Whole Foods Market has announced the new 20,000 square foot greenhouse being built on a Gowanus, Brooklyn rooftop will supply produce year-round to nine of its New York City stores. It gives a whole new meaning to the term living roof.
Gotham Greens, which has been a local organic produce supplier for Whole Foods since early 2011, is partnering in the greenhouse venture to provide "local, fresh and sustainably produced food," according to Christina Minardi, Northeast Regional President of Whole Foods.
What is so great about the new state-of-the-art greenhouse arrangement is:
- they use heat curtains and heat blankets in winter to reduce greenhouse space that needs heating and uses energy
- their sophisticated computer control system minimizes resource consumption through efficient climate-control
- they use a glazing material on the glass to help insulate the greenhouse windows
- their recirculating hydroponic technique captures irrigation for reuse, using ten times less water than conventional farming
- the sterile hydroponics environment eliminates pathogen risks like E. coli and salmonella
- they use about twenty times less land than conventional agriculture in per unit area production
- mineral salts containing minerals like nitrogen, magnesium and potassium and micronutrients like selenium are dissolved in water to feed the plants instead of chemical fertilizers
- pest control is done through beneficial insects and natural predators, like ladybugs and lacewings are used to control aphids
- they focus on healthy plants with ideal growing conditions, getting the needed nutrients, the right humidity, temperature, dissolved oxygen to grow the best tasting plants
- the produce is harvested exactly when it is ready instead of being picked early and artificially ripened
- it can't get much fresher than being picked in the morning and in the store for sale twenty minutes later.
- the biggest savings is in fossil fuel use and carbon emissions since the produce is already on site and does not need to be transported.
Gotham Greens, founded in 2008, currently produces and sells eighty tons of fresh vegetables and herbs to New York supermarkets, restaurants and institutions, with the goal of increasing that to one hundred tons. The company's methods of growing hydroponically in solar powered rooftop greenhouses has resulted in food production seven to eight times higher than that of traditional solar farms.
This will be the first commercial supermarket-attached greenhouse. Read an article about Gotham Greens in NYC at Organic Connect.
Comments