John Edel has a plan for the future of food production. Farmers raise tilapia and grow lettuce in the basement with grow lights and aquaponics. Beer is brewed on the first floor. Two bakeries and a tea drink company occupy other floors. Separately, they each produce food and, with it, plenty of food waste. The building as a whole, however, produces just as much energy as it uses and there is little waste.
Edel believes that his vision is on track to become reality within the next 4 or 5 years. He is the owner of The Plant, a meatpacking plant-turned-urban farm in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood.
The Plant’s goal is a closed-loop system that reuses its wastes and produces the electricity it consumes.
“The only thing going out is food,” said Abby Lundrigan, a volunteer tour guide at The Plant.
Yet, The Plant is hardly the first attempt at growing food in Chicago, which is home to more that 50 urban farms backed by a network of non-profits, for-profits, blogs and email lists, according to Advocates for Urban Agriculture in Chicago, a hub for urban agriculture professionals and enthusiasts.
Like The Plant, many urban farms and community gardens are located on vacant lots or inside unused buildings—places the City of Chicago wants to revitalize.
The city is always looking to find uses for vacant land and urban agriculture businesses or community gardens have good development benefits, according to Bradley Roback, Chicago’s Coordinator of Economic Development in the city’s Department of Housing and Economic Development, or HED.
By creating jobs and tax revenues and improving a neighborhood’s aesthetics, development “can help a community rebound,” said Roback.
Although The Plant bought its space directly from an outgoing ham and bacon producer, it still benefitted from Chicago’s development programs.
Public records show that between 2008 and 2012, Bubbly Dynamics, owner of The Plant, received almost $250,000 in grants from the Small Business Improvement Fund, which are issued by HED.
The building also serves as office space for both non- and for-profit sustainable businesses.
In March, an urban agriculture non-profit called Growing Power announced a new initiative called “Farmers for Chicago” that will turn 5 acres of vacant city lots into urban farms. City Hall helped Growing Power identify available land for the project through its planning and development arms.
Chicago’s south and west sides are notorious for their lack of access to healthful foods, a phenomenon called a food desert. The city hopes that new urban agriculture projects might alleviate this problem.
“If people see fruits and vegetables growing in their neighborhood and sold at low prices, it could have public health benefits, said Roback.
Milwaukee-based Growing Power was the pioneer in aquaponics, a way of growing food and raising fish together in a closed system that saves water and provides a natural source of nitrogen to plants.
In 2011, the City Council passed a zoning ordinance that allowed for larger community gardens and relaxed regulations to allow commercial aquaponics and hydroponics systems in business districts.
Tru Blooms is a unique urban agriculture initiative in Chicago. Instead of harvesting food, the program harvests flowers to produce a locally-sourced fragrance.
Tru Fragrance launched public-private partnerships with the City of Chicago and other Chicago area cities and towns to beautify public spaces in exchange for the flowers’ use as a scent.
“We wanted to give back to our community. The urban agriculture programs definitely were critical in getting Tru Blooms launched as a locally grown fragrance,” said Debbie Roever, Director of Strategy and Marketing for Willowbrook, Ill.-based Tru Fragrance.