permaculture

[venaurafarm <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

On 12/1/2012 6:02 PM, Alia Tsang wrote:
> Vertical farms might not be -the- solution to urban food problems, but

That's the argument against it, i.e. the naysayers.

> anything that brings more agriculture/horticulture to areas where people
> aren't exposed to it and increases food diversity in those areas can't be a
> bad thing. The more chances people have to come across food growing, the

Exactly. With all the huge investment in architecture and infrastructure 
and all the solar gain possible, it seems a waste not to grow food and 
clean air with indoor cropping. Old buildings could be retrofit, new 
ones designed for energy efficiency and maximum solar gain. I have seen 
some pretty amazing videos on PBS about this. Just think, business owner 
tenants could tell employees "when you show up for work in the AM count 
on use feeding you breakfast, lunch and dinner from products grown in 
out onsite urban vertical farm. Integrated food production plus housing, 
play, office and production space. The wave of the future for highly 
developed urban areas with systems scaled to complexity and size of the 
architecture. Bring quality food at an affordable price to the city. 
Employees eat well, spend more time on the job, concentrate their work 
activity, less downtime from health problems. Hire farmers with 
experience in indoor food production. All the previous expert discussion 
about aquaponics and hydroponics would apply here. If farm staff were 
also able to serve as nutritionists then several needs would be met. 
Instead of junk food they would be eating gourmet locally grown. 
Improved diet could be encouraged and adopted as employee diners would 
be motivated to eat more raw vegetables and fruit (ex. all kinds of 
citrus can be grown indoors). Maybe even recycle on site sewage, 
toilets, baths, sinks, kitchen; use biodegradable detergent and soap 
made from natural ingredients. Think of the improvement in air quality 
and the effect on employee health. It would be interesting to see coffee 
grown in high rises; coffee is really good for you. 
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/11/the-case-for-drinking-as-much-coffee-as-you-like/265693/
The Case for Drinking as Much Coffee as You Like

> more likely they'll get interested in the process and looking at
> alternatives like permaculture. And hey, maybe someone will come up with a
> really innovative way to use it as a recycling system. If we're already
> spraying "biosolids" on crops, why not just keep all that shit in the city?

Of course but make sure noone is dumping nail polish or chlorox or other 
contaminants in the natural waste stream. I am sure this could be done. 
The health and morale improvements provided would increase workplace 
production with less downtime and possibly with exponentially
increasing, linear benefits over time.