Urban farming is much more than just simply growing food in urban spaces!
Zooming into Hong Kong SAR, a place where I spent my childhood and now residing; there is close to 8 million people packed into just 30% of a total of 1104km2. This made the financial center one of the most densely populated city to live in. Yet, through social innovation, Hong Kong can offer huge potential to showcase how urban farming can co-exist with – and also transform – city living in a dense landscape of skyscrapers in rapidly urbanising cities in China and also the rest of the World.
As urban farmers, it is our strong conviction that urban farming could bring much more to cities than just equipping city dwellers for a wonderful hobby, or opportunities to get in touch with nature, or to educate the next generation about the environment. For these in-city farming spaces are effective relational platforms that urban communities need for people to reconnect with their food sources and with one another.
My team and I at Rooftop Republic Urban Farming are excited to share with you on what we have learnt from some of our projects and how we are humbly transformed through the interactions with different stakeholders and cross-sector collaborations. These include beneficiary NGOs, sponsor corporations, education institutions, volunteer farming teams, building experts, organic farming experts and so on. These projects have demonstrated that the yield of vegetables is not necessarily the only or primary objective of farming activities. The fostering of close-knitted community bonding is just as significant, if not more.
Impactful projects like these have also planted seeds in all of us, urging us all to press on with the quest to transform the city’s social and physical landscapes; the same quest we share in growing this urban farming eco-system as we continue to transform idling urban spaces into productive green lungs in the city space.
So let us get started and join the tribe of urban farmers. Looking forward to learn more in our interaction and you are most welcomed to visit our urban farms in Hong Kong!
For more info please contact Andrew Tsui Ka
Co-Founder of Rooftop Republic Co. Ltd
Facebook: Rooftop Republic Urban Farming
Website: www.rooftoprepublic.com