The Farmery reinvents the grocery store

  • By Kyle Valentini
  • July 23, 2013
  • 404
                        
Summary: Our food system is broken and this has prompted a young entrepreneur in North Carolina to reinvent the way we shop for produce. The face of farming is changing. Backyard gardeners are taking responsibility for their good health by growing their own food and eating a seasonal diet. Small family farms are doing what it takes to reach consumers through CSA, farm stands and producer-only markets that increase access to fresh food while stimulating the local economy. Industrial agriculture is huge, energy-intensive and so dependent on oil for fertilizer, pesticides, planting and harvesting, processing, packaging, and transportation, it is simply not sustainable. It is difficult to comprehend how this system ever came to be considered in the first place. As the demand for fresh food increases, more and more people are turning to local sources for food. Because local food lacks good business models in many communities, it is not always convenient or even possible to find. Some people are creating ways to grow food in the same place they sell it, eliminating all the costs and resources associated with transportation and distribution. The Farmery is such a concept. The Farmery is a new way to bring fresh produce to urban areas and food deserts that lack access to farm stands, farmers’ markets or even a run of the mill supermarket. The Farmery, developed by Ben Greene as part of his Master’s thesis project in Industrial Design at North Carolina State University in 2009, is an integrated food growing system that also serves as a retail outlet for the food grown there. Constructed of affordable stacked shipping containers and readily available greenhouse components, the Farmery is a self-sustaining mobile unit that can be transported nearly anywhere for the convenience of residents desiring fresh produce at prices that can compete with produce grown in traditional industrialized agricultural operations. The Farmery uses a proprietary growing system to grow edible plants vertically on the sides of the shipping containers. The interior space of the shipping container is used to cultivate gourmet mushrooms. On the roof, flowers, tomatoes and sweet potatoes are grown. The Farmery uses aquaponic techniques to grow fruits, vegetables, greens and herbs. Aquaponic agriculture is the combination of aquaculture, in other words, raising fish, and hydroponics, the growing of plants in water rather than soil. The wastes of the fish are converted into nutrients by beneficial bacteria. These beneficial bacteria become so abundant they outcompete detrimental bacteria so that root diseases are almost non-existent, enabling the system to be an all-natural system that produces healthy food that can be harvested at the peak of freshness by the consumer. Wow, I said when I first read about this unique and rather clever system devised by a new type of farmer. Ben Greene, along with his partner, Tyler Nethers has recognized a problem with our food system and has come up with a solution that is feasible. Traditional agriculture requires heavily industrialized operations that damage the environment, require huge amounts of fossil fuels for transportation, involve inefficient distribution systems and distance people from their food. The Farmery solves these problems and others as well. A 20 x 8 foot prototype of the Farmery is located at the Burt’s Bees headquarters in downtown Durham, North Carolina.


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