Some information on the organization:

Growing Power is a national nonprofit organization and land trust supporting people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities.  Growing Power implements this mission by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach and technical assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner

Growing Power.

Check out this IBM website for some amazing and eye-opening statistics on food distribution.

Did you know that the US imports 60% of its fruits and vegetables and 75% of its seafood?

Did you also know that “a single calorie of supermarket food requires 10 calories of fossil fuel to produce”? Isn’t that astounding? Check out the link below for some amazing information:

IBM Smarter Planet – Smarter food – United States.

Malnutrition in developing countries is a problem expanding in proportion to the world’s exponentially growing population. Urban slums are epicenters of this epidemic. Unlike their rural counterparts, the urban poor lack the land to grow food and other plants to supplement either their diets or their incomes.

VertiGrow aims to improve the quality of life for people in the world’s poorest urban slums. We are developing an innovative vertical planting technology that is versatile and inexpensive. It will allow people to grow nutritionally and income supplementing plants utilizing vertical space in a land-scarce environment, while at the same time cultivating community empowerment and entrepreneurship. VertiGrow will create community-owned small businesses that build and distribute the technology, and will support families in forming micro-enterprises selling their produce. VertiGrow will provide a sustainable solution to one of the most pressing problems associated with global health and urbanization.

The VertiGrow team was incubated at the Harvard Idea Translation Lab founded by Professor David Edwards at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science. We recently received a $22,000 grant from the Harvard Initiative for Global Health to launch our technology in a pilot study in Kibera, Kenya, in the summer of 2009.

Innovative Vertical Planting Technology – Vertigrow.

Topsy Turvy® Planters.

Metabolicity is a website that provides a vision of a city that “metabolizes its resources and waste to supply its inhabitants with all the nourishment they need.” It’s a very cool idea. Waste reduction and urban agriculture in one!

MetaboliCity – urban growers.

Patrick Blanc is a French Designer who has installed “Vertical Gardens” all over the world. The cool thing about his solution is that he does not use soil! Blanc uses felt as his planting medium and runs water with special nutrients through the fabric to feed his gardens. They’re really impressive! Check out his work here:

VERTICAL GARDEN by PATRICK BLANC – MUR VEGETAL – GREEN WALL – LIVING WALL.