Urban Farming and Eco-ventures

I think the eco-friendly space is strong in passion and motivated people! People have an intuition that our food system can benefit from sustainable practices, local food production, higher quality attention to food, and a range of possible innovative technologies.

Addressing these ideas efficiently in the Eco-friendly innovation space require asking two main questions.

1. Is this project being approached in a sustainable way?

Not ecologically sustainable, but financially and personally sustainable. These may be passion motivated projects, but they shouldn't require inordinate levels of sacrifice to grow and maintain. People that wish to participate in production or consumption shouldn't be expected to sacrifice in this way either.

2. Looking past hype and common knowledge. A logical series of questions go: Is it possible? Is it valuable? Is it scalable?

Sometimes these questions are difficult to pose and answer objectively.

For example, Hydroponic Gardening saves water and some space, but is it actually viable to farm produce at scale this way? What situations

Sustainable farming practices are supposedly better for the environment. How true is this? In what ways is it more efficient and less efficient than current farming practices?

Locally produced foods are great, since we know transportation of food across the world leads to very high carbon emissions. Can local production meet demand, and at comparable cost? Are there supply chain opportunities to encourage local food production?

Indoor farming is also a great concept. In what climate does it become a great choice? What types of produce difficult to import produce benefit the most from local production?

**Food waste **is apparently a big issue! Significant portions of food are tossed due to imperfections or expiration at each stage of the supply chain. How much waste is occurring? Are current startups addressing a significant amount of that waste?