Germany: Gardening in the City – Anyone Can Be a Farmer

Guenter Vornholz is convinced that urban agriculture can breathe new life into Germany’s empty industrial buildings

By Nancy Stevens
Broadway
April 25, 2022

Excerpt:

The future of agriculture lies in the center of the Ruhr region, on the roof of the work center in Oberhausen. On the fifth floor, in a modern greenhouse, berries, herbs and lettuce grow. The harvest is impressive: 100,000 heads of lettuce, 200,000 bowls of herbs and 500 kilograms of strawberries grow each year on an area of ??940 square metres. “It’s being sold on Open Roof Garden Days, to local restaurants and to a catering company,” says Eletta Wigan, a spokeswoman for the project co-founded by the city.

The operator of the rooftop garden is Brandenburg’s Exner Grüne Innovation. “It will be a challenge in the future to provide people with food in cities because cultivated areas are limited,” says company president Wolfgang Grüne.

The Greens are convinced that at least part of the agricultural production should be moved to the city – also to enhance climate protection: “City farming conserves resources because transportation routes are much shorter and carbon dioxide consumption is lower.”

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