Urban living does not need to hinder your love for gardening plants. Many city dwellers are now making use of their rooftops to grow their own fruits and vegetables. Be inspired to start growing your own produce through taking a look at the largest city rooftop farm in the world located in Chicago.
This urban rooftop farm is considered the world's largest greenhouse, with an area of 75,000-square-foot, meaning the plants get nothing but natural light, protected from the forces of nature such as snow, heavy rains and strong winds.
Gotham Greens, the team behind the city farm, is a company that promotes urban agriculture and produces quality greenhouse grown herbs and vegetables. Their produce is pesticide-free, and they cater to different restaurants all year round. Gotham Greens has built 3 other facilities in New York City. Their aim is to supply more than a million pounds of produce to local stores.
Viraj Puri, co-founder of the company, thinks that urban farms could eventually suffice in supplying vegetables and herbs in other states and cities. He explains, "I think we've been able to prove this model that commercial-scale local agriculture can be done profitably. There's this growing consumer demand for locally grown produce in terms of quality, nutrition, there's all the other macro trends we're seeing in places like California with the drought, and long distance transportation. So it seemed to us if this model is successful in New York City, why can it not also be successful in large metropolitan areas?"
Apart from saving energy, using natural light results to better produce, according to Puri. He explains, "The results are overwhelmingly superior when growing under natural lighting, in terms of crop quality, crop consistency, and yield."
Using a greenhouse for urban farming also addresses some of the environmental concerns in traditional farming. Water is conserved and pesticides are not really a requirement to grow crops and vegetables.
