Urban Agriculture

Today and yesterday I attended:

THE HIGH-LEVEL CONFERENCE ON WATER AND GLOBAL HEALTH AT THE UNITED NATIONS
(Source: http://www.theworldwater.org/)

It was a forum on issues of water and public health. For instance, according to the UN of all of the water in the world: 97% is salt, 2% is ice/glacial and only 1% is accessible for human consumption. Another tidbit – 45% of diarrhoeal diseases can be prevented by washing hands with soap and water. Fascinating and so effective!

One of the speakers was Dick Despommier, I love his This Week in Parasitism podcast. I was looking forward to hearing him speak about parasites and water because I knew he could make it really interesting. Well, I was even more excited because he spoke about agriculture. More specifically, he spoke about Vertical Farming. Kismet for me since I am currently working on a paper about urban agriculture and the impacts it has (can have) on environment (organic) and health (plant-based diet). While his ideas are a bit high tech for the developing world the models he showed were fantastic. Think of a parking deck inside of a greenhouse that creates its own energy with extra to sell (or give away).

I can’t wait to see what the future will bring.