Urban farms are sprouting up like weeds in the major metro areas of the country. I wrote about Gotham Greens last year. Will Allen’s Growing Power in Milwaukee is a model for all urban farmers. Greensgrow in Philadelphia is legendary. These are just a few urban farms around the U.S.
Mike Yohay hopes to find a modern way to feed people on a large scale without spoiling the land, air and water.
Cityscape Farms founder and CEO, Mike Yohay says, “Growing up in Brooklyn, NY, I didn’t have a clue where my food came from. Like most city dwellers I felt disconnected from the environment and my impact on it. Years later I had two pivotal experiences that shaped my viewpoint on agriculture. The first was attending college in Iowa, where I witnessed topsoil depletion and environmental pollution from large-scale corn, soy, and livestock agribusiness. The second was living in La Amistad rainforest in Costa Rica, where for a year I managed an eco-lodge and participated in low impact organic farming that supported our local community. Looking critically at these two extremes, I became determined to find a happy medium: a modern way to feed people on a large scale without spoiling the land, air and water.”
“My solution is Cityscape Farms. By growing fresh food within just a few miles of where it will be eaten, we will have healthier, better tasting produce and make our cities cleaner and more self-sufficient,” Yohay says.
Yohay sees the farms located in underutilized parts of the urban landscape, specifically rooftops and vacant lots. He is currently reviewing potential sites for the Bay Area’s first Cityscape Farms location, looking primarily for locations in San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland and Alameda hoping to create green jobs in low income, underdeveloped neighborhoods of the Bay area.
Yohay is a pioneer urban farmer. In just a few years every major metropolitan area will have urban farms. When the cost of fuel to transport fresh produce rises above $5 a gallon, consumers won’t tolerate the high prices fresh vegetables will command to transport them the average 1,500 miles they travel today. Visionaries like Yohay are preparing for that soon to come reality.
For more information on Cityscape Farms click HERE.
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