Urban Farming Gets New York City Council Attention

Rob Laing, right, CEO and founder of Farm.One, and farmhand Caleb Raff at the Farm.One hydroponic farm at the Institute of Culinary Education in lower Manhattan on Wednesday. Photo: Claudio Papapietro For The Wall Street Journal

Rooftop gardens, greenhouses and ‘vertical farms’ may benefit from more clarity on zoning and insurance

By Thomas MacMillan
Wall Street Journal
July 20, 2017

When Robert Laing was setting up his indoor herb-growing business in Manhattan last year, it took months to find someone willing to insure his tiny hydroponic operation.

“You say, ‘I’m a farm,’ and they put you over to their farming division and they say, ‘How many acres do you have?’ and you say, ‘300 square feet,’” Mr. Laing said.

New York City has the largest urban agriculture system in the country, including community and rooftop gardens and greenhouses, as well as “vertical farms” like Mr. Laing’s company, Farm.One, which cultivates microgreens in windowless rooms aglow with LED lights. But a recent report by the Brooklyn Law School finds new growers are sometimes stymied by confusion and lack of regulations.

A bill to be submitted to the City Council Thursday aims to change that. The measure, introduced by Councilman Rafael Espinal and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, calls for a comprehensive urban agriculture plan with updated zoning and building codes and possibly an office of urban agriculture.

“We’re not talking about our mom and dad growing tomatoes in the backyard,” Mr. Adams said. “We’re talking about the potential of having major farming on rooftops to deal with food deserts.…This is the wave of the future.” (Listen to our Future of Everything podcast on the urban, indoor future of farming. iOS | Android | desktop or laptop)

New York City has 14,000 acres of unused rooftop space that could feed millions of people if it were converted to gardens, said Mr. Adams. But rooftop gardens are allowed only in nonresidential areas, and there are restrictions on where produce can be sold, he said.

Current zoning codes only mention the word “agriculture” a handful of times and are essentially silent on hydroponic operations, according to the Brooklyn Law School report.

Mr. Espinal said a comprehensive food plan could lift restrictions, clarify regulations, and coordinate city efforts to encourage agriculture. It would create jobs, improve access to fresh food and help fight climate change by reducing carbon footprints associated with food transport, he said. “It would be a win, win, win across the board for the entire city.”

Mr. Laing, who supplies rare herbs to Michelin-starred restaurants in the city, said a better legal framework in the city would have helped him get insurance, by providing an official point of reference for confused insurers.

Anise hyssop at the Farm.One hydroponic farm. Photo: Claudio Papapietro for The Wall Street Journal

Clearer regulations would also help growers attract investors, said John Rudikoff, head of the Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship. “Venture capital and investment banking are going to remain on the sidelines because there’s no municipal assurance that these uses they might be investing in are permitted,” he said.

Mr. Rudikoff pointed to nearby Newark, which revamped its zoning code to include specific language on urban agriculture and is now home to AeroFarms, one of the country’s biggest indoor farming operations.

“There’s a barrier to entry here,” said Jason Green, co-founder of EdenWorks, a $3 million aquaponic company in Bushwick, Brooklyn. He said his company has had a difficult time sorting through the various incentive programs available. “It’s often up to the operators to work through a fragmented regulatory and incentive environment and figure out who you are accountable to.”

Clarity around urban farming rules could benefit not only companies, but also nonprofits that use agriculture as a tool for teaching and community organizing. Teens for Food Justice currently has a hydroponic farm in a Brooklyn classroom, and has been working for over two and half years to install a second one in the Bronx. Kathy Soll, head of the organization, said a comprehensive city plan would speed up that process by clearing up confusion she faces from school principals, custodians, and contractors unfamiliar with hydroponics.

Paul Lightfoot, chief executive of greenhouse farm company BrightFarms, said he has looked into setting up shop in cities like New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C. “It is devilishly difficult and expensive and slow,” he said.

Instead, he’s installed greenhouses right outside major cities, where he can get construction approval in weeks instead of months, and still be close enough to deliver to dozens of metro supermarkets.

Mr. Lightfoot said a new comprehensive plan in New York City isn’t likely to attract large-scale growers like BrightFarms, but it’s still a good way to encourage smaller businesses that can supply to restaurants. “Brooklyn is filled with artisanal everything and this is going to be that sort of stuff,” he said.

Critics of urban farming point to higher prices associated with small-scale growing and energy-consuming hydroponic cultivation. Foods grown in these contexts aren’t for everyone, said Henry Gordon-Smith, an urban agriculture consultant and vice-chair of the Association for Vertical Farming. “But it’s going to get cheaper as we get bigger.”

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