Am I batting .500?
I'd say I was right on the money with aquaponics, government agencies are boasting about it (and even kids are now building systems!), but whiffed on other cities getting Highlines. We did see quite a few more rooftop farms, but not so much activity concerning government policies revolving around green infrastructure. It would be good if I could be accurate with the macro, not micro trends, as that helps more people!
We'll see what I can do this year.
-This year I have profiled several individuals and companies interested in farming insects.
I think this is going to be a major trend moving forward as we look for easy to farm, low cost protein sources. It looks like the North Americans may be late to the game as a little research shows a million cockroaches escaped from a Chinese insect farm and a robust industry in Burkina Faso exists already.
-In addition to insects, the culinary industry will continue to experiment with different ingredients including dirt (ampo, anyone).
-I believe in 2014 and beyond we will continue to see the development of a crowd sourced plant development industry which spawned the glow in the dark plant in 2013.
-Farming is hard and the numbers across North America are on the decline, I'm betting North America will follow Michigan's lead and the number of female farmers will continue to rise.
-We've seen front lawn battles for years across the US. Orlando officials over the summer finally changed their rules to allow a few vegetables in lieu of lawns. In St. Louis things were at the other extreme with full-fledged farms at the center. Tension between home owners, entrepreneurs and city officials revolving around urban agriculture and urban farming will increase and questions like when does a front lawn become a "farm" and how many plants are too many for an existing neighbourhood will reverberate across North America. Watch Hantz' Farm in Detroit, in particular, for the most high profile case.
-The last big prediction? An amendment to last year's forecasting. It will take longer, maybe five years, before we see true exploration into and development of systemic, comprehensive city scale urban agriculture hubs which be the driver behind green infrastructure gains. In essence I am saying food will be the driver behind macro changes, not climate control (cooling cities, reducing smog, stormwater management). "Super value added" green infrastructure, if you will. Two big announcements earlier in the month piggy back on last year's development...me thinks.
Happy 2014!!!
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