Vertical farming and social good

July 25, 2024                                                                                                
Authors: Sebastian Linares, Niko Simos

In a world where food connects us all, Farm Urban is sowing seeds of change in the United Kingdom. This Liverpool-based social enterprise is on a mission to transform towns and cities into greener, healthier and more inclusive places, whilst revolutionising our relationship with food, one vertical farm at a time.  Founded in 2013, by Dr. Paul Myers and Dr. Jens Thomas, Farm Urban sprouted from a deep concern about the impact of our current food system on human health and its vulnerability to global challenges. The founders, both with backgrounds in bioscience, witnessed firsthand the negative effects of poor nutrition on human health and the fragility of our food supply chains when facing the current environmental, geopolitical and logistical hurdles.

Farm Urban’s journey from concept to reality came after delivering several projects across the North West of the UK, which led the organisation, in 2019, to secure funds and establish Liverpool’s first vertical farm. This achievement has enabled Farm Urban to expand its reach and provide fresh, nutritious produce to diverse members of the local community.  

Farm Urban approaches its mission on multiple levels, and aims to be present in the home, classroom, workplace, and the leisure space through their range of activities and programmes.

Health approach:

Farm Urban believes living a healthy and sustainable lives should be available to all and not just reserved for the most privileged., This is why Farm Urban has partnered with foodbanks and charities tackling the food crisis around the city of Liverpool and beyond to donate their ‘Greens for Good’ boxes, with crops like lettuce, rocket and kale. This approach has even  seen communities of ethnic minorities engaging with Farm Urban to grow ‘culturally appropriate crops which the team at Farm Urban then research, cultivate and optimise using various vertical farming methods 

In the classroom: 

One of the main activities at Farm Urban is to inspire the next generation of leaders and entrepreneurs to tackle the challenges the food system faces. This is achieved through a range of outreach and education programmes delivered by their Routes & Shoots team. The organisation’s three education programmes are:

• Future Food Heroes for primary schools.
• Future Food Challenge for secondary schools.
• Community Edible Wall programme, for the rest of the community.

Through these programmes, pupils and individuals learn in an experiential way, about the food system, nutrition and sustainability.

Innovation approach: 

Farm Urban sees vertical farming and CEA as a potential solution to some of the challenges countries like the UK face when it comes to food.However, the industry still needs to mature, with unit economics, labour demands and carbon footprint constraining the feasibility of the sector. This is why Farm Urban is involved in several projects to solve some of these challenges. An example of this was a project looking into the possibility of using hydrogen energy to power a vertical farm, measuring the carbon footprint and assessing the potential of this energy source.

Partnerships:

Farm Urban continues to develop these approaches, and in 2023, the Liverpool-based organisation was awarded a research grant from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, to develop innovative lighting regimes for nutritionally-optimised hyper-local living greens, which would be distributed in a local children’s hospital. As part of this exciting project, Farm Urban is working closely with different organisations including professor Katherine Denby at the University of York to develop light recipes that minimise the energy input whilst optimising the nutritional content. This pilot project will start in Liverpool's Alder Hey Children’s hospital, where Farm Urban will provide ‘Greens for Good’ boxes on a weekly basis to children and their families; monitoring health and behaviour whilst working with nutrition experts to use the distribution of produce as a vehicle to deliver diet-related educational engagement.

Looking forward

Part of Farm Urban’s unique offering is corporate partnerships with businesses looking to increase positive environmental and social impact. Several of these partnerships come from 1% for the Planet, the global pledge where businesses donate 1% of their revenue to environmental organisations. To this date, Farm Urban has partnered with several 1% for the Planet partners, including a multi-year impact approach with Manchester-based The Mailing Room, a business that is currently funding the donation of 100 boxes of greens a week to a local food pantry and education programmes in schools. Whilst Farm Urban delivers this impact in communities in the North West of the UK, the team continues to work on the Urban Oasis, a concept that brings together the past 10 years of work and impact into one place, transforming forgotten places and assets, into thriving, green, and sustainable infrastructures.