Apr 29, 2016

Float On By Tim Hodson

There has been a lot of interest in urban agriculture lately — converting abandoned warehouses into growing operations, rehabbing abandoned lots or creating large rooftop greenhouses are just a few of the new urban “farms” that have been making the news lately.

But one of New York City’s latest urban farms is going mobile and will be floating down the Hudson River later this summer.

The farm is called Swale. It is a food forest and growing operation on an 80-by-30 foot barge. It will serve as a type of a community garden where anyone can freely harvest the bounty that is grown. The “farm-as-art” project is the brainchild of artist Mary Mattingly and is intended to help New Yorkers rethink where their food comes from how it is produced.

The floating platform will grow more than 80 species of fruits, herbs, vegetables, plants and trees. Swale will dock at several of New York’s piers for several weeks at a time to allow people to board the floating ecosystem and harvest food for their own tables for free.

Even though Swale is based on the water, Mattingly and her team of collaborators never considered using hydroponics to produce the food. Everything is grown in soil to keep costs and maintenance to a minimum. She told Fast Company magazine, “We really believe in soil-based growing systems wherever they can be had. It eliminates need for extra electrical energy, nutrient solutions, algae management, and so forth … We are focused on growing systems that require minimal human intervention, due to their longevity.”

Swale will also have its own customized water treatment system just in case it doesn’t rain for an extended period of time this summer. The floating platform will be able to suck up river water, process it, desalinate it and then purify it with marsh plants and a filtration system.

Swale is fiscally sponsored through New York Foundation for the Arts as well as several other organizations and is also seeking additional funds via a Kickstarter campaign.

What’s happening in urban agriculture in your backyard or by your nearest waterway? Drop me a line at thodson@greatamericanpublish.com and fill me in.

— Tim