The Farm On The Roof

The founders of Brooklyn Grange, the world’s largest green rooftop farm, share their inspirational story of changing the world through entrepreneurship. In their effort to build the world’s first and largest commercial green rooftop farm, the founders of Brooklyn Grange learned a lot about building and sustaining a business while never losing sight of their mission—to serve their community by providing delicious organic food and changing the way people think about what they eat. But their story is about more than just farming. It serves as an inspirational and instructional guide for anyone looking to start a business that is successful while making a positive impact. In The Farm on the Roof, the team behind Brooklyn Grange tell the complete story of how their “farmily” made their dream a reality. Along the way, they share valuable lessons about finding the right partners, seeking funding, expanding, and identifying potential sources of revenue without compromising your core values—lessons any socially conscious entrepreneur can apply toward his or her own venture. Filled with colorful anecdotes about the ups and downs of farming in the middle of New York City, this story is not just about rooftop farming; it’s about utilizing whatever resources you have to turn your backyard idea into a sky-high success.

If you'd like to grow your own food but don't think you have the space, look up! In urban and suburban areas across the country, farms and gardens are growing atop the rooftops of residential and commercial buildings. In this accessible guide, author Annie Novak's passion shines as she draws on her experience as a pioneering sky-high farmer to teach best practices for raising vegetables, herbs, flowers, and trees. The book also includes interviews, expert essays, and farm and garden profiles from across the country, so you'll find advice that works no matter where you live. Featuring the brass tacks on green roofs, container gardening, hydroponics, greenhouse growing, crop planning, pest management, harvesting tips, and more, The Rooftop Growing Guide will have you reimagining the possibilities of your own skyline.

This book guides architects, landscape designers, urban planners, agronomists and society on the implementation of sustainable rooftop farming projects. The interdisciplinary team of authors involved stresses the different approaches and the multi-faceted forms that rooftop farming may assume in any context. While rooftop farming experiences are sprouting all over the world the need for scientific evidence on the most suitable growing solutions, policies and potential benefits emerges. This volume brings together existing experiences as well as suggestions for planning future sustainable cities.

Offers tips and techniques for urban gardening and includes an overview of the how and why of the movement.

From roof to table – urban food has reached new heights. Soaring prices and concerns about chemical-laden fruits and vegetables increasingly drive us to grow our own healthy food close to home. In cities, however, vanishing ground space and contaminated soils spur farmers, activists, and restaurateurs to look to the skyline for a solution. The hunger for local food has reached new heights, and rooftops can provide the space that cities need to bring fresh, organic produce to tables across North America. The first full-length book to focus entirely on rooftop agriculture, Eat Up views this growing movement through a practitioner's lens, explaining: Structural, access, and infrastructural considerations Zoning and building codes Proven growing techniques Business and marketing strategies This graphically rich guide provides inspiration and advice to aspiring growers through photographs of successful rooftop farms and gardens and interviews with industry professionals. Easy-to-use checklists and a decision tree are included to help gauge the viability of each unique rooftop opportunity. Essential reading for home gardeners, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs, policy makers, academics, and designers, Eat Up takes urban agriculture to a whole new level, proving that rooftop farming is not just pie in the sky—it is the future of urban food. Lauren Mandel holds a master's degree in landscape architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor of arts degree in environmental science. She is a project manager and rooftop agriculture specialist at Roofmeadow, where she designs green roofs and oversees green roof and rooftop agriculture projects around the country.

Every day Shon goes out to plough the fields, while his wife Sian works at home in the farmyard. Shon feels he does all the work, so his wife suggests they swap work for the day. Shon looks forward to an easy time of it, with very little to do, but he is in for a surprise... This well-known European folk tale carries a message for us all: count your blessings, and stick to what you do best!

Carrot City is a collection of ideas, both conceptual and realized, that use design to enable sustainable food production, helping to reintroduce urban agriculture to our cities. Focusing on the need and desire to grow food within the city to supply food from local sources, the contributions of architecture, landscape design, and urban design are explored. Forty projects demonstrate how the production of food can lead to visually striking and artistically interesting solutions that create community and provide inhabitants with immediate access to fresh, healthful ingredients. The authors show how city planning and architecture that considers food production as a fundamental requirement of design result in more community gardens, greenhouses tucked under raised highways, edible landscapes in front yards in place of resource-devouring lawns, living walls that bring greenery into dense city blocks, and productive green roofs on schools and large apartment blocks that can be tended and harvested by students and residents alike.