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Urban Hydro Farms


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  #1  
Old 01-29-2013, 07:08 AM
Brent Brent is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 1
Default Urban Hydro Farms

Hi,

Sorry for the long post, and my first one here at that.

I'm involved in the early stages of an emerging nonprofit organization that executes humanitarian projects which are staffed and funded on a per-project basis. All this means is that we take on projects, evaluate them, gather the needed experts, raise any needed funds/resources, set a timeline, and execute.

We do it this way so that when you donate time/money/resources, you know that 100% will go directly to the completion of the project to which you intended to contribute - not to a nebulous organization that promises to work on the problem. The name of the game is transparency and public participation (aka crowdsourcing). That part has nothing to do with hydroponics, but it lets you know where I'm coming from.

Our normal project model is to design a solution, build a prototype, make sure the community we're serving has the needed resources to build/maintain the solution on their own without additional barriers/burdens (i.e. we don't trade one problem for another). Then, we give the solution away to the world by putting all intellectual property (designs, business plans, research, etc.) into the public domain.

One of our activities is to evaluate various loose project concepts to sort out which ones have merit and are viable, and which ones are not so viable or beneficial. I am involved in assessing our first official project as a formal organization.

We are interested in the issue of domestic food deserts, with an initial focus on domestic regions caused by inner city and some American Indian reservations food distribution problems. We are investigating whether we can:
  • Gather the needed experts to make the best agricultural, legal, and nutritional decisions
  • Design a system that is viable (more on what "viable" means)
  • Raise the funds needed to develop a pilot program
  • Predict whether a successful program would make any appreciable difference or be sustained by communities
For a solution to be "viable", it needs to be able to pay for itself in 12 months or less. We understand there are many ways to measure this, most significantly, how we value the produce that is grown.

The aim is to use free spaces and make heavy use of recycled/reused materials (where safe). The system should require minimal training and be tolerant of occasional neglect. The goal is to produce a combination of year-round staple fruits and vegetables for local consumption and possibly dedicate something like 25% of the resources at each location to growing out-of-season produce for high-markup sales (possibly to restaurants?). The surplus crop is intended to fund the maintenance of the facility and at least subsidize the cost of the staple produce.

We know that we are not the first to approach this sort of project. I personally, however, have only limited hobby experience with hydroponics. So, here are my questions:
  • Who can point me to good information on where/how this has been done?
  • Who are the people we should talk to?
  • What is the best design to meet our needs? (I understand that is a loaded question. Just looking for input/thoughts/opinions.)
  • Any suggestions on crops?
I know I'm asking for recommendations based on incomplete information. But, understand that the project is very open-ended at this point. The goal is to reduce food deserts. That is the only thing that is set in stone. We think this can be done by localizing food production. We think that we can amass the resources to prove this in a single model region, and we think this can best be repeated by giving away a sort of turnkey hydroponic system design and guidebook that shows communities how to do replicate our model for little or no money.

But, all of those "thinks" are just assumptions right now, and I'm just wanting to reach out to the community and get some feedback.

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  #2  
Old 02-03-2013, 03:18 AM
fintuckyfarms fintuckyfarms is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Southeast Washington State - Right on the line of growing zones 6b & 7a
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My only input would be to research barrelponics. There are several websites, youtube videos and even classes to take. From what I understand the inventor was looking to solve most of your issues. Good Luck!

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