Vertical Tower Farming
Vertical Farming: A Solution To Food Deserts
Vertical farming towers can be implemented almost anywhere!
Vertical Farms Combat Inner-City Food Deserts
Green Side Up, LLC has conducted various feasibility studies on converting local urban space for vertical farming.
Furthermore, vertical farming is so efficient, that towers can be implemented almost anywhere. This is especially true for urban areas which have small enclosed spaces in homes and the greater urbanscape.
What’s A Food Desert?
Food deserts are geographical areas where access to affordable, healthy food is very scarce due to grocery stores, farmer’s markets, or community gardens being further than a 1-mile radius or nonexistent.
They are usually associated with low-income communities. These communities have low access to nutritious foods and rely on fast food or convenience stores for their access to foods.
In Nevada, 154,623 citizens qualify as living in a food desert. The USDA has identified 40 of 687 census tracts as food deserts.
Vertical Farming: The Solution To Food Deserts
Vertical Farming is a way of growing plants using towers or shelves. This technology pulls produce production from the farms to our cities and homes. Vertical farms don’t need soil to grow plants; they can be grown using hydroponics or aeroponics.
Hydroponic & Aeroponic Farming
Hydroponic farming is way of growing plants in water. Aeroponics is a way of growing plants by spraying the root with a mist that includes water and nutrients. Vertical farming doesn’t require pesticides or other chemicals. We use LED light as a sunlight analog for the plants. By doing it this way, we can produce vegetables year-round without interruption.
The Solution to Food Deserts
As Vertical farms can be scaled, they can be established in food desert areas to provide fresh and healthy food locally, at minimal cost to consumers. Growing produce locally reduces nutrient loss during transport and reduces contamination risk.
Vertical farming, if done correctly, can be a healthy and sustainable solution to those that live in food desert areas. Vertical farming tackles inefficiency in production by growing healthy food near to where it’s sold. Reducing “Food Miles”, along with the greenhouse gas emissions related to long distance distribution.
Should You Start A Vertical Farm?
There are more than 656,000 or even more struggling with food insecurity every day. To put it in perspective,that’s enough people to fill the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas more than 15 times.
Although related,poverty and food insecurity aren’t the same. Poverty is only one of the many factors associated with food insecurity. About 31% of food insecure households are above 185% of the federal poverty level, which makes them not eligible for federal nutrition assistance.”
The lack of equality in the ability of individuals to have access to fresh produce has become an epidemic.
The inability of affected communities to maintain their own source of fresh produce is the problem. It is not the responsibility of THAT store to feed a particular demographic of people. Those stores operate as a business, and
put themselves in those locations that generate the business they seek.
Green Side Up, LLC can change that with Vertical Farming!
Solutions to Problems
There are many options when it comes to customer choice in the targeted area. Many chose organic as a staple of safety and freshness, but this is changing and where the food comes from is becoming more important.
What makes us the better option for fresh locally grown produce is that our customers have a relationship with their farmers because we come from where they come from; the same neighborhood. In addition, many of our competitors have not been able to take advantage of SNAP benefits on a urban level by reaching directly to the consumer.