Weekend Trip....

By Erik Illies

This weekend I will be traveling northward to Chicago where I will visit a budding nonprofit “vertical farm” facility. Known as “The Plant” it is a sustainable food production facility inside of a former industrial building in the distressed “Back of the Yards” neighborhood of south Chicago. Specifically, it used to be a meatpacking facility and totals 93,500 sq. ft. in area. Theirs is a very interesting/ compelling approach to the vertical farm model in that they chose to renovate existing infrastructure as opposed to a new construction facility (like I’m proposing). However, both approaches share many of the same design/ performance principals, of which I will share in this posting!

First off, The Plant is a net-zero energy complex utilizing biomass incineration as an energy generator. They use food wastes generated by their own facilities operations and those of neighboring businesses to create biomass (solid wastes from living plants) that are then burned in highly efficient low emission arc gas incinerators that create steam that powers a generator. Pretty cool! I plan to use this as well, and I also intend to engage the local restaurants and homes for food waste. This serves a couple of cool purposes… 1. It creates electricity from a source other than fossil fuels, and diverts literal tons of food wastes from landfills. It’s also a way of synthesizing nature’s symbiotic cycle where there is never any “waste” per-se, only re-appropriated energy. Wow, that’s kind of transcendental and stuff… I like that!

Secondly they are located in an economically impoverished area. Their facility will eventually, potentially, create 125 new jobs in a new technically advanced specialized market. This is particularly awesome because they are acting as a change agent or catalyst to the area, hopefully spurring a new economic development in an otherwise forgotten section of the city. This is a key component of my intended system, and I have begun calling this type of industry a “pioneer” of economic development. Some would call this another face of gentrification, and probably rightfully so… However, gentrification isn’t necessarily always a bad thing. Typically we’re used to seeing it imposed by land developers and civic imminent domain “abuse” directed at serving the good of only those who can afford to move there. This model, and the one I’m proposing, instead utilize the current stock of community to support the development and try to raise their overall standard of living (no one new, now extra money required). Now gentrification takes on a different softer face and becomes a “good” thing when controlled and ethically well intentioned. But, this will probably remain a topic of valid debate for both sides, but that’s better than a stagnant status quo!

I’ll post more in the next entry, but for now I must prepare for my trip. I hope to bring my proposals/ assumptions/ progress to them and compare it to the things they’ve actually done thus far. My hope is that the revelations that shall follow will mostly support the progress I’ve made so far, but at the very least it will help to direct my research down a more experienced knowledgeable path. Very exciting stuff regardless, and I think is a great example of the enduring spirit of human kind to help one another. If it feels good, it is good! For the most part… but mostly it is!

Check them out for yourself: http://www.plantchicago.com/about-the-plant/

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