Gardens Under Glass

Gardens Under Glass is an urban Eco Village that will serve as a center for agricultural production, environmental education, and Green retail opportunities. The combination of agricultural production, health related retail, hydroponic and alternative power development education will make this a destination for the environmentally conscious. More than half the world's population now lives in cities. Delivering food to them relies on a transportation system that pollutes the air and water. Conventional farming exhausts fresh water supplies and pollutes streams and rivers with fertilizers.Unless Cleveland and other cities of the world become more sustainable, we can expect prices for food and energy to continue to rise, and we can expect traffic congestion and air pollution to get worse. In a world of climate change, rapid urbanization, and increasing pollution, urban agriculture can help us live more sustainable.Fresh produce typically travels several thousand miles to reach urban consumers, adding to traffic congestion, air pollution, and carbon emissions. Moving the farm into the city addresses all of these challenges. Cultivation of food crops within the built environment can reduce our environmental footprint, cut transportation costs, enhance food security, save energy, and enrich the physical surroundings of building occupants.Locating the production of food in our cities, and providing readily available agricultural supply outlets, offers a valuable response to two major challenges of modern urban living, which is the need to reduce the distance food travels before arriving on the plate of urban consumers and the need to reduce the environmental impact of transmission. We feel many more would practice Green solutions if they knew the economical value and ease of implementation. This is a plan that could be followed by other retail establishments to enhance the overall environment of our city.