Superfarm.fr is a Paris-based start-up company researching innovative solutions to urban farming. In the footsteps of pioneers in vertical agriculture such as Dr. Dickson Despommier and recognizing that we will lack agricultural areas to feed the growing human population in the coming years, Superfarm provides a sustainable response to the urban food problems.
Vertical agriculture in urban areas is an alternative to the current scheme of farms and agri-food industries, which has become ineffective and subsequently dangerous for the global balance. As a vector for ecological transition, the Superfarm project is part of a resilient approach, paying attention to health and human relations to food. Far from the traditional urban farm producing salads or other fruits and vegetables, the project focuses its production on the culture of foods with a high nutritional value, including fish or honey, striving to recreate an ecosystem in an urban environment. Seaweed culture, beekeeping, insect farming, aquaponics and various greenhouse cultivations and outdoor cultures, allow each living organism to serve the growth of others.
The project is implemented in a pragmatic way, in town and on the water, facilitating the withdrawal of human activity from natural environments so that ecosystems can be restored. On a 12x12m small surface, and at thirty-four meters height, a six-storey building is erected on the water to cope with the land crisis and the high prices of urban soil. Each unit produces high-yielding foods with high nutritional value: Vertical production in stages is four to five times more efficient than the average yield of traditional horizontal farming. Health risk and water consumption are reduced through a highly controlled indoor environment without pesticides. Fresh products are provided by promoting short circuits between producers and consumers, including a direct sales area accessible from a footbridge, as well as a storage area for dry goods, cold rooms for perishable goods and a space-conditioning. The project is energy self-sufficient, with the installation of wind turbines and solar panels that allow the ventilation and lighting of indoor production areas. On a neighborhood scale, Superfarm can lead to job creation and an ethical and responsible citizen contribution to the urban economy, by creating collective awareness and by federating local agents around a common project of innovative and healthy urban agriculture.
The start-up is currently developing a less energy-consuming and more economical version of Superfarm. For more details, visit superfarm.fr .
Nicolas Abdelkader