Salads straight from the city
by Specialist Editor Katrin Klawitter
Grow where you sell: ‘My Smart Green Supermarket’
In Ahlem Ulbrich presented a shopping centre as a possible model where greenhouses were located on the roof. Named ‘My Smart Green Supermarket’, garden production systems are an integrated part of the concept in this vision. “This is a way to combine shopping and production locations – including the recycling of materials, for example with a circuit that uses the CO2 produced in the shops for the plant production”, says this expert. He is also convinced that it would thus be possible to make horticultural production more transparent again for the consumer as well as making an important contribution to a higher degree of self-sufficiency.
According to Professor Ulbrich vegetable production knowledge is now so sophisticated, also through the use of LED lighting spectra, that different, ‘personalised’ products could be made for various consumer demands and customer groups – for example firm tomatoes with a particularly good taste or vegetables with a particularly high level of certain substances could be produced to order.
Of course, urban production will not be sufficient to cover actual demand, Ulbrich conceded following a question from the audience. But this could be compensated for by purchasing intermediate and finished goods so that it would always be possible to offer the customer freshly produced goods on site. “Outside production, in periurban areas will still be decisive in order to supply additional deliveries here”, confirmed Ulbrich.
Floating greenhouses and green fingers
In concrete terms Ulbrich presented a new research project: Together with the city of Hamburg and other players the scientists in Osnabrück are working on floating indoor farms, a kind of pontoon, for salad production. The project with the cumbersome name ‘Regional food production in metropolitan regions with adjoining bodies of water’ is to become part of the ‘Vision for agricultural systems of the future’ project of the Federal Research Ministry and is currently awaiting authorisation for its research application. Another research project for the city of Osnabrück has already been authorised: this is an idea to ensure the ‘green fingers’ of the city are sustained, given the enormous increase in the need for residential space. This needs to be done in such a way that more people can live in the city while still ensuring vegetable production in the city and sufficient green spaces for comfort. The term ‘climate resilience’ plays a central role here as it necessitates, for example, measures to reduce greenhouse gases and regulate temperature.
Improved herb quality using LED flashes
The importance attributed to the project can also be seen in the fact that the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück is currently creating a new research centre ‘Agricultural systems of the future’. Scientists in Osnabrück are doing very practice-based work. For example they are currently testing, in conjunction with vegetable farming operations in Papenburg, how the quality of herbs from winter production can be improved. There are already promising initial results that show how LED light flashes, i.e. pulses of light, can substantially increase the quality of basil and parsley. The participants in the experiment are working together on an efficient, practical system.
Another project called ‘Petra’ is looking at the development of quality tomatoes for sustainable, regional production. The priority here, also working with the vegetable farming operations in Papenburg, is on giving priority to characteristics such as taste and bite as the top quality objectives with less emphasis on suitability for storage as this plays a lesser role for regional production.
Conclusion: Do not leave the topic of regional vegetable production to others
Andreas Ulbrich does state that is it not possible to estimate the quantities of urban vegetable production that will be necessary in the future. However, that is not the decisive point for him: “It is much more important that we do not leave these topics to others.”
He says that up to now this kind of project often failed because the researchers did not have the right horticultural knowledge. For example a well known pharmaceuticals company contacted the University of Applied Sciences Osnabrück when medicinal plants that were grown indoors had insufficient drug levels. “Horticultural know-how is necessary for this kind of project”, said Ulbrich encouragingly in Ahlem.
About the author: Katrin Klawitter is a freelance journalist for the green sector. She is part of the editorial team for TASPO and other media.
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