Revolutionizing Urban Gardening with Urban Farming Future
Giving people the chance to grow simple dishes from start to finish in their cramped urban spaces.
Designers
Key Words
Owen Goldenbogen
SUMMARY
Through my research I realized that many of the urban gardening kits on the market are great for giving people simple, all in one solutions ot get involved in their food systems, but don’t fit in many cramped urban city spaces. I wanted to take all of the positives that come with these kits like introducing sustainability in extremely easy ways, and making that conducive to the weird spaces that New Yorkers are already so good at taking advantage of. By making a seasonal model that ships right to your doorstep, and ends with a complete simply dish, I hope to get more people involved, interested, and having fun.
challenge
My project involved many pivots that were difficult for the first part of the semester. After I honed exactly what problems I wanted to solve in relation to sustainability, I landed on these gardening kits. From there much of my struggle consisted of how I would make this clear and accessible to consumers, as well as actually having an impact and giving people access to better quality food. I think that we see so much greenwashing where the target are people who have money to shop responsibly, but what about people wanting to do better, but can’t afford the farmers market three times a week. My issues mostly revolved around solving this problem in a way that remained accessible.
Outcome
My project took many different forms over the course of the semester. My original problem I wanted to overcome was the vast amount of New Yorkers living in food deserts. I had done lots of research into this topic previously, and realized in many cities people don’t even have access to healthy food options, let alone afford them. I wanted my project to stay inexpensive, and begin to tackle that problem. Will these gardening kits feed a family of four consistently? No. But they help people realize where their food comes from, what good food should taste like, and how they can commit to eating better in whatever ways they have access to.
