Date: 2024-11-14 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00004776 | |||||||||
Urban Agriculture | |||||||||
Burgess COMMENTARY | |||||||||
Big City Farms Holdings - Baltimore's Farming Network Big City Farms is a for-profit, triple-bottom-line (Certified B-Corp) company that is creating a local network of small, urban, sustainable organic farms in. The company’s hoop-house network farms will produce a variety of lettuces and leafy greens year round and aggregate to local, urban groceries, restaurants and institutional clients, within 24 hours of harvest - at prices and quality competitive with those provided by industrial farms. The Company’s grower network will empower local entrepreneurs with low-cost, high-throughput, small-plot greenhouse technology and planet-friendly farming methods. The Company’s operations will turn deteriorating urban land into profitable green spaces that nourishes, educates and employs urban populations. Big City Farms is an established urban farming company with a one-acre organic lettuce and “leafy green” farm on an asphalt parking lot (a national-first) near the Middle Branch in Baltimore City. This very unique farm currently has a revolving 60,000 head production capacity that is planned to expand to 120,000 heads. All additional farms will be plugged into the same aggregated sales and distribution process. The company plans to expand its multi-site aggregated farming operation to many cities, with dozens of farms in each city, beginning with the city of Baltimore. The Company delivers its produce, “ultra-locally“, within the city limits to multiple grocery, restaurant and institutional clients, including: Eddie’s, Bon Appetit (Goucher College and UMAB) and numerous restaurants, including Waterfront Kitchens, Heavy Seas Ale House, Dogwood, Woodberry Kitchen Woodberry Kitchen and Atwater’s. The company will expand sales to government, institutional, retail and restaurant clients/markets across each city, as new farm capacity is added. |