The Farming Market
Our cities, suburbs and exurbs are filled with abandoned structures. Many of these now empty lots were once forest or farmland. The Farming Market model proposes adapting the large sized buildings, of warehouse type construction, into urban greenhouses. The goal will be to provide new agrarian jobs inside and near cities to increase local food supply, create jobs, foster new community, and generally promote sustainable ideals.
The Farming Market is a system to be implemented on a variety of scales that takes over existing buildings (this is especially good if they are already abandoned and we are giving them new use).
A “big-box” type warehouse/retail storefront is the perfect candidate. The building itself is large inside, typically higher than one story with wasted overhead room. It also has a flat roof and ample parking around the center. These will all be important.
The goal of the farming market is to turn buildings like this into urban greenhouses that grow vegetables and herbs hydro or aeroponically. Suddenly a large portion of our vegetable needs can be taken care of on a more local scale.
The roof and parking lots provide massive acreage that is currently going unused. The farming market proposes building elevated greenhouses over all parking lots adjoining the property being developed in this manner. The buildings themselves are also inspected and re-engineered to support the load of greenhouses on top of their roofs.
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