If you have joined the container home revolution, then I imagine you are the type of person who’s into alternative energy and growing your own vegetables among other other environmentally sustainable practices. Harnessing solar power or making your own HoJo motor are two possible methods to power your container home. Taking sustainability a step further, why not used the roof of your container home or even a whole shipping container to grow an edible organic garden. This amazing concept is aptly called rooftop farming.

Thanks to some ingenious and smart thinking individuals the list of home farming possibilities are growing with roof top farming, hydroponics, aquaponics and vertical gardening, all of which could compliment a container home, becoming more viable and affordable. In this post I would like to take a look at the benefits of rooftop farming

Rooftop Farming

Roof top farming is the future of urban agriculture. However, it isn’t a new concept. Rooftop gardens have been around for years. However, the focus of these gardens hasn’t been for the production of food until fairly recently. Today, this new form of farming is catching on with rooftop farms found in cities all around the world. You may have not seen one in your city yet, but it won’t be long before you do.

The benefits of roof toping farming are many – ranging from aesthetic, recreational, educational, ecological to architectural. Probably, the greatest benefit of roof top farming is local food production. When you consider the incredible expense of moving produce and foods from farms to cities, and even to different countries, the potential benefits of rooftop farming is mindboggling. Think of the environmental benefits and the amount of money saved if every city were able to develop a small-scale local agriculture. The energy and expense saved on transport alone would have massive benefits to our environment.

The Challenge of Rooftop Farming

While rooftop farming is gaining momentum there are challenges. The biggest problem of rooftop farming is one of weight. Most city buildings or apartments were not built with having a garden grace their rooftops in mind. In fact, 20 or 30 years ago the concept would have sounded crazy. Why would you have a garden on the top of a building roof in the city?

Fortunately, the problem is being overcome with the concept of lightweight rooftop farms. A Hawaii Corporation, FarmRoof, have established the world’s first and only certified organic green roof system. FarmRoof builds ultra-lightweight, self-contained sustainable rooftop farms, that churn out fresh organic super foods. The roof top farms are modular, scalable and transferrable meaning the concept could go global.

Rooftop farms in Hawaii provide chefs and retailers with fresh vegetables, and locals can purchase produce subscriptions. the rooftop farms also insulate and cool building, cutting costs on electricity. Watch the video below to discover how rooftop farms are putting fresh organic food on the table.