Beijing has 22 million inhabitants, but only ten percent of the agricultural products it needs to feed the people of Beijing is supplied locally. Dan Xu started Hortipolaris when he realized how dangerous it is for a city not to be self-sustainable when it comes to food. Using facilities like a glass greenhouse in the outskirts of Beijing, Hortipolaris is dedicated to providing the citizens of Beijing with quality, healthy and safe vegetables.
In their high-tech greenhouse in the outskirts of Beijing, Hortipolaris also aims to educate children who live in the city and have never seen a farmer; they have no idea where the vegetables they eat come from. Every year, up to 50,000 school kids come to see how vegetables are grown. “They have never seen it.”
Food waste
Dan Xu: "The current long supply chain in our traditional food chain generates high loss in transit. I now know that the loss of the entire fruit and vegetable transport in China can reach 40 to 50 percent. So farmers who have worked very hard to grow enough food have to see how nearly half of it is wasted. This is a very scary fact."
Mind shift
"By producing food close to the city, I hope to create a mind shift for consumers: it is not logical to for an ordinary tomato or apple to travel thousands of kilometers. I want to show consumers we can create good and healthy food nearby."
Dan Xu | CEO
Hortipolaris
Mind shift
“By producing food close to the city, I hope to create a mind shift for consumers: it is not logical to for an ordinary tomato or apple to travel thousands of kilometers. I want to show consumers we can create good and healthy food nearby.”
Just like the old days
"Having farms close to cities would greatly shorten the delivery and transport time. Because we can guarantee the quality of the fruits and vegetables we pick, waste can be minimized, and we can avoid excessive use of chemical preservatives. We need to minimize waste—just like in the old days."
Educate children about modern agriculture Hortipolaris set up a special area in their greenhouse to educate children and show them how food is grown. They found that young people who live in a big city like Beijing have never seen a farmer. They have no idea how a tomato is grown or whether a pineapple grows from a tree or in the ground. In their high-tech facilities, Hortipolaris shows how farming is now using less land and less water to grow healthy food.
Beijing, Shanghai, New York and other megacities all struggle with food issues, explains Dan Xu. “The supermarkets in these cities sell vegetables that are shipped from thousands of kilometers away.” Dan Xu hopes these cities will become more self-sustainable with fresh produce.
Smart solutions can be found all over the world. These inspirational examples from our network show that people all over the world are already taking the first steps toward sustainable and circular urban farming. We’re extremely proud of these and are convinced that many more will soon follow.
Recovery Park aims to connect city residents to their local food system and build awareness about healthy eating and sustainability. The organization has built large scale indoor farms to grow fresh produce for the neighborhood and uses the available local workforce. Veterans, recovering addicts and former prisoners are all welcome to apply.
By reimagining urban landscapes, Gotham Greens is creating new ways to farm, produce local food, revitalize communities and innovate for a sustainable future. The company builds and operates ecologically sustainable greenhouses in former industrial sites, rooftops, backyards and parking lots - sometimes even on top of supermarkets.
Green Camel disrupts conventional methods of production in horticulture and aquaculture. The company developed a technology and biological processes to grow vegetables and fish in a symbiotic and ground-breaking way.
Go to scale, or leave and get out - that’s the mantra in the Wheatbelt, a region of Australia with endless monoculture. Ben Cole, environmental engineer and CEO at Wide Open Agriculture (WOA), has developed a new business model for the region, including regenerative land ownership.
Beijing has 22 million inhabitants, but only ten percent of the agricultural products it needs to feed the people of Beijing is supplied locally. Dan Xu started Hortipolaris when he realized how dangerous it is for a city not to be self-sustainable when it comes to food. Using facilities like a glass greenhouse in the outskirts of Beijing, Hortipolaris is dedicated to providing the citizens of Beijing with quality, healthy and safe vegetables.
We’ve really corrupted our food supply chain, says investor and indoor farmer Mike Zelkind of 80 Acres Farms. You can’t transport food 2,000 miles and still have it come to you tasting great. 80 acres wants to bring back a fresh local food supply to make communities, cities and areas self-sustainable again.