Here’s some real food for thought Urban farming has multiple benefits and improves the real estate value of its neighbourhood

Here’s some real food for thought

Urban farming has multiple benefits and improves the real estate value of its neighbourhood

Sometimes, it helps to remind ourselves of certain obvious facts of Life. One of them being that in addition to shelter, food is one of the most important commodities for survival. So, it makes all the more sense to ensure that good food is in abundance. And towards that end, it will only help matters if we avoid facing the looming food scarcity which is so ominously projected by the year 2020, because it's just eight years away. Coping with this will mean producing not only more crops, but also finding more space to cultivate those crops. Already there is land loss thanks to natural circumstances like drought, salinity and submergence. Rapid urbanisation is only leading to more and more farmlands giving way to construction. Also, food is grown in places at considerable distances from where it is eventually consumed. This entails transporting food from one place to another. According to reports, about 1.3 billion tonnes, which is around one-third of all food grown globally is either damaged in transit or wasted by the eventual consumer. This is a situation, which needs to be rated high priority. It will need a large scale mechanism to produce effective results. What is heartening is at the basic level it involves single individuals, including you and me. For starters, we could adopt correct cooking and eating habits and immediately contribute towards reducing food wastage. One striking example towards this end being a lot of conscious Individuals, despite their affluence, are narrowing down their menu at social events like marriages and other functions. On a more proactive level, we could actively take up practices like local food farming or urban farming. This means that we will not only be contributing towards increasing overall food yield, but simultaneously also eliminating the need for transportation of food to some degree. This will further help in reducing food wastage. Let's take a look at what food farming entails. Besides the sun, food cultivation requires two basic things, water and space for growing crops. Water, especially in cities like Mumbai, is always in short supply considering its huge demand. Thus, rain water needs to be harvested as much as possible. Civilizations, as history suggests, have flourished wherever and whenever rain water harvesting has been employed successfully. In the present scenario, rain water harvesting can help in not only increasing the supply of water needed for urban farms, but also play a major role in augmenting the other water requirements like car washing, premises cleaning, etc. Moreover, it will also play a major role in averting future water shortages. While it is mandatory to install rain water harvesting systems in new structures; older existing structures should also employ them, wherever possible. Also, this measure will not only raise the existing ground water table, but can help alleviate flooding in cities to some extent by allowing lesser runoff on the streets during heavy rains. Space for cultivation has to be literally sorted out. A lot of communities around the world, including places like New York, are taking up rooftop and community farming in a big way. Rooftops over warehouses, factory buildings, schools, colleges and even offices and apartments are being converted into urban farms. Also, public spaces like sheds above parking lots, unused areas in parks and gardens or city spaces, which were hitherto wasted or prone to being encroached upon or misused for criminal activities, are in this way reclaimed and put to a beneficial use. Urban farming has multiple benefits. Food is grown locally and more organically. It helps build the oh-so-rare 'Green' covers of the cities. Also as food is grown locally and there being a minimal food loss in transit, a greater food yield per crop cultivation is achieved. Again as transportation is virtually eliminated, urban farming not only contributes to lower carbon dioxide emissions by burning lesser fossil fuels, but also leads to reduced food prices. Since it is virtually grown organically, it proves healthier by abandoning the use of all those hazardous pesticides, which are so damaging for human consumption. Overall, urban farming has a very positive environment impact and at a community level, an increased Social Interaction amongst individuals has also been observed. At a structural scale, the 'Green' cover on the roofs acts as a thermal barrier and hence plays its part in increasing energy efficiency of buildings. Additionally, the increased 'Green' cover not only proves to be healthy and aesthetically more pleasing, but also has in a lot of cases improved the real estate value of its neighbourhood. After all, it makes more sense moving into a healthy, greener and more importantly a friendlier neighbourhood where you can eat what you grow. Mistry is a Mumbai-based architect