An indoor farming technology provider from Bristol, LettUs Grow, has collaborated with the University of York and shipping container park Spark:York to develop ‘Grow It York’, a community farm with a focus on vertical farming.
Produce Grower magazine reports that Spark:York is a community of small independent businesses including street food, bars, retail, co-working and entertainment venues, that have made use of shipping containers.
The farm forms part of the FixOurFood programme, which aims to transform Yorkshire food networks and develop regenerative systems that will create a fairer and more sustainable future for food production.
FixOurFood is a food systems research collaboration being led by the University of York and has been funded for the next five years through the Transforming UK Food Systems Strategic Priorities Fund.
Grow It York was developed to investigate how vertical farming can create a positive change within our food systems. It is an indoor urban farming community in a shipping container that supplies local produce to the local area.
Grow It York aims to prove that healthy food is far more than simply nutrition, and a mission statement says: “Our food must come from a healthy planet supporting biodiversity and vigorous ecosystems. It should enrich the communities where it is grown and eaten, and help local economies to thrive.”
The vertical farming technology has been provided LettUs Grow, as well as the talents of their vertical farming specialist Billy Rodgers who is providing on-site training.
Rodgers said: “The collaboration between work in technology development, project feasibility research and real-world use of vertically farmed produce is important because food sustainability can’t be addressed by any one thing — you need to look at the whole food supply chain.”
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