There’s another reason to grow food right in the city. Puri says he and his partners chose Brooklyn for lots of reasons: to help create jobs, to green the area, and to avoid a commute to the country. “We didn’t select Brooklyn because it was cool,” he insists. But Brooklyn is cool — if it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be used as a brand by all kinds of companies, from salsa to beer to the ubiquitous hoodies. And until we sail past peak-oil or face a water crisis, for many people, the main appeal of buying veggies grown in the city is that they’re vegetables that were grown in the city. That holds whether that city is Brooklyn, Seattle or Montreal. Which is why the Gotham Greens’ packaging is emblazoned with some version of the phrase “New York City” no less than three times — four if you count the word “Gotham” itself.
Two years ago, Forbes predicted that by the year 2018, 20 percent of the food consumed in U.S. cities will be grown in places like this. It’s safe to say that’s almost certainly not going to happen. Right now, urban-grown produce represents a minuscule slice of the food system. But there are several plausible scenarios that could make such food more commonplace in the city kitchen of the future.
You’ll need to provide chickens with clean water and chicken feed every day. Many gardeners supplement their diets with scraps of green vegetables, such as turnips and collards, cabbage, kale, spinach and Swiss chard.
Naperville resident David Laird’s chickens are about to have a little more leg room in their backyard coop. He’s already cut his number from 20 chickens to 12, but he likely won’t get to stop there.
“We don’t believe chickens should be allowed because of the noise and odor, among other things,” he said. “The pen is a magnet for potential sanitary and health problems. And I don’t know how wily a coyote is but I believe they’re also attracted.”
“The people who are idealizing urban farming have a choice — a choice between grocery stores and greenmarkets, between cars and bicycles,” says Richard Longworth, a senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Last year Longworth wrote a provocative piece for Good magazine titled “Forget Urban Farms. We Need a Walmart,” blasting the idea that such farms can spur an economy like traditional businesses can. “What I object to is the hyping of their reality and potential,” he says. “There are a lot of people in this country who simply hate megafarms, but those folks are feeding the world. Locavore agriculture isn’t going to change that.”
