Urban Home Farming

I. Opportunity Description

The Problem: Why has urban home farming not become a popular method for providing people with access to fresh and local produce?

Around the world, the population is increasing and the rate of urbanization is on the rise. By 2050, the world population is expected to increase to 9 billion and 66% of the world’s population will be living in large metropolitan areas.^[1] Traditional farming will face the risk of supply chain disruption, and produce shortages (fresh fruits and vegetables) will become more prevalent. Currently, many fruits and vegetables travel for days—sometimes weeks—to reach consumers, resulting in poor quality and large amounts of waste. As urbanization intensifies and the population expands, people will have poor or no access to fresh food.

Because of this rapid urbanization, there is an immediate and long-term need for local, cost effective farming solutions. Some efforts have already garnered promising results, such as optimizing space on farm land, growing more and higher quality crops per hectare, and producing more efficient distribution channels. Although these efforts are significant, they are not enough. One emerging response to this problem is urban farming. “Urban farming” is defined as: “the practice of growing, processing, and distributing food and other produce through plant cultivation in and around cities for self-consumption or for feeding the local population.”^[2] Some types of urban farming have already become popular because of urbanization, such as: growing produce in outdoor home gardens, growing herbs and vegetables on balconies and roofs, and building community gardens in urban spaces. Home farming has been around for thousands of years, indicating a human desire for fresh produce.^[3] But although these methods of urban farming are increasing, they are severely limited because of space constraint and short growing seasons.

There is one type of urban farming that may alleviate this issue: urban farming inside the home. “Urban Home Farming” according to our definition, is: “growing produce inside the home via artificial lighting throughout the whole year”. It is contrasted to the more general “urban farming” in that it specifically means growing produce inside the home, rather than relying on personal or community outdoor space in summer months. Returning to the roots of urban farming is not only a solution to alleviate pressure on agriculture, but it also allows the population to become self-sufficient and monitor their food directly. As momentum grows towards healthy eating and consuming organic food, urban home farming is a complementary and sustainable option. Urban home farming has been around for several years,^[4] but it has not taken-off and become a popular solution to accessing fresh produce. The main problem our team looked at is: why has urban home farming not become a popular method for providing people with access to fresh and local produce?