Sustain

In this episode of "Sustain," we will learn how a former venture capitalist helped build Philadelphia's first vertical farm, Metropolis Farms. Metropolis Farms is currently building the world's first solar-powered vertical farm which will be 100 percent energy-efficient and a step towards reducing its carbon footprint. A rainwater recapturing system is also built in, something many around the world have been looking into, but it  hadn't been done. This farm is expected to be already growing crops by late fall 2016. If everything goes according to plan and the initiative continues to get the support it has been fortunate to receive, Philadelphia is set to become the first vertical farm city in the world.

In this episode of "Sustain," we will learn about the buy-ugly movement through the eyes of Chef Jehangir Mehta, a world-renowned chef who explores ways to reduce his food wastage footprint. Mumbai-born Mehta, the runner-up on Food Network's The Next Iron Chef, attributes his innate ability to finding the best ways to reduce waste to being from a third-world country, like India. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, 40 percent of food grown and produced in the United States never gets eaten. And an alarming 52 percent of fruits and vegetables that are being produced never make it to your fork. Mehta does not place the blame only on retailers, who have to deal with the pressures of having fully stocked displays and the expectations of cosmetic perfection, but he also accuses the consumer of exercising produce prejudice when they see a blemished fruit or vegetable and turn the other way. Generally, it's hard to get produce scraps, however, Mehta has worked with many of the farmers he frequents in the market in other restaurant-unrelated projects and has had the chance to build positive relationships with them. These relationships mutually benefit each party, since farmers reduce food waste by giving away their blemished, twisted, deformed or "ugly" food, that they know consumers will not typically purchase, to a chef who would put the food to good use, and, in turn, Mehta receives the fruits and vegetables for free or at a discounted rate. To learn more, watch the episode!

"There's little things we can do to all take a step in the direction of changing and localizing our food economy. I think only when we start there is there ever going to be change," says Kathryn Ardoin, food distribution coordinator at the GrowHaus, an indoor open farm, education center, and marketplace located in a Denver-based food desert called Elyria-Swansea Globeville. If you recall from our first episode of "Sustain," the GrowHaus is located in the same space as aquaponics farm Flourish Farms, helmed by Colorado Aquaponics. In addition, the GrowHaus has its own on-site hydroponic farm. Part of the GrowHaus' mission is to provide the residents of Elyria-Swansea Globeville with at-cost crops. According to its website, the remainder of the crops are then sold to restaurants and specialty markets. The GrowHaus breaks up customer segments into three main zones. Zone One is the community of Elyria-Swansea Globeville; Zone Two are those living in other nearby food deserts or low-income neighborhoods; and Zone Three is the affluent communities throughout Denver and Colorado. 

"The food system is out of balance," says JD Sawyer, founder of Colorado Aquaponics, which houses an aquaponics farm known as Flourish Farms. "We've got to figure out a way to have higher quality foods using less resources, period, or it's not gonna work. It's really gonna take a grassroots effort. Instead of fighting the model, we're just gonna have to change it." Aquaponics is defined as an eco-friendly system that recirculates water from a fish tank through a vegetable grow bed. Nutrients from the fish waste feed the plants and the plants filter the water to keep the fish healthy.  Raising fish, including one-and-a-half to two-pound striped bass, is a huge part of the equation for Flourish Farms from both a financial and nutritional standpoint. "It's a cheaper source of nutrients or fertilizer, if you will, than typical hydroponic solutions." The GrowHaus, in which Flourish Farms is housed, aims to provide healthy, affordable options to the neighborhood of Elyria-Swansea, a Colorado food desert with no grocery stores within a 2-mile radius. This area is known for being the most polluted zip code in Colorado. Essentially, the GrowHaus is a non-profit urban market, food hub, and education center located in Elyria-Swansea.