One of my favourite things is picking fresh herbs from my windowsill. My erratic cooking skills are much improved by the addition of a fancy sprig of basil popped on the top of a pile of scatty spaghetti. While this might not be urban farming at scale, it certainly makes me feel good. This is one of the reasons I was excited to interview Square Mile Farms. They bring vertical hydroponic farms to the workplace. I spoke with Ben Dean, Chief Operating Officer at Square Mile Farms about the idea behind the company and what they are doing.
Being able to grow more food locally has to be an essential key to help improve food security and sustainability. One of the best ways to help reconnect us with food is to help us get closer to it, by encouraging us all to harvest our own. How do we do that? That is where Urban Farming comes in. It is literally just that, growing produce in a city or built-up environment, whether that’s a roof top, vacant walls, basements, indoors even. You can grow produce on any piece of land which is currently not serving a purpose. Ben shares with us in the podcast how Square Mile Farms are helping more people take part in urban farming even inside our buildings. He tells us how, by providing a simple facility, for instance in existing corporate environments, this can encourage community, fun and even provide mini moments of meditation and zen in a busy office, school, healthcare or any indoor space.
One of the advantages of a hydroponic system is that you can grow them up the wall, and the range of herbs and vegetables you can grow is amazing. From kale to parsley, basil to coriander and sage. Imagine picking the leaves for your own mint tea, of course you might fancy then branching out to farm bees on your office roof for the honey to accompany it! They take about 3 to 4 weeks from seedlings to a proper mature plant, which, when you cut some of the plant off for your salad, they grow back!
This is a lovely Biophilic Design solution, and one which for instance in an end-of-life care facility, seeing life growing around you is positive. Even in offices, where for decades we have had lead grey offices which might seem ridiculous now, but bringing Biophilic design into your office can also entice your staff back in. Square Mile Farms have been rushed off their feet recently, where office designers are looking for something different, and with COP26 echoing in our ears, the discussions of food sustainability, a hydroponic solution is a brilliant way of doing that. If you take a look at the images that accompany this podcast, you’ll see the beauty you can create with the lighting as well.
To find out more about Square Mile Farms please visit them: www.squaremilefarms.com
To scroll through our other podcasts, have a look here on our main podcast page.
Credits: with thanks to George Harvey Audio Production for the calming biophilic soundscape that backs all our podcasts.
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