DUBAI: The Netherlands Pavilion has proposed that combining urban and food-producing spaces can improve food security, reflecting Expo 2020 Dubai’s vision of finding sustainable solutions for future cities. During the event ‘Straight From the Farm’ held on Wednesday, which coincided with Expo 2020’s Food, Agriculture and Livelihoods week, the pavilion guided participants through its self-sustaining design, vertical farm and mushroom nursery to demonstrate the possibilities of what can be grown sustainably in small urban spaces.
Operating as a self-sufficient micro-city, the Netherlands Pavilion has been designed to harvest and produce its own water, energy, and consequently, food, in a circulatory system. Described by the pavilion’s Commissioner General, His Excellency Carel Richter as a “biotope”, the pavilion has been constructed with reused and reusable steel, and has the capacity to extract 1,200 litres of water from the outside air, as well as generate solar energy from external panels. The water and energy are used to feed and support the stunning, conical vertical farm located in the heart of the pavilion.
Arguing the case for green, food-producing belts in urban areas, Meiny Prins, Expo Champion for the Netherlands Pavilion and CEO of Priva commented: “Our goal is to be part of the circular economy. To be part of the cities of the future, where the circular economy is based on green tech and smart buildings, and we really need to because we are not currently going in the right direction.”
Prins went on to suggest that some of the major issues that need to be tackled to help improve future food security include engaging the next generation of farmers (commenting that many young people do not wish to take over the operation of their parents’ farms), tackling food waste, changing to grow food for nutritional value instead of profit and volume, and a shift towards “true pricing” for imported fresh produce with high carbon footprints.
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