The World We Dare to Imagine Pt. 3

VERT LA — Fixing Food Deserts by Transforming Buildings into Farms

VERT LA is an agri-tech organization with a mission to bring vertical farming to the communities that need it most—starting right here in Los Angeles. Our name reflects our origins, use of vertical farming technology, and green, a color of health, freshness, and nature.

After living in a small, affluent, white town in rural-suburban New Jersey for 18 straight years, spending the last three years of my life living in the heart of South Central LA really opened my eyes to issues affecting large and lower income urban communities. One of my most cherished memories of living in a semi-rural area was the copious amounts of local farms, orchards, and farm-fresh produce. After taking a class my freshman year which discussed some of the power and socio-economic issues that rise out of urban living and can be seen right off of USC campus, I learned about the huge societal issue food deserts represent.

The National Center for Biotechnology Information defines food deserts as “neighborhoods and communities that have limited access to affordable and nutritious foods,” many of which are low-income urban areas (National Research Council). Across the United States, over 23 million people live in food deserts, including the local residents of South Central LA (Do Something). 

Urban areas are especially prone to being food deserts due to both the lack of nearby farms, as well as a lack of grocery stores in the area. Working to plant more grocery stores in areas in need is one way to attack this problem, but it brings other things into question—how will you ensure the produce is actually good quality, especially if it has to be transported from far away? And considering the long transport distance, how will you ensure that the produce stays affordable for those in need?

This is where VERT LA comes in. VERT LA aims to take advantage of what many of these communities already have--abandoned spaces and buildings—in order to erect community vertical farms and directly attack a key contributing factor to the existence of food deserts. By partnering with city governments and parks & recreation services, as well as hosting major fundraising efforts and relying on community support and volunteer work, VERT LA will transform local abandoned spaces into basic vertical farming setups. The organization will help start the vertical farm off, and also train local and willing community members in how to care for the crops in exchange for a free-flowing supply of fresh produce from the farm. This way, the farms will sustain in the communities they are brought to, while also bringing together the communities themselves in the way a community garden does.

Overall, the majority of food produced from the vertical farm will be sold locally for extremely low prices. A portion of the harvest can be sold to larger grocers at a premium due to the high quality and organic nature of the produce, for which profits will feed back into sustaining the farm, as well as VERT LA for funding to erect farms in other areas. Any “imperfect” produce or surplus that is at risk of going bad can be donated to local community fridges, soup kitchens, and homeless shelters.

There are huge investment opportunities for Anima Mundi Development Partners in VERT LA. Even just looking at the world of vertical farming promises large growth opportunities for a sustainable future as the world population grows. The USDA has already made significant funding contributions to vertical farming research and products, as they have found that vertical agriculture could help increase food production and expand agricultural operations as the world’s population is projected to exceed 9 billion by 2050 (Federman). They have found that vertical farms reduce distribution chains to offer lower emissions, provide higher-nutrient produce, and drastically reduce water usage and runoff, overall providing a much more efficient and sustainable method of food production than most traditional farms. Thus, considering that farms are an unquestionable part of sustaining human existence on this planet, AMDP can rest assured that their investment will not disappear into thin air—AMDP can be confident that their investment will make a significant impact in making strides towards the future of humanity.


Works Cited

Do Something. “11 Facts About Food Deserts.” DoSomething.org, www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-food-deserts#fn2. 

Federman, Sarah, and Paul M Zankowski. “Vertical Farming for the Future.” USDA, 14 Aug. 2018, www.usda.gov/media/blog/2018/08/14/vertical-farming-future. 

National Research Council (US). The Public Health Effects of Food Deserts: Workshop Summary. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2009. Summary. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK208018/


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Expert Article FINAL

Turn Your Vices into Virtues like Water into Wine A simple guide to turn your bad drinking habits into a skill to impress. If you’re reading this, chances are you either went to college or are currently a college student. Let’s be honest—I’m sure those memories of shotgunning Natty Lights, sipping on White Claws, and ladling mysterious tropical-flavored battery acid from a plastic storage bin into a sticky red Solo cup aren’t too far gone. During these glory days, drinking was something you did to lose your inhibitions, get wild with your friends, and add a little extra chaos to your night. Perhaps you’re like me, though. Perhaps, after a long and lonely quarantine, barred from going to social gatherings, fraternity houses, or bars, you’ve become interested in the beauty in the alcoholic drink. You’re older now. You don’t want to wake up with regrets and a hangover anymore—you want to sip with sophistication and learn how to be a true adult. Why not turn what was previously a childish ...
Read more

Book 2 Post 1

For my book 2, I chose to read Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary by Timothy Snyder. Overall, the book is a reflective diary from the author, who suddenly fell gravely ill and had to wait for hours in an emergency room before even getting the chance to be correctly diagnosed and sent into surgery. During his experiences barely holding onto his life, he realized and reflected upon the value of health in America, as well as its sheer fragility and how his near-death hospital experience taught him what important lessons we need to know to survive in this world well. In light of the pandemic, I really wanted to read this, as I feel like my belief in the American healthcare system severely dwindled over the past year and along with it, my philosophies on my own health, wellness, and mortality in this world (not to get dark, haha). After reading the first few chapters, my reflection on COVID-19 and the American healthcare only increased. Unlike some of my friends, I think I...
Read more

Random Post 2

 End of Pandemic Hope (or at least, hopefully the end) Last night, after a call with my boss at my internship, I looked at our schedule of articles we are releasing for the next few weeks and realized that article assignments were moving onto a different Google sheet for Q2. " Damn ," I thought, " it's really April already... jeez. That means that classes end this month, which also means that this school year more-or-less ends this month, and that my junior year is coming to a close. Alongside this realization, I also got my second COVID-19 vaccine dose last week. The side effects absolutely wrecked me and had me achey and bedridden with a 101 degree fever for a day and a half, but through it all I was smiling inside because I was finally fully vaccinated. For the entire pandemic, I always imagined I'd get vaccinated over the summer because I had zero trust in our government's ability to distribute the vaccine efficiently, and although our vaccination system...
Read more