rooftop agriculture

To anyone interested,

I am posting to inquire about the potential for (commercial) urban
agriculture on the rooftops in New York City.

I am doing research on the topic for Earth Pledge, a non profit organization
based in New York City that promotes the use of green roofs as a solution to
a suite of urban environmental and health problems.  Green roofs, also known
as vegetative or eco-roofs, help solve urban environmental problems by
integrating the natural cooling, air filtering, and water retention
properties of vegetation into city buildings. Widespread implementation of
green roofs would help mitigate New York Cityıs problems with urban heat
island effect, stormwater runoff, Co2 emissions and energy efficiency.

Earth Pledge works to promote and implement the establishment of a green
roof infrastructure through research into the costs and benefits of green
roofs; education and outreach to local government, design and building
professionals, and building owners; and direct facilitation of green roof
projects on non profit and public buildings.
  
We are also quite interested in examining the potential of utilizing green
roofs for urban agriculture in New York City. Urban food production clearly
offers a range of benefits such as job creation, locally sourced produce,
and increased urban ecological mindfulness. There are also many potential
barriers to successful rooftop agriculture, such as irrigation requirements,
property management and use, and community vs. private interests.
However, rooftop agriculture could have great potential in transforming the
cityıs most underused and undervalued landscape into a productive space.

To this end, I am posting to find out more about organizations, communities
who we might engage with in this work, as well as existing policies and
other issues related to urban agriculture.
My main questions are, is there a need for rooftop agriculture either due to
issues of food or land scarcity?
Does anyone know examples of successful commercial rooftop agriculture here
in the states or elsewhere in the world?
Any information anyone could provide on the subject would be greatly
appreciated - opinions are welcomed, too.

Thank you very much.
Sincerely,

Zach Youngerman | Intern
Earth Pledge Foundation


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