If you've ever tried to garden, you know how hard it is to find the space. If you tried to find the same space in an over crowded city, you just couldn't do it. Or could you?
"Now imagine stepping away from that chaotic scene, ducking into an elevator and riding up a few dozen floors where you emerge to find a green oasis of vegetables and flowers — a rooftop farm." Mary Hui States in her article "Up on the Roof, a Real-Life Farmville".(Published in the New York Times on October 3rd, 2012). Where she described how Cityfarm, a group of residents, in Hong Kong are farming on the roofs of their apartment complexes. She also briefly discusses how other cities such as New York and Tokyo are starting to do this as well. The operation was started due to fear of tainted imports, but has grown significantly due to a love for the environment. Osbert Lam says that for the small expense of planting pots, shovels, and soil she started Cityfarm and has really enjoyed the experience since then.
Personally, I think this idea is great and should be as widespread as possible. It not only makes life easier for those involved, but can help lower carbon dioxide levels and the amount of food farmers need to produce for society. There isn't really any tension or controversy in the article, the author is more telling facts and saying that this is a great idea. This can be connected to Honors Biology class through the Lorax. Had the Once-ler and his relatives tried farming their roof-tops, they wouldn't have put so much strain on the environment and maybe could've not gone down the destructive path they wound-up following. This also connects to an article I read in August from BBC travel on another organization in Hong Kong that is doing a similar project.
A Video of the Cityfarm rooftop garden:
Personally, I think this idea is great and should be as widespread as possible. It not only makes life easier for those involved, but can help lower carbon dioxide levels and the amount of food farmers need to produce for society. There isn't really any tension or controversy in the article, the author is more telling facts and saying that this is a great idea. This can be connected to Honors Biology class through the Lorax. Had the Once-ler and his relatives tried farming their roof-tops, they wouldn't have put so much strain on the environment and maybe could've not gone down the destructive path they wound-up following. This also connects to an article I read in August from BBC travel on another organization in Hong Kong that is doing a similar project.
A Video of the Cityfarm rooftop garden:
Original article: http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/03/up-on-the-roof-a-real-life-farmville/
Cityfarm website: http://www.cityfarm.hk/
Another article, more specifically geared towards Cityfarm:
Hi James! I love the idea of rooftop gardens in cities, and I agree with your opinion that this notion should be more widespread. Imagine all the people living in cities like Boston and New York, as you mentioned in your article summary, that could benefit from these gardens. It's a great way to be eco-friendly and decrease carbon dioxide levels. I also agree with your statement that farmers will have to produce less for society if the consumers step up and grow their own food. However, if the idea of rooftop gardens becomes as widespread as you suggest it will, the farmers might not be so happy about it. They rely on their customers to buy their products, and without their customers, the farmers will go out of business. Overall I thought it was a great summary of the article, and the video was a great visual to include at the end. Good job! - Megan
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ReplyDeleteVery interesting article. I fully agree with your point that it should be more widespread. Rooftop gardening would not only use underutilized space, but it would save fuel, because trucks and planes would not have to ship the food halfway across the country (or the planet) to get it to big cities. There is a lot of potential in this idea.
ReplyDeleteRooftop gardening is really good. A lot of people do it already, on a more individual scale. Some people also keep beehives up on their roofs, which would definitely aid with larger-scale rooftop farming. Maybe this could be used to reduce deforestation rates in areas with rainforests, since farmers wouldn't have to cut down huge swathes of trees for land, but instead could just occupy a few buildings. Also, i bet it could reduce air pollution over cities! Then again, there are a lot of economic problems with that, so it's not likely to happen, but it would be pretty rad.
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