Can city dwellers successfully grow a sustainable and healthy food source that can also turn a profit for its harvesters? Those are the ideas of behind Worcester's new urban greenhouse. The greenhouse officially opened this week outside the non-profit agency Stone Soup, on King St.
The greenhouse uses aquaponics, a mix of aquaculture, breeding of fish in tanks, and hydroponics, which is cultivating plants in water. In aquaponics, the byproducts of raising fish are broken down into nitrates, which feed the plants in an adjoining tank.
It means you can grow food faster – a head of lettuce will grow in under a month – and in small spaces, according to Howard Lucas. Lucas, of the company Greenvitalize Urban Growers, a co-operatively run for profit business, is set to manage the greenhouse.