City Harvest Rates
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The leading hydroponics company in the US is Eurofresh Farms which has succeeded in producing 56 million kilos of tomatoes in just 129 hectares or less in 2005. The US production of tomatoes is 12,575,900 tons in 2008. Using 43 tons per 1000 sqr m this is 12,575,900 / 43 * 1000 sqr m of roof top area converted to Urban Farming or 292.5 sqr km. This area is just 292.5 sqr km / 8,683 sqr km or 3.4% or the urban area of New York City alone. Also, utilizing only 34% of New York’s urban area, production is 127 million tons.
Thus, using the top 3 cities in the US, namely New York, with 8,683 sqr km, Los Angeles, with 4,320 sqr km and Chicago, with 2,128 sqr km, the combined urban area is 15,131 sqr km, at 34% this is 5,144.54 sqr km. At production rate of 43 tons per 1000 sqr m (1/2 harvest rates), this combine roof top area can produce 5144.54 sqr km x 1,000,000 sqr m per sqr km x 43 tons per 1000 sqr m or 221 million tons of produce per year. The entire US population is only 310 million at 1.1 tons of food per person per year, these 3 cities alone can produce 65% of the required food.