The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced this month it will add another 40 hectares of farmland by 2024 and dramatically boost the number of people who tend to the high-rise landscapes.
"The goal is to foster a million urban farmers to make Seoul healthier," says Kim Kwang Deok, director of the Seoul Urban Agriculture Division, while meeting with urban farmers amid vegetables, rice, and fruit trees on top of a large mall.
South Korea's bustling capital Seoul already boasts about 200 hectares of urban farmland stretched across rooftops as well as vertically down building walls.
Kim said the government will invest the equivalent of about $216 million into acquiring farmable space and training programs. The plan offers many benefits from providing better insulation, cutting energy bills and carbon emissions, cleaning the air, creating jobs, reconnecting people to the land and each other, as well as helping people grow the food they eat.