Hong Kong’s urban farms sprout gardens in the sky
More than 60 urban farms have sprouted across space-starved Hong Kong since 2015 — on decommissioned helipads, shopping mall rooftops and public terraces — thanks to initiatives like Rooftop Republic Anthony WALLACE AFP
AFP
July 9, 2021
Excerpt:
Cofounder Andrew Tsui sees the rooftop farms as a way for people to reconnect with how sustainable food can be produced in what he calls the current “instant-noodle city lifestyle” that sees so much waste.
“What we are looking at is really how to identify underutilised spaces among the city and mobilise the citizens, the people, to learn about food,” the 43-year-old told AFP during a blustery site inspection of the skyscraper’s garden.
Tsui believes Hong Kongers need to re-establish a relationship with what they eat that has been broken “since we started outsourcing our food and relying so much on industrialised production.”
- Piles of food waste –
According to government statistics, Hong Kong throws out some 3,500 tonnes of food waste a day — the equivalent weight of 250 double-decker buses. Less than a quarter is recycled.
And around 90 percent of the food eaten by the city’s 7.5 million inhabitants is imported, mostly from mainland China.
But while Hong Kong is one of the most densely packed places on earth, there is still considerable space to grow food locally.
Tsui said some seven million square metres of farmable area is currently cultivated. But more than six million square metres on the city’s rooftops remain unused.