31:58.960 --> 32:07.760]  Pears, apples, avocados, loquats, pomegranates, persimmons, plums, like five different kinds of plums.
[32:08.180 --> 32:09.740]  These are pineapple guavas.
[32:10.520 --> 32:12.100]  It's called Fejoa celuliana.
[32:12.660 --> 32:14.640]  That's the genus and species name.
[32:14.840 --> 32:15.940]  All right, you get the idea.
[32:15.940 --> 32:19.180]  The full film can be viewed somewhere on the Internet at ryanishungary.com.
[32:19.340 --> 32:25.720]  My good friends who follow not only urban farming, but, well, what we can call the green movement in general all over the country.
[32:26.180 --> 32:27.800]  And this is just one urban farm.
[32:27.960 --> 32:31.020]  Interesting thing they point out is the connections with the community.
[32:31.340 --> 32:47.560]  I don't even remember if somewhere in this presentation I glossed over the fact that in a lot of urban farms, they make it a priority to, for example, take the food that they grow and bring it directly to housing projects and areas that they know aren't going to come and buy it necessarily,
[32:47.560 --> 32:49.780]  but would very much benefit and enjoy having it.
[32:50.100 --> 32:53.580]  So for a lot of urban farms, it is one of their activities.
[32:53.780 --> 32:55.000]  It's bringing food to communities.
[32:55.140 --> 33:00.000]  And on the other hand, as you see here, communities come to you and farm there and take home whatever they can.
[33:01.880 --> 33:03.060]  I'll move forward from there.
[33:05.200 --> 33:05.640]  Salvation.
[33:06.000 --> 33:06.940]  Salvation lies within.
[33:08.420 --> 33:10.140]  So these are sort of the questions.
[33:10.580 --> 33:13.240]  Probably for me, but maybe for urban farmers somewhere.
[33:13.500 --> 33:15.260]  Will urban farming save us?
[33:15.400 --> 33:17.860]  That was sort of one of the questions I asked in a better way.
[33:18.800 --> 33:31.180]  You know, if urban farmers continue to grow as they really are right now in a sort of renaissance because people are turning to them thinking, well, one, my food is getting way too expensive and maybe over here the food is competitively priced.
[33:31.180 --> 33:34.720]  But beyond that, a lot of people are more concerned about where their food comes from.
[33:34.900 --> 33:35.720]  For good reason.
[33:35.900 --> 33:40.860]  We've had plenty of evidence over the last few years that says we don't always know what's going on with our food and we should.
[33:41.860 --> 33:46.200]  So I would always ask the question, look, if we all have vertical farms, that'll be cool.
[33:46.360 --> 33:52.840]  Or if we all have community supported agriculture in our cities, then maybe we won't need the big farms anymore.
[33:52.840 --> 33:57.460]  And a lot of people stopped me and said, in case I forgot, no, we still need big farms.
[33:57.800 --> 34:00.820]  Urban farms can't provide you with everything you need.
[34:01.080 --> 34:04.200]  Among them, wheat is kind of a problem in urban farms.
[34:04.280 --> 34:04.880]  You need a lot of space.
[34:04.880 --> 34:11.600]  Although, in New England right now, wheat, they're using more land for wheat production than they ever have in a decade.
[34:11.780 --> 34:12.840]  But, well, that's interesting.
[34:13.500 --> 34:15.820]  So you can't replace mass scale farming.
[34:15.820 --> 34:16.680]  It will always be there.
[34:16.880 --> 34:20.480]  But you could definitely get more from urban farms than we are right now.
[34:21.860 --> 34:22.760]  Will it catch on?
[34:22.840 --> 34:25.560]  That's one of my big concerns with everything in this country.
[34:25.700 --> 34:30.180]  Will the responsible, what is environmentally sound, will it catch on?
[34:30.240 --> 34:31.180]  Will the kids want to do it?
[34:31.900 --> 34:32.980]  And we don't know.
[34:33.420 --> 34:36.360]  I mean, obviously, education is a big deal.
[34:36.580 --> 34:43.300]  I don't remember in science class in Union High School in New Jersey if anybody said to me, do you know about urban farms?
[34:43.760 --> 34:45.860]  Or even talk to me about my garden in my backyard.
[34:46.000 --> 34:47.360]  You know, my parents taught me about that.
[34:47.760 --> 34:50.300]  So maybe that's where you can get some of this education.
[34:50.680 --> 34:51.920]  And then the press, you know.
[34:52.100 --> 34:54.020]  How much press does urban farming get?
[34:54.300 --> 34:58.880]  It might be the novelty story on CNN where they focused on some crazy hippies.
[35:00.040 --> 35:04.960]  You know, it's the crazy hippie story for today, after the jet skiing squirrel.
[35:08.220 --> 35:09.400]  So is it the future?
[35:09.500 --> 35:10.660]  That is also my big question.
[35:10.660 --> 35:13.240]  I mean, when I look at vertical farming, I wonder, hey, is that the future?
[35:14.760 --> 35:19.040]  It seems to me that there is definitely more of a future in it than ever before.
[35:19.800 --> 35:21.620]  We don't know what's going to happen with fuel prices.
[35:21.620 --> 35:24.340]  But we know that in the short term, it's going to continue.
[35:24.440 --> 35:25.700]  They're going to continue to go up.
[35:26.540 --> 35:33.440]  And can you imagine, at some point, getting one of these exotic, like a mango or an avocado, these fruits that normally come from far away?
[35:34.020 --> 35:35.320]  We may not be able to anymore.
[35:35.500 --> 35:39.260]  Or it may be such an exotic item that we have to kind of look elsewhere.
[35:39.260 --> 35:41.160]  And maybe we need to look in our own neighborhoods.
[35:42.040 --> 35:43.580]  Did I say avocado was fancy?
[35:43.760 --> 35:44.160]  Anyway.
[35:45.600 --> 35:51.440]  One thing it is, if you're concerned about sustainability, urban farms, it's hard to argue that they're not sustainable.
[35:52.000 --> 35:53.080]  You can try.
[35:53.660 --> 35:59.780]  But for the most part, part of urban farming is being sustainable and sustainability is a core value.
[35:59.880 --> 36:01.360]  So that is a good thing.
[36:01.360 --> 36:02.700]  So there's some salvation there.
[36:03.780 --> 36:04.740]  Doesn't that sound nice?
[36:05.000 --> 36:05.440]  Yeah.
[36:05.940 --> 36:06.360]  Scale.
[36:06.740 --> 36:08.160]  That continues to be a problem.
[36:08.340 --> 36:12.360]  When I showed you vertical farming, I believe that is a big answer for scale, but unproven.
[36:13.040 --> 36:16.660]  So there's still the question of how much can we get out of urban farms?
[36:16.700 --> 36:18.260]  How much more urban farming can we do?
[36:18.660 --> 36:22.780]  I was in Philadelphia yesterday and I saw some spaces where we could be growing food.
[36:22.780 --> 36:27.780]  So there's definitely more room and there's definitely a lot of growing interest and need.
[36:28.180 --> 36:32.060]  So we could definitely get more from urban farms than we do now.
[36:34.420 --> 36:39.620]  I thought to myself, well, as I'm winding down in this talk, because I am, that I would provide some resources.
[36:39.660 --> 36:45.400]  So I'll just share with you my favorite resources for information about urban farming for press.
[36:45.600 --> 36:46.880]  I mean, really better than in the mainstream.
[36:47.140 --> 36:48.220]  Of course, we have blogs.
[36:48.440 --> 36:50.680]  And that's one of the beautiful things about urban farming.
[36:50.680 --> 37:03.180]  If you log on to different message boards, if you're really into it like I am, you can see communities sharing information, sharing strategies, experiences, what's going on with their urban farm.
[37:03.300 --> 37:05.960]  And of course, it's all via these things called the Internets, the tubes.
[37:07.420 --> 37:14.400]  So cityfarmer.org, cityfarmer.info, which actually began in Vancouver and is like, they've been going since 1978.
[37:14.400 --> 37:19.440]  And they're doing really so much in terms of information about urban farming all over the world.
[37:19.980 --> 37:21.160]  They're my favorite source.
[37:21.360 --> 37:22.260]  So I thought I would share that with you.
[37:22.740 --> 37:26.560]  And RUAF, Resource Centers on Urban Agriculture and Farming.
[37:26.620 --> 37:29.260]  That's for the nerds out here that really want the details.
[37:29.720 --> 37:30.840]  I like that one a lot.
[37:30.900 --> 37:32.000]  You may have one in mind.
[37:32.080 --> 37:33.100]  You can email it to me.
[37:33.960 --> 37:42.360]  And I like collectiveroots.org, which is a bulletin board or a blog where people post info about people doing urban farming around the world.
[37:42.360 --> 37:44.160]  And hopefully this inspires people.
[37:44.400 --> 37:48.800]  This gives them the background and the info they need to go out and farm your own eggplant.
[37:50.000 --> 37:51.140]  And look, there's a picture.
[37:51.660 --> 37:52.420]  It's the...
[37:52.420 --> 37:53.740]  This is floating in the Hudson River.
[37:54.000 --> 37:55.580]  As far as I know, I haven't seen it.
[37:56.280 --> 37:57.080]  Is it still there?
[37:57.660 --> 37:58.100]  Good.
[37:58.960 --> 37:59.360]  All right.
[37:59.540 --> 38:06.080]  And what I'll do now, at a convenient time of almost 40 minutes past, I'll leave it open for questions.
[38:07.360 --> 38:10.040]  And yeah, you can ask me basically whatever you want.
[38:10.160 --> 38:12.100]  But remember, I'm not an urban farmer.
[38:12.860 --> 38:13.360]  All right?
[38:13.760 --> 38:14.260]  All right.
[38:14.360 --> 38:14.940]  I'll start right here.
[38:15.040 --> 38:15.180]  Yes?
[38:25.260 --> 38:26.400]  A skylight in a bathroom?
[38:26.540 --> 38:27.440]  What are you trying to grow?
[38:28.900 --> 38:29.220]  Yeah.
[38:29.320 --> 38:30.480]  I mean, on the surface, sure.
[38:32.520 --> 38:32.840]  But...
[38:32.840 --> 38:36.440]  I don't know what I'm going to do.
[38:37.200 --> 38:39.740]  Bathroom is an interesting environment because if you keep it nice and...
[38:39.740 --> 38:41.500]  Anybody asking questions, ask on the mic.
[38:41.660 --> 38:42.540]  Oh, I didn't say that part.
[38:44.240 --> 38:44.880]  The DVD.
[38:45.340 --> 38:45.820]  The DVD.
[38:48.760 --> 38:49.600]  You're going to have to go to the mic.
[38:49.600 --> 38:50.840]  Maybe just line up at the microphone.
[38:51.100 --> 38:52.660]  You're going to have to organize yourselves.
[38:53.460 --> 38:55.700]  As in urban farming, you have to organize yourselves.
[38:57.420 --> 38:58.380]  Oh, is it not working?
[38:59.140 --> 38:59.880]  It's working now.
[39:00.540 --> 39:07.480]  So, real quick, the vertical farming and the indoor stuff, is there a concern about do you need insects to pollinate?
[39:07.720 --> 39:09.960]  I mean, do you need to have access to that for the farms?
[39:11.120 --> 39:15.380]  They seem to think this is not the concern in certain terms of insects to pollinate.
[39:15.380 --> 39:17.410]  They believe that insects will still come because in their designs...
[39:17.960 --> 39:20.140]  There's a lot of different designs for the buildings that don't exist.
[39:21.640 --> 39:22.920]  And it's open.
[39:23.620 --> 39:24.000]  So...
[39:24.640 --> 39:30.140]  I mean, we can go back to one of the photos, but it's not like a closed building in terms of windows, from what I understand in the design.
[39:31.260 --> 39:37.600]  So, essentially, be it birds, be it insects, most importantly, can still get in.
[39:37.820 --> 39:38.800]  And would still get in.
[39:38.900 --> 39:42.220]  They seem very confident, of course, about that aspect.
[39:43.340 --> 39:44.580]  Did you say pests?
[39:44.740 --> 39:45.180]  No, you didn't.
[39:45.560 --> 39:47.400]  Because I brought up pests a couple of times.
[39:47.820 --> 39:53.120]  And I said, you claim, you know, to be free of disease, but you could be wiped out by locusts.
[39:53.920 --> 39:57.080]  And he said, well, if we're wiped out by locusts, we can get started again really quick.
[40:00.320 --> 40:00.610]  Yeah.
[40:01.110 --> 40:01.550]  Yeah.
[40:01.550 --> 40:01.840]  Yeah.
[40:02.050 --> 40:08.820]  I mean, provided that there are still bees, they, in the design, you could still, they could still get in and they would find it.
[40:09.760 --> 40:11.720]  But again, that's only theoretical.
[40:13.540 --> 40:19.670]  In your research on urban farming, have you seen a compartmentalization of any of these processes?
[40:20.300 --> 40:29.540]  For instance, if I wanted to get started and all I've got is a balcony available to me, I probably can't compost as well as have a garden, you know, splitting up that space.
[40:29.760 --> 40:44.650]  So if you've seen, you know, anybody that started to do just one part of it, for instance, if I've only got space for a garden, is there somebody that's else that maybe has a whole plot of land but doesn't want to do gardening, so they only do composting.
[40:44.650 --> 40:50.460]  And so there would be a sort of community effort developing around urban farming.
[40:50.650 --> 40:54.090]  Well, I have noticed that some places choose a sort of specialty.
[40:55.460 --> 41:07.500]  So I mentioned, well I didn't, but again in BC, in British Columbia, the guy was very, the guy who runs the city farming program there, said that composting was one of their mainstays.
[41:07.630 --> 41:12.420]  In fact, it was because the Department of Sanitation was funding them partially to reduce waste.
[41:12.420 --> 41:15.150]  They wanted to save money on waste, so they wanted people to compost.
[41:15.480 --> 41:17.360]  So that was their big focus.
[41:19.020 --> 41:23.110]  I mean, but beyond that, I guess it depends on what people can do.
[41:23.220 --> 41:29.700]  I'm sure a lot of us either raise tomatoes on our windowsill, maybe, or compost on our balconies.
[41:29.840 --> 41:31.540]  I mean, there is urban composting.
[41:31.630 --> 41:33.860]  I know a lot of things about that.
[41:37.800 --> 41:38.150]  Compartmentalizing?
[41:39.670 --> 41:42.170]  Yeah, I mean, people do what they can where they are, right?
[41:42.170 --> 41:45.090]  I mean, I don't have a good answer, I think, for what you're...
[41:45.090 --> 41:46.110]  Okay, no, that's all right.
[41:46.280 --> 41:46.320]  Yeah.
[41:47.020 --> 41:59.400]  I mean, there's definitely urban farms that have specializations, and sometimes it's because of where they are, or where they're, the people who work for them, what their specialties are, or as the case I just presented, where their money comes from.
[41:59.670 --> 41:59.960]  Right.
[42:01.760 --> 42:02.110]  Hello.
[42:02.570 --> 42:03.070]  Hi there.
[42:03.610 --> 42:04.820]  So I have two tips and a question.
[42:05.020 --> 42:13.800]  The one is, urban gardeners can, you can compost under your sink with red worms, and it's hilarious to, like, order a pound of worms from a farm and have it come to work and, like, have them deliver to your desk.
[42:13.820 --> 42:14.240]  It's awesome.
[42:14.520 --> 42:29.280]  So the second thing is, you can also do small-scale vertical farming with chicken wire, line it with some garden paper, put a PVC pipe in the middle with sand and holes drilled in it, fill the rest in with soil, and then you can put plants all around the cylinder,
[42:29.420 --> 42:30.540]  which is kind of clever.
[42:30.540 --> 42:34.860]  And my question is, do you know much about the intervale in Burlington, Vermont?
[42:36.130 --> 42:36.480]  No.
[42:37.150 --> 42:37.670]  Thank you.
[42:38.280 --> 42:44.940]  And it's one of the, perhaps one of the great things, and what I didn't know, what I was going to get myself into when I decided on urban farming.
[42:45.360 --> 42:50.880]  Everywhere I go now, this morning I dropped off a friend, at a friend's house, and that friend said, are you going to talk about urban farming?
[42:51.090 --> 42:52.920]  Have you ever heard of so-and-so farm in Boston?
[42:53.170 --> 42:56.260]  And I was like, well, I heard about urban farms in Boston, but I didn't talk to anybody there.
[42:56.500 --> 42:59.480]  So, perhaps it's a great thing about urban farming.
[42:59.480 --> 43:02.720]  It's a much bigger world than we realize, than I realized, obviously.
[43:03.820 --> 43:04.260]  So, yeah.
[43:04.840 --> 43:05.360]  Well, no.
[43:05.570 --> 43:05.740]  Yeah.
[43:06.740 --> 43:13.320]  So, you mentioned about how distribution these days is relatively far, even for conventional farms.
[43:13.610 --> 43:27.320]  And if urban farming were to become a lot more widespread, is there much movement to sort of cut out middlemen in distribution and use the Internet to localize and connect people directly?
[43:27.800 --> 43:34.070]  And, you know, you could order some fresh vegetables from around the corner via the Internet or something like that?
[43:34.780 --> 43:36.780]  So, you cut out the actual stand?
[43:37.920 --> 43:39.740]  Well, yeah, but also...
[43:40.070 --> 43:48.380]  But is there any real use of the Internet as a connecting tool between the farmers and the consumers?
[43:48.380 --> 43:49.020]  Yeah.
[43:50.280 --> 43:57.000]  I don't want to make any sweeping generalizations, but I had a big problem getting just simple answers via email from urban farmers.
[43:57.140 --> 44:03.240]  Sometimes, if I even called them, they didn't have time or interest in sitting or talking to me for too long.
[44:04.160 --> 44:10.660]  So, what I'm saying is a lot of urban farms, and I'm sure New York is the exception, not very into the technology.
[44:12.020 --> 44:13.420]  Sometimes, there's a disconnect there.
[44:13.540 --> 44:14.060]  Not all the time.
[44:15.880 --> 44:17.880]  Cutting out the middleman is certainly not a priority.
[44:18.180 --> 44:22.080]  There's a lot of talk about using the farmer's market in town.
[44:22.180 --> 44:29.720]  If there's no farmer's market, a lot of urban farms have deals, if they're doing commercial stuff, have deals with a supermarket in town.
[44:29.720 --> 44:37.800]  And it's normally not a big chain supermarket, but it's probably a larger independent, if there are any left, if the city has one.
[44:37.980 --> 44:40.460]  They make specific deals with the urban farm.
[44:40.600 --> 44:46.980]  So, there doesn't seem to be, and I don't encounter, and you could do your own research, websites that say, oh, we are the so-and-so urban farm.
[44:47.100 --> 44:48.220]  Click here to order food.
[44:49.020 --> 44:58.520]  You can certainly click here to become a shareholder, or get a share, become a partner, find out the price.
[44:58.740 --> 44:59.560]  I did notice that.
[44:59.700 --> 45:03.960]  The price of fennel, or whatever, is listed on websites.
[45:04.180 --> 45:06.900]  But as far as ordering, I didn't encounter that so much.
[45:07.060 --> 45:15.850]  And maybe that's sort of the next step, which is connecting people who know how to make things happen using, you know, Internet commerce or ordering online.
[45:16.700 --> 45:21.980]  But right now, it seems like they're pretty busy farming and getting things to market the old-fashioned way.
[45:21.980 --> 45:22.980]  So far.
[45:24.380 --> 45:24.780]  Thanks.
[45:27.480 --> 45:30.540]  When you're talking about vertical farming, you didn't mention anything about livestock.
[45:30.540 --> 45:34.220]  So, I assume that's just something that we're always going to need a standard farm for?
[45:34.420 --> 45:34.660]  Right.
[45:34.940 --> 45:35.420]  Good question.
[45:35.520 --> 45:36.080]  Really good question.
[45:36.380 --> 45:37.080]  I'll tell you what I did.
[45:37.120 --> 45:38.680]  I skipped it when I was doing the interview.
[45:38.860 --> 45:40.420]  I guess I got caught up in the moment.
[45:41.120 --> 45:42.320]  They mentioned, when I...
[45:42.320 --> 45:44.970]  You remember the tall building, the vertical farms, the...
[45:44.980 --> 45:49.220]  One of the main guys, Dixon, Professor Dixon Despommiers at Columbia.
[45:49.540 --> 45:57.520]  He said to me, fish and livestock, in the long run, they envision vertical farms as being a place where you can raise them.
[45:57.640 --> 46:00.560]  Now, he insists everything is, of course, organic.
[46:00.940 --> 46:06.960]  And so, I can only assume that animals will be treated ethically and fish would be happy.
[46:09.000 --> 46:10.060]  They get a good view.
[46:12.210 --> 46:12.660]  But...
[46:12.660 --> 46:14.240]  So, they talk about it.
[46:14.380 --> 46:16.220]  And they talk about it as one of the objectives.
[46:16.420 --> 46:22.180]  Yes, crops, you know, and biofuels and food crops, but also livestock and fish.
[46:23.360 --> 46:26.080]  Honestly, I need to see it.
[46:27.120 --> 46:29.240]  Because I'm more into the food aspect.
[46:29.540 --> 46:30.880]  I'm not sure about livestock.
[46:31.120 --> 46:37.520]  But one of the reasons they say this, among the size that they think they can do it, is because livestock...
[46:37.520 --> 46:40.140]  I said that commercial farms are very destructive.
[46:40.500 --> 46:41.180]  And they are.
[46:41.300 --> 46:43.760]  I mean, they take a toll on the environment, obviously, for a purpose.
[46:45.040 --> 46:46.340]  Of course, so is livestock.
[46:46.800 --> 46:52.620]  And, you know, it's something like 30% of the world is... the land mass is used for farming and livestock.
[46:53.780 --> 46:59.740]  So, they hope that they can answer that problem by using vertical farms as also places for fish and livestock.
[47:00.520 --> 47:01.000]  Thanks.
[47:01.380 --> 47:01.480]  Yeah.
[47:02.700 --> 47:04.280]  Just to add two questions.
[47:04.600 --> 47:15.400]  The first is, in your travels and in your talks with urban farmers, was there any mention of issues with genetic modification of fruits and vegetables to not repopulate?
[47:15.540 --> 47:18.540]  I.e., the seeds in your tomatoes won't grow tomatoes.
[47:19.260 --> 47:26.400]  And the commercial farming industry is intentionally doing this so that we can't grow our own tomatoes with the seeds.
[47:26.500 --> 47:29.760]  We have to purchase seeds from them and, you know, kind of like a trade.
[47:29.760 --> 47:31.840]  Was there any mention of that or any issues with that?
[47:32.180 --> 47:32.660]  That...
[47:32.660 --> 47:39.640]  The people developing and researching and working towards vertical farms, of course, can better speak for themselves.
[47:41.080 --> 47:45.500]  But, they always mention in the beginning, like I said, that it's going to be organic.
[47:45.980 --> 47:55.860]  They align themselves with the movement of, you know, people who are not skeptical but don't feel that they need genetically modified food and don't want it.
[47:56.490 --> 47:58.680]  So, so far, that's where they're at.
[47:58.820 --> 48:03.760]  They get a lot, of course, their interest, like I mentioned, the government of China, in the Netherlands, universities, academics.
[48:04.240 --> 48:14.520]  I'm wondering if, if Monsanto or name your corporation, Cargill, comes forward and says, we'll fund you, but there's a few stipulations.
[48:14.980 --> 48:20.540]  Of course, that's where we need them to say, whoa, we're not going to do that, if that's the way they want to go with this.
[48:20.540 --> 48:26.060]  But, it does seem wide open for, if someone wants to influence, they could.
[48:26.220 --> 48:27.060]  So, it's not impossible.
[48:28.440 --> 48:28.940]  Yeah.
[48:29.060 --> 48:41.620]  But, at the same time, with the situation of commercial farming as it is, GMO food, genetically modified food is already, it's just continuously growing and gaining inroads where it didn't have inroads before.
[48:41.980 --> 48:44.520]  So, but yeah, the risk is still there.
[48:44.520 --> 48:47.000]  I know, I can't get a normal sized strawberry.
[48:47.360 --> 48:48.140]  Yeah, right.
[48:48.240 --> 48:49.300]  Normal sized strawberry.
[48:49.680 --> 48:49.900]  It's too small.
[48:50.040 --> 48:50.320]  I'm hungry.
[48:51.340 --> 48:59.440]  But, the second question was, were there any resources available to upstart urban farmers in the hydroponic arena?
[48:59.440 --> 49:12.940]  Any good reading or anything that was mentioned to try to bring some, if I have a small backyard, I could probably bring some of that vertical growth indoors, you know, freshen up the air in the house, and actually just bring the farm into my house.
[49:12.940 --> 49:22.800]  There was not, and of course, thanks to the Internet, we can get this information, but the average urban farm that exists that is in production is not dealing in hydroponics.
[49:23.160 --> 49:23.820]  It's outdoor.
[49:23.960 --> 49:24.620]  It's about healthy.
[49:24.760 --> 49:25.560]  It's about being outdoor.
[49:25.920 --> 49:28.720]  Now, they could exist, but I haven't spoken to anyone.
[49:29.260 --> 49:32.520]  It's more of the idea of just bringing your tomato plants inside.
[49:32.820 --> 49:32.960]  Yeah.
[49:33.400 --> 49:34.340]  Try potatoes.
[49:37.810 --> 49:39.790]  The gentleman there is talking about trying potatoes.
[49:39.830 --> 49:40.810]  I'm going to be your microphone.
[49:41.070 --> 49:42.470]  Try potatoes because...
[49:43.330 --> 49:44.850]  Well, because they grow in the dark.
[49:44.850 --> 49:45.930]  Because they grow in the dark.
[49:45.930 --> 49:46.490]  Potatoes grow in the dark.
[49:46.550 --> 49:49.050]  As you can tell, because in the drawer, they're always growing...
[49:49.710 --> 49:54.950]  You need to buy a seed potato, because the ones you buy, they're not actually growing new potatoes, but those little...
[49:54.950 --> 49:58.270]  So you need to buy a special seed potato, which will essentially make new potatoes.
[49:58.370 --> 49:58.870]  I've done it.
[49:59.110 --> 49:59.670]  But the...
[49:59.670 --> 50:00.550]  You're going to have to talk to them.
[50:00.610 --> 50:00.790]  No.
[50:02.750 --> 50:03.590]  Yeah, but...
[50:03.590 --> 50:08.790]  The only issue with the seed potatoes is I know there were studies where the potato basically grows within light.
[50:08.970 --> 50:09.930]  I'll get off in a second.
[50:09.930 --> 50:10.330]  Sorry.
[50:10.970 --> 50:14.990]  Basically, without light, it'll grow rapidly, but it will die off without...
[50:14.990 --> 50:16.050]  in the absence of light.
[50:16.770 --> 50:16.990]  Hmm.
[50:17.210 --> 50:17.430]  All right.
[50:17.490 --> 50:18.750]  I got four minutes, says the sign.
[50:18.970 --> 50:19.370]  Go, go, go.
[50:19.890 --> 50:20.390]  Thank you.
[50:20.390 --> 50:24.930]  You mentioned soil being dangerous, like contaminated soil.
[50:25.110 --> 50:27.150]  And you said you might have someone who can help fix that.
[50:27.350 --> 50:29.630]  What are the things you have to detect in the soil?
[50:29.710 --> 50:30.530]  How do you detect them?
[50:30.650 --> 50:31.330]  How do you fix them?
[50:31.670 --> 50:32.730]  I don't detect soil.
[50:33.930 --> 50:34.490]  What I...
[50:34.490 --> 50:35.490]  What I was talking about was...
[50:36.070 --> 50:36.710]  Oh, it's a great...
[50:36.710 --> 50:37.550]  It's a great conversation.
[50:38.950 --> 50:44.970]  Basically, a decade ago, maybe a little more at this point, because I forget how time flies, the New York City water system was at huge risk.
[50:45.190 --> 50:49.470]  They were going to need to build additional treatment plants or do something, because the...
[50:50.370 --> 50:51.090]  What do you call that?
[50:51.130 --> 50:54.990]  Runoff water from farms in upstate New York was full of pesticides and it was a problem.
[50:55.230 --> 51:02.190]  So there was someone who went to the farms and convinced a lot of farmers to change the way they handle, be it pesticide use or runoff.
[51:02.350 --> 51:05.550]  And he effectively saved the New York City water system a whole lot of money.
[51:05.590 --> 51:06.770]  He also replaced all the toilets.
[51:06.970 --> 51:07.890]  I don't know if anybody remembers that.
[51:08.150 --> 51:09.950]  He encouraged landlords to replace toilets.
[51:10.250 --> 51:14.550]  Anyway, soil detection-wise, there are definitely resources for it.
[51:14.870 --> 51:15.350]  There are definitely...
[51:15.350 --> 51:17.530]  That's one of the steps new urban farms do take.
[51:18.230 --> 51:22.190]  But I'm not involved, so I don't have a good answer on that front.
[51:22.290 --> 51:24.630]  But that's what I was talking about, that I know someone.
[51:25.530 --> 51:25.970]  Okay?
[51:26.310 --> 51:28.030]  We probably got two minutes at this point.
[51:28.670 --> 51:29.490]  I'll be brief.
[51:29.590 --> 51:33.090]  I'm actually a plant geneticist and I do spend my time working...
[51:33.090 --> 51:34.170]  And I'm so sorry for my talk.
[51:35.750 --> 51:37.370]  And a small plot farmer.
[51:37.370 --> 51:40.650]  So, I mean, I do annuals, perennials in upstate New York.
[51:41.390 --> 51:50.890]  I just wanted to give people an idea that there's a fun movie you can watch called The Real Dirt on Farmer John, which will give you some ideas about CSAs and it's kind of... it's interesting.
[51:51.390 --> 51:56.670]  And if... obviously there's a lot of interest in this kind of stuff and I will be around if anyone wants to ask some more detailed questions.
[51:57.390 --> 51:59.970]  The Real Dirt on Farmer John is the name of the film.
[52:00.030 --> 52:01.310]  Available on the Internet for free, right?
[52:01.530 --> 52:03.610]  Well, if you know what you're doing, like everyone here does.
[52:03.790 --> 52:05.570]  We know... we know what we're doing.
[52:06.030 --> 52:06.910]  Alright, last question.
[52:08.810 --> 52:11.390]  You were talking about vertical farming.
[52:11.810 --> 52:15.610]  And you said the structure would be open space like that.
[52:15.910 --> 52:19.950]  And in North America, you can only use it for half a year.
[52:19.950 --> 52:25.770]  And if it's closed, you could use it the whole year, I suppose, like the greenhouse on the boat?
[52:28.550 --> 52:29.430]  The... wait.
[52:29.790 --> 52:31.750]  If it's closed, greenhouse on the boat, right.
[52:31.970 --> 52:32.130]  Yeah.
[52:32.670 --> 52:32.990]  Understood.
[52:33.690 --> 52:33.850]  Okay.
[52:35.130 --> 52:38.470]  Apparently in their plans for how it's going to work...
[52:39.150 --> 52:40.590]  How many times have I said that?
[52:41.330 --> 52:43.750]  There is... they have a certain degree of temperature control.
[52:44.310 --> 52:47.270]  I don't... I don't know exactly how that is.
[52:47.550 --> 52:49.590]  I can tell you who to talk to about it.
[52:49.590 --> 52:54.470]  And perhaps that's a good follow-up for me to get the nitty-gritty details on how it's going to work.
[52:54.790 --> 53:01.910]  What I wanted to do by showing you a little bit about vertical farming is just give you an idea of another style of what is an urban farm that's out there.
[53:02.890 --> 53:06.750]  I shouldn't even be answering questions about it beyond what I heard.
[53:07.070 --> 53:11.470]  I did not ask about that issue, so I don't have any information about it.
[53:11.610 --> 53:12.510]  But it's a good point.
[53:12.690 --> 53:18.630]  And it's yet another question, you know, that when it comes to can this be done and the fact that it doesn't exist yet.
[53:19.550 --> 53:21.130]  It leaves a lot of question marks.
[53:22.070 --> 53:22.830]  Okay, thank you.
[53:22.870 --> 53:23.630]  Yeah, sorry about that.
[53:23.910 --> 53:25.950]  Oh, a lot of unanswered questions.
[53:26.110 --> 53:26.630]  Yay, Mark.
[53:27.270 --> 53:30.030]  I thought I would just mention, not that, that...
[53:30.030 --> 53:30.590]  There's my website.
[53:30.810 --> 53:34.930]  And I do podcasts on all sorts of topics around the world that affect human lives.
[53:35.190 --> 53:38.150]  And thank you very much for attending this talk and see you around.
[53:38.310 --> 53:39.170]  Thank you very much.