Australians are spending more time at home and many households are looking at growing their own fresh produce to build self-sufficiency and self-reliance says Biofilta, an urban farming company.
The Melbourne-based company has developed a highly productive, water efficient, modular wicking bed called Foodcube, which enables people to build instant productive urban farms in backyards, carparks, workplaces, rooftops and schools, to assist communities to produce large volumes of fresh food in small city spaces.
Small urban farms are producing food such as tomatoes, corn, zucchini, spinach, silverbeet, herbs, spring onions, bok choi, beetroot, spinach, pumpkin and a wide range of herbs in the Biofilta Foodcube, the company says.
Over the past 12 months the Australian-designed and manufactured system has been deployed to urban farmers, schools, workplaces, and also food vulnerable and water stressed communities such local and indigenous communities in Australia and the Pacific Islands who are having difficulties growing and accessing fresh produce.
Biofilta says it is currently deploying several hundred Foodcube units per month, sufficient to produce approximately 7.5 tonnes of produce per annum, or to generate sufficient fresh produce to meet the annual vegetable intake of 50 adults by weight as recommended by the World Health Organisation, who recommend an annual consumption of 150 kilograms of fresh produce per annum for a healthy adult.
Image: Getty Images
