Just imagine a city where most of its food grows on rooftops, where vegetables ripe all round the year, in all seasons. That is the basic goal of Lufa Farms. Lufa Farms operates four rooftop greenhouses in Montreal, Canada. Every week it delivers more than 25,000 fresh-picked vegetable baskets to its customers. Mohamed Hage and Lauren Rathmell founded Lufa Farms in 2009. The idea behind it was to grow crops where people live, without engaging any new land. It also prevents the carbon footprint of long distance transportation. In Canada, import produce travels more than 1500 kilometers which generates a high carbon footprint.
Lufa’s greenhouses operate sustainably using Hydroponic technology, recycling about 90% of the water used by the plants. Each farm requires half the energy of greenhouses on the ground because it uses residual heat from the buildings below.Operations are kept nimble by the company’s programmers with greenhouse automation. Customers can custom their own baskets. They can choose from more than 50 varieties of vegetables and fruits. There are other options available as well like bread and cheese from local producers.
Similar urban farming projects can be seen around the world with commercial greenhouses in places like Paris, London and New York. According to Analysts, city grown crops could make up 10% of the global food supply. Lufa Farms is helping reduce carbon footprint and providing hand picked fresh vegetables and fruits. It is not using any new piece of land for farming and that saves use of land. People should take inspiration from Lufa Farms and take a step towards urban gardening. It can reduce the costs of import of vegetables and fruits generate employment and increase global food supply.