2021 proved one other busy yr for the Farm City crew; we labored on a spread of initiatives with companions as numerous because the Welsh Authorities, RIBA and group teams throughout Birkenhead. Right here’s a taster – pun supposed – of a few of the issues we labored on.
Crop Cycle
The Welsh Authorities’s Crop Cycle challenge introduced collectively group organisations throughout Wales and organisations working with Managed Atmosphere Agriculture (CEA).
Farm City labored alongside LettUs Develop, Digital Farming and GrowStack, connecting after the primary COVID lockdown to develop new relationships, construct networks and share concepts. We put in Edible Partitions in communities throughout Wales, permitting us to develop our strategy to managing our applied sciences and sharing that data, constructing a consumer information to coach native employees, make the Edible Wall extra accessible and empowering companions to take management of the programs.
We additionally visited main colleges native to our companions to ship aquaponics workshops. We skilled our companions to ship the workshop, rising the variety of younger individuals who can find out about sustainable meals options by way of hands-on expertise of constructing their very own Produce Pod.
We labored with group organisations throughout the nation, together with Inexperienced Meadow Group Farm in Cwmbran, Welcome to our Woods in Treherbert, Xplore! Science Discovery Centre in Wrexham, Domesticate and the Neath Port Talbot School’s Group Rising Area in Newton.
Group Edible Partitions: Make Hamilton
Residents from throughout Birkenhead constructed and operated certainly one of Farm City’s progressive hydroponic Edible Wall programs at Make Hamilton. Members took the lead – guided by our crew – to construct abilities, whereas rising their very own meals and experiment with hydroponics. It additionally gave them the chance to find out about world meals programs – and make more healthy and extra sustainable meals selections.
Funded by Liverpool Metropolis Area’s Group Atmosphere Fund, the Group Edible Partitions had quite a few optimistic impacts, together with:
-
Friendships that strengthen group connections, constructing relationships for individuals by way of shared experiences and pursuits.
-
Studying about meals rising and the programs led to behavior change. Members have been extra aware about what they have been consuming, the place it got here from, and its environmental impacts.
-
New abilities meant that members have been in a position to develop meals at dwelling, take over the upkeep of the Edible Wall, and acquire transferable technical and crew working abilities.
We delivered Group Edible Partitions in partnership with Make CIC, the nice individuals of Birkenhead and LCR’s Group Atmosphere Fund.
The Heath – promo video
We started work with SOG, proprietor of Runcorn’s The Heath Enterprise Park (you possibly can learn the case examine right here). A RIBA name for designs for the challenge noticed an attention-grabbing entry function a vertical farm at its centre and Paul Myers, Farm City’s managing director, was introduced in as a marketing consultant, to advise on making a vertical farm for the event.
Because of the collaboration, a Greens for Good-serviced Edible Wall has been put in within the cafeteria, giving customers of the park entry to contemporary greens each day. The Heath shares its location with the North West Hydrogen Alliance, which implies we’ve been in a position to conduct a pilot challenge to check powering a vertical farm utilizing electrical energy from hydrogen gas cells, making this power-intensive course of carbon impartial. These new developments are extremely thrilling, providing big potential for brand spanking new applied sciences and methods of residing to be examined. A mini-city, with a vertical farm at its coronary heart, offers us a spot to check the scalability of those applied sciences to complete cities, placing vertical farms on the coronary heart of every day city life.
Key assist has been supplied by Liverpool Metropolis Area Mixed Authority: Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram says the challenge ‘should occur’.
Sustainable Steps
We developed and designed a web-based interactive platform for Liverpool John Moores College. Sustainable Steps will give learners entry to information that’s key to creating efficient change. This assortment of mini programs offers an accessible introduction to the science of local weather change, the underlying causes and its results on the pure world and our private wellbeing. It contains actionable components of environmental science and sustainability that each single certainly one of us can make use of.
Future Meals Problem
Our aquaponics expertise noticed us launch a brand new competitors for varsity college students in autumn 2021.
Future Meals Problem is an extra-curricular programme for 12 months 9 secondary faculty pupils in Liverpool Metropolis Area, funded by the Royal Academy of Engineers (RAE), that sees us working in partnership with College of Liverpool’s Faculty of Engineering.
Groups of between 12 and 15 younger individuals have been challenged to develop a enterprise thought and prototype system to carry aquaponic meals rising into their area people. Every faculty has been paired with knowledgeable engineer and a scholar engineer from the college who will mentor and encourage the younger individuals concerned all through the problem.
Future Meals Heroes
We additionally put collectively Future Meals Heroes for 12 months 5 pupils throughout Liverpool, serving to them discover zero-waste meals and a round financial system.
We labored in partnership with Merseyside Waste and Recycling Authority and Patagonia to see every faculty buddied with a scholar mentor. The mentors come from a gaggle of younger individuals who’re keen about sustainability and community-building, who will assist academics and pupils to develop challenge concepts to carry sustainable meals rising into their very own communities.
